About Me...
Growing up, nature was one of my favorite places to be. Biology was always my favorite subject, and my dreams for future careers always included animals, but I was never really sure how it all would fit together. College led to some changes in those dreams, and I discovered that I could actually get a PhD in Biology and do research for a career. This was a game changer!
My undergraduate research focused on neurobiology and development in zebrafishes under Dr. Mary Halloran. Starting my freshman year, I learned valuable skills in research, animal husbandry, and academia. I also discovered how AMAZING fish truly are! There were so many paths I could take to study this amazing system!
I worked for a year at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi under Dr. Frank Pezold. He showed me lab management skills, curatorial skills, and the nuts and bolts of taxonomy and systematics. This year was imperative for me to think, read, and determine what university and advisor I wanted to work with during my graduate years. Originally I planned on going for a Masters degree, but clearly there were bigger and better things in store for me!
My path towards a doctorate in Biology, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology took me to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I have recently defended my PhD, supervised by Dr. James Albert, studying evolution of electric fishes from South America and Africa. I have learned new techniques, attended conferences, and started to establish myself as an ichthyologist, biomechanist, functional morphologist, and biologist. I look forward to many more years of fishy research and world traveling!
After having been a post-doctoral researcher in Ole Seehausen's lab at University of Bern, I moved on to a postdoctoral research fellow position in the department of biology at George Washington University, USA. In 2024 I will start a new position as an assistant professor and curator of fishes and molluscs at The Bell Museum, University of Minnesota, USA. For more information on myself, please, visit my personal homepage.
