I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at Florida International University and a Research Associate at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, using genomic techniques to study the evolution of bioluminescence and vision in the deep sea. My additional projects harness the power of genomics to better understand how marine invertebrates respond and adapt to both natural and anthropogenic environmental conditions.
My previous research integrated field and molecular work, genomic and bioinformatic tools to study population connectivity and adaptations of deep-sea chemosynthetic mussels residing near cold seeps, and the evolution of vision and extraocular light detection in bioluminescent crustaceans.
Prior to this work, I received my PhD in Biology from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) in 2016. My dissertation research was focused on using experimental and genomic tools to study anthropogenic impacts to deep-sea coral communities with particular emphasis on the effects imposed by the 2010 Deep-water Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
