My research

I am interested in how populations diverge and adapt to the environments they encounter. To identify and characterize specific genes and pathways that underlie adaptive change, I combine statistical and genomic approaches with knowledge from organismal and ecological studies. My work utilizes a range of technological and analytical methods and involves collaborations with researchers who climb Mexican volcanoes and explore Caribbean Islands for exotic species who are specially adapted to their extreme environments. By correlating genetic changes to phenotypic outcomes using population genomics, I hope to link genomic changes to sources of selection. 

My current research projects involve:

1. •Applying genomic tools to studying fish living in sulfidic environments in Mexico
   

2. •Assembling the genome and analyzing populations of a self-fertilizing hermaphroditic fish
   

3. •Inferring demography and selection in Great Ape genomes
   

4. •Studying the genome of an Antarctic fly
   

I am currently a postdoctoral research fellow with Dr. Carlos Bustamante in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University, and I have previously worked with Dr. Molly Przeworski in the Department of Human Genetics at University of Chicago. I received my PhD in March 2008, from the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, where I was advised by Dr. Willie Swanson.