Past Research

NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship:

George Washington University

I am incredibly excited to be funded by an NSF PRFB with Dr. L. Patricia Hernandez continuing my studies on electric fish skull evolution. We have many projects already planned and will be examining morphological evolution, functional morphology, and development of these interesting and unique cranoifacial morphologies.

Postdoctoral Researcher: University of Bern

I spent ten months in Bern, Switzerland for a short-term postdoc with Dr. Ole Seehausen at the University of Bern from 2021-2022. We are continually working on collaborative projects surrounding morphological evolution in cichlid fishes from the lake systems in Africa. Stay tuned for exciting projects coming ahead!

Dissertation Research

​I completed my Ph.D. work in Dr. James Albert's lab at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2021. My dissertation research focused on convergent evolution of craniofacial morphologies in electric fishes from South America and Africa. I used geometric morphometrics, biogeography, and phylogenetic comparative methods to examine the macroevolutionary trends of skull shape in both groups. Comparisons of craniofacial morphology can give insights into the biomechanical function, ecology, and degrees of similarities among species. In the future, I hope to expand my investigations to look at feeding biomechanics and function using additional methods.

Two of my chapters have been accepted for publication, with others submitted. I have also published on previous academic research and an ecomorphology project I completed during my PhD as well.