I am a PhD candidate in the physical anthropology program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). I am also a member of the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), a multi-institutional doctoral-training program in New York City.
My dissertation research seeks to model early modern human demography and biogeography using a novel comparative phylogeographic approach. This work will combine data from genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with geometric morphometrics to explore phylogeographic patterns in two habitat-generalist primate taxa (Papio and Chlorocebus) with a broad distribution across sub-Saharan Africa. Species distribution modeling will reveal the location and extent of putative refugia and form the basis for exploring hypotheses regarding the spatial distribution of genetic and morphological diversity. The results of this work will provide an ecological model for early modern human demographic responses to African Pleistocene climate fluctuations.
My graduate study is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT).
Follow my work on ResearchGate.
