I am a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Farrell Lab, Harvard University. I am broadly interested in the biology and evolution of beetles (Order Coleoptera) with special emphasis on the cause of their unique mega-biodiversity, most famously remarked by J.B.S. Haldane as the Creator’s apparent "inordinate fondness for beetles" (Hutchinson, 1959).
My research focuses on understanding the evolutionary mechanism underlying the ecological success of Anoplophora longhorned beetles (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) through a comparative genomic approach. As part of the project, I am working on resolving a complete phylogeny of Anoplophora and its relatives using target enrichment sequencing. An updated taxonomic revision of the group is also underway. Other research projects include studying the adaptive radiation of diurnal longhorned beetles in the tribe Solenopterini (Cerambycidae: Prioninae) across the Caribbean Islands.
As an undergraduate at Harvard, I studied the systematics and biogeography of world stag beetles (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) with a particular focus on southern hemisphere lineages whose disjunct distribution suggested for the possibility of their vicariance following the continental break-up of Gondwana.
* Hutchinson, G.E. (1959) Homage to Santo Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals? The American Naturalist 93: 145–159.
