I am delighted to share that I won best talk at this year's National Eye Institute Focus on Fellows 3-minute talk competition. My talk was entitled "An Evolutionary Perspective on Retinal Function," and I shared some exciting preliminary data that I have collected here at the NIH from avian retinas.

I was very pleased to return to the annual Workshop on Molecular Evolution as a research facilitator (TA) this summer. I took the course as a graduate student, and learned alot that was immediately applicable to my thesis work. We had 60 students this year, at career stages between graduate student and tenured faculty,  and from all over the world. The hands-on nature of the course and the access to leaders of the field makes it an unparalleled opportunity to learn and network. More info on the course is available here.

This April was the third annual meeting of the Manakin Genomics Research Coordination Network. This is a fantastic group of colleagues at all career stages and from various international institutions. We are studying all aspects of manakin behavior, ecology, genetics and evolution. This year we met in Gamboa, Panama. A website for this group is underway--stay tuned for that link!

I am very excited to share that I have successfully defended my PhD at the University of Maryland. After a brief hiatus from work, I will be starting a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, to continue my research in the molecular evolution of vision.

A recording of a lightning talk I gave at the Spring 2016 Senate of Scientists Symposium at the National Museum of Natural History (see my post from 4/20/2016) is available here. It is entitled "Evolving into the Night: Visual Adaptations to Nocturnality in Birds."

My most recent manuscript, "Ultraconserved Elements Resolve the Phylogeny of Potoos (Aves: Nyctibiidae)" has been published in the Journal of Avian Biology. Check it out here.

I am very excited to announce that I have been awarded a three-year postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation for my project entitled "Visual Adaptation to Nocturnality in Birds."

My manuscript "A Multi-Gene Estimate of Higher-Level Phylogenetic Relationships among Nightjars (Aves: Caprimulgidae)" has been accepted to Ornitología Neotropical!  It is open access, and available here.

 I am honored to accept the 2016 Student Research award from the University of Maryland BEES graduate program. This award was voted on by my peers, and makes winning all the sweeter! This award recognizes "outstanding research achievements in the field of behavior, ecology, evolution and/or systematics, and for contributing to the academic excellence of the program."