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I am PhD Candidate at Harvard University, studying evolution, insects, and embryo development. I also teach free English classes to adults in the Boston area.
Insect lay eggs of all shapes and sizes. I study the evolutionary history of eggs across insects, asking questions like:
- Which insects lay the biggest and smallest eggs?
- How is the size of an egg related to the development of the embryo inside?
- By studying the incredible range of egg forms, what can we learn about the evolutionary process?
For a deep dive on insect egg shape and size, check out our custom visualization
Millions of years ago, Drosophila fruit flies found their way to the Hawaiian islands. Now there are many hundreds of species found on Hawaii and nowhere else in the world.
I study the relationships between these species, focusing on the their diversity in egg shapes. In this project I take advantage of the fact that we know more about fruit fly genetics than perhaps any other animal, due to the closely related model organism, Drosophila melanogaster.
Phylogenies are hypotheses about the relationships between organisms. Working with Casey Dunn and Joe Ryan, we wrote software to statistically compare phylogenies.
We call our software sowhat, feel free to check it out, and reach out if you need any help using it.
Do you know anyone you might want to learn English, living in the Boston area? Send them our way!
Boston-Cambridge English Class
We primarily serve Spanish and Portuguese speaking adults, we offer classes for all levels and are always welcoming new students.
email: [email protected]