About
I am a BBSRC funded Research Fellow with broad interests in molecular evolution, insect evolution, and phylogenetics. My current focus is aimed at understanding how insects have adapted to living in freshwater habitats multiple times independently throughout their evolutionary history. To achieve this, I employ large scale comparative genomics along with carrying out field sampling to generate new RNA sequence datasets for a range of insect species to facilitate comparative transcriptomics analyses. Finally, in the lab I am establishing a hoverfly system (Eristalis tenax) to carry out functional genetic experiments. Outside of this specific project I am also working on comparative genomics and the evolution of Lepidoptera, the evolution and genomic consequences of winglessness in moths, and phylogenomics of Diptera. I am also involved in genome sequencing consortia including the Darwin Tree of Life project and Project Psyche (projectpsyche.org).