Hi, I’m Rachel. I am an evolutionary ecologist and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr. Todd Disotell’s Molecular Primatology Laboratory. I recently received my PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at UMass Amherst, where I was part of Dr. Jason Kamilar’s Comparative Primatology Laboratory
My research interests include the microbiome, metagenomics, disease ecology, coevolutionary systems, and phylogenetic comparative methods. My dissertation research focused on how the microbiota of wild and captive lemurs are affected by host environment and host phylogeny. My postdoctoral research explores environmental DNA methods for detecting mammalian biodiversity. I am passionate about democratizing science and fostering a dialectical approach to biological research.