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Selected Undergraduate Students

Jared Lee

As an undergraduate I worked in Duke Rogers’ lab on a project dealing with phylogeography of the Blackish deermouse (Peromyscus furvus), a Mexican endemic. A manuscript based on my undergraduate research is about to be submitted to Animal Conservation. I then did a Masters in Jerry Johnson's lab at BYU studying whether biogeographic boundaries for communities can be predicted based upon single-species phylogeographic patterns. Currently, I am pursuing a PhD at the University of Georgia where I am investigating the evolutionary genetics of invasive species. Particularly, I am interested in characterizing the invasion history of Gambusia affinis in Asia through the comparison of phylogeographic patterns of native and introduced populations. I also hope to look for evidence of natural selection on genotypes and phenotypes that may drive the success of G. affinis and invasive species in general.

Christopher Funk

Chris completed his bachelor’s degree in Integrative Biology with honors in April, 2005. Chris’ honors thesis was entitled “A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the genus Habromys (Rodentiaa: Muridae). His research was funded in part by the Office of Research and Creative Activities Scholarship and the Brigham Young University Honors Program. Chris completed his law degree at Stanford University in 2009.

Rustin Reed

Rustin currently is a first year medical student in Arizona and has a strong interest in epidemiology and infectious disease. He was a Public Health major with a Portuguese minor here at BYU. Rustin's research project in Dr. Rogers' lab, which was funded by an Office of Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) scholarship, dealt with the phylogeographic relationship between two continental clades of Sorex monticolus, the dusky shrew, emphasizing Utah localities. A major finding of his work was to document sympatry of these two clades (based on mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence data) over a wide range of sky islands found in north- and south-central Utah. Rustin also co-authored a paper focusing on the endangered Tamaulipan woodrat (Neotoma angustapalata). That paper will be published in Conservation Genetics this year.

Mark Bailey

Mark majored in Neuroscience and Philosophy here at BYU. He graduated in December 2009 and currently is attending medical. Mark participated in a project addressing the phylogeography of Sorex monticolus, the dusky shrew, in Utah using cytochrome b sequence data in conjunction with Rustin Reed.