I am a Ph.D. student in Roberta Mason-Gamer's lab at University of Illinois at Chicago.  I arrived here in the Fall of 2001.  My dissertation research focuses on the phylogeography of six species of Malagasy frogs in the genus Mantidactylus. I am using DNA sequence data to investigate relationships within and among populations of each species, which share similar distributions but differ in aspects of their natural history such as habitat requirements and reproductive biology. By comparing genetic patterns among them, I hope to gain insight into the historical, geographic, and biological factors that have shaped genetic structure in these frogs.