Recipients

Valentine Bouju (2024-2026)

Project Title: The History of ants: What does Miocene Dominican amber unveil about the ecological and biogeographical evolution of Formicidae?
Faculty Sponsor: Brian Farrell

Sonali Garg (2022-2025)

Project Title: Integrative approaches to unravel frog diversity in India
Faculty Sponsor: James Hanken

After this fellowship, Sonali joined the Blackburn Lab at the University of Florida as a postdoctoral researcher.

Paula Rodríguez Flores (2021-2023)

Project Title: Systematic revision of worldwide deep sea squat lobsters
Faculty Sponsor: Gonzalo Giribet

Paula is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History. 

Miquéias Ferrão (2020-2021)

Project Title: Description of new species of anurans from Brazilian Amazonia through integrative taxonomy
Faculty Sponsor: James Hanken

After his fellowship, Miquéias moved to a postdoctoral fellowship with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. He is currently a postdoc at the Federal University of Goiás.

Cong Liu (2020-2022)

Project Title: Ant biodiversity in China's Hengduan Mountain region
Faculty Sponsor: Naomi Pierce

After his fellowship, Cong joined UMass Boston as a postdoc.

Shinichi Nakahara (2022-2024)

Project Title: Documenting and explaining the high diversity of Euptychiina, a lineage of cryptic Amazonian butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)
Faculty Sponsor: Naomi Pierce

Stephen Pates (Agassiz Fellow, 2019-2020)

Project Title: Beyond the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang: Systematics, phylogeny and evolution of Radiodonta (stem-group Euarthropoda) from untapped Cambrian Lagerstätten
Faculty Sponsor: Javier Ortega-Hernández

After his fellowship, Stephen joined the University of Cambridge Department of Zoology as a Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellow and will join the University College London as a Lecturer in Invertebrate Paleobiology in 2025.

Francesc Pérez Peris (2025-2026)

Project Title:Trilobites from the Fezouata Shale (Lower Ordovician, Morocco): new insights into high latitude biodiversity and ecology 
Faculty Sponsor: Javier Ortega-Hernández Lab

Thalles Platiny Lavinscky Pereira (2023-2025)

Project Title: 50 new species for the 49th state - Alaska: using integrative taxonomy to illuminate a dark taxon (Diptera: Phoridae)
Faculty Sponsor: Brian Farrell

Whitney Preisser (2021-2022)

Project Title: Revealing the hidden diversity of digenean trematodes within the MCZ Ichthyology Collection
Faculty Sponsor: Gonzalo Giribet and George Lauder

After her fellowship, Whitney joined the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Kennesaw State University as Assistant Professor of Disease Ecology.

Catalina Romero-Ortiz (2024-2026)

Project Title: Exploring pseudoscorpion diversity in the neotropics through an integrative approach
Faculty Sponsor: Gonzalo Giribet

Paulino Siqueira Ribeiro (2023-2025)

Project Title: Taxonomic and phylogenetic revision of the subgenus Decamyia Dyar, genus Wyeomyia Theobald (Diptera: Culicidae) with a description of new species
Faculty Sponsor: Brian Farrell

Tiago Simões (Agassiz Fellow, 2019-2021)

Project Title: The long-term impact of a climate change-driven mass extinction on global biodiversity and evolutionary patterns in reptiles
Faculty Sponsor: Stephanie Pierce

Tiago is currently an incoming faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.

Rodrigo Tinoco Figueroa (2024-2026)

Project Title: The early diversification of ray-finned fishes: Filling gaps in the evolution of the most diverse vertebrate lineage
Faculty Sponsor: Stephanie Pierce

Diego Biston Vaz (2020-2022)

Project Title: Taxonomic review of dwarfgobies, Eviota Jenkins, 1903, one of the most diverse genus of marine fishes
Faculty Sponsor: George Lauder

After his fellowship, Diego joined the University of Guam as a Senior Researcher (Ichthyologist) and Associate Curator of the Biorepository. He is now the Senior Curator of Fishes at the Natural History Museum.