QSB PhD student Robert Boria is interested in identifying the processes that lead to speciation, and understanding the genetic consequences of past climatic cycles to help predict future species distributions. For his PhD work, Robert will be answering these questions with the small mammal genus Peromyscus. He is especially interested in using a genomic approach to study the phylogeographic relationships between clades within Peromyscus maniculatus. Additionally, Robert wants to study the effects of environmental gradients on local population variation of P. maniculatus by comparing their morphology and genotypes across gradients. Lastly, he is interested in understanding how species co-occurrence and climatic factors shape species distributions through time. For this project, Robert will be looking at different species of Peromyscus found at fossil localities throughout the west and determining which species have predominated and co-occurred at different time periods. Rob recently received a Ford Foundation Fellowship for his dissertation research!!