Amanda joined the MGL as a doctoral student in July 2014. Her dissertation work focused on population and conservation genetics of scalloped hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini). She will use next-generation sequencing techniques to conduct a high-resolution stock assessment of S. lewini in the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Amanda’s research also involves describing baseline genetic diversity parameters for a sympatrically distributed cryptic species, the Carolina hammerhead (Sphyrna gilberti). Using ecological and genetic data, Amanda is working to characterize both species’ usage of nursery habitats on the east coast of the US, as well as investigate potential mechanisms of speciation in these morphologically conserved species.

 

Amanda received a B.S. in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution at the University of California, San Diego. She remained at UC San Diego to