Bio

Thanks for visiting! I am an evolutionary biologist passionate about understanding how and why diverse behaviors evolve in nature. I'm currently a Leon Levy Scholar in Neurosceince at Columbia University's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. I work with Ishmail Abdus-Saboor to study genetic and neuronal mechanisms underlying social behaviors in the African naked mole-rat. I aim to take multi-desciplinary approaches, combining genomics, neuroscience, and field-based behavioral ecology to comprehensively understand the evolution of behavior.

I completed my Ph.D. at Princeton University, working with Lindy McBride on the evolution of a human-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens. I spearheaded the Culex pipiens population genomics project (nicknamed PipPop), collaborating with 200+ amazing mosquito researchers worldwide to uncover the enigmatic origin of the "London Underground mosquito".

I earned my Master's at Columbia University where I truly fell in love with evolutionary biology and genomics. I worked with Dustin Rubenstein and Sheng-Feng Shen for my MA thesis on adaptive behavioral variation in a burying beetle. I was also fortunate enough to be in the lab of Molly Przeworski, working with Molly Schumer (now at Stanford) and Zack Baker to study the evolution of recombination hotspots.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, I graduated from the University of Tokyo for my undergraduate degree where I worked with Nobuyuki Kutsukake at SOKENDAI on the evolution of (eu)sociality in the naked mole rat and other African rodents.

I spent most of my youth chasing soccer balls, savoring ramen, and playing Nintendo games. Since moving to NYC for grad school, I've found a new passion for beautiful jazz and flavorful coffee.