Bio

Thanks for visiting! I am a Postdoc at Columbia University's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. I am currently working with Ishmail Abdus-Saboor to study genetic and neuronal mechanisms underlying social behaviors in the African naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber).

I am broadly interested in understanding the evolution of behavior. How do evolutionary forces—such as selection, drift, and gene flow—drive behavioral evolution and maintain behavioral diversity in nature? What genes, neurons, and circuits control adaptive behaviors? To tackle these fundamental questions, I aspire to take an integrative approach across disciplines from behavioral ecology to computational genomics to behavioral neuroscience.

I completed my Ph.D. at Princeton University, working with Lindy McBride on the evolution of a man-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens. I spearheaded PipPop, the Culex pipiens population genomics project, 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. My thesis investigated the genomic basis of behavioral variation in a social burying beetle under the supervision of Dustin Rubenstein and Sheng-Feng Shen. 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 across vertebrates.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, I graduated from the University of Tokyo for my undergraduate degree where I worked with Nobuyuki Kutsukake 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.