I am an evolutionary biologist and work largely in Hawaiʻi, often in unusual habitats such as caves and high-elevation areas such as Haleakala National Park.  Major questions that drive much of my research are:

1. I am working on studying the microbiome and pheromones of the Hawaiian picture-wing Drosophila, supervised by Joanne Yew at UH Mānoa and with close collaborator Don Price at UNLV. How does the microbiome affects various aspects of life, and how do pheromones potentially lead to the separation of lineages?

2.  What sorts of creatures inhabit Hawaiian lava tube caves, and what changes have they undergone after colonizing these habitats? Likewise for high-elevation habitats in Hawaii.

3.  I have been involved studying the biogeography of the high elevation insects:  How and when did insects from moths to ice-crawlers to beetles come to colonize alpine areas?  What drove diversification in these groups?  What traits allow particular groups of insects to survive in these cold, often dry, windswept areas with sparse resources?

4. Phylogenetics and biodiversity of Lepidoptera:  What are the evolutionary relationships between moth species, and what new species have yet to be discovered and described?

Some of my current additional projects include:

1.  Working to develop strategies for conservation of insects.  Students from the Urban School of San Francisco and I are currently assisting folks from the University of Hawaii and the US Forest Service on a project to evaluate conservation actions on the Big Island of Hawaii.

2.  Working on the “Drunken Monkey” hypothesis regarding the evolutionary origin of ethanol consumption.  I work with Robert Dudley of UC Berkeley on this project. 

3.  Studying the phylogeography of the Grylloblattidae and Nebria, with PI Sean Schoville of the University of Wisconsin.

4. Assisting the Bullhead City AZ pest-management team with data collection, insect identification, and related tasks.