My name is Yara Alshwairikh, and i’m an evolutionary biologist working towards my PhD at the Skelly lab at Yale University.

I am interested in how vertebrates, namely reptiles and amphibians, adapt to thermal challenges. I’m specifically interested in the opposite ends of the spectrum — extreme freeze tolerance and extreme heat tolerance. I use genomic tools to investigate those thermal tolerance abilities across populations, and ask how species adapted throughout time and space to those thermal challenges

Broadly, I am interested in wildlife conservation and using genomic tools to guide conservation decisions. I am passionate about natural history museums as a setting for academic research, but also a space for science outreach and connecting people from all backgrounds to science

Check out the “research” tab to learn more about my current and past research. You can view my recent publications under the “publications” tab, and learn more about my fieldwork under the “fieldwork” tab

You can contact me at yara.alshwairikh at yale dot edu