People
News: We are hiring a postdoc on our NSF grant on suboscine bird diversification! Details here: https://shorturl.at/RkYkE.
Mike Harvey (Principal Investigator)
Mike is interested in the origins and maintenance of diversity at all taxonomic and geographic scales. He has been a birder most of his life, and fell in love with evolutionary biology in college. He also enjoys trail running, rock climbing, baking, and live music.
See his CV for more info.
Manuelita Sotelo (PhD Student)
Manuelita is a third-year UTEP student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD program. She is interested in the study of the macro- and microevolutionary processes underlying diversification in birds. She also likes hiking, live music, Italian food and Primitivo.
Rafael Lima (PhD Student)
Rafael is a PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program with broad interests in systematics, evolution, and ecology. His current research focuses on coexistence theory. Outside academia, he enjoys birding, photography, and hiking.
Matt Kalman (Post-baccalaureate Fellow)
Matt is a NSF-funded ROADS post-baccalaureate fellow. He is interested in evolution, speciation, phylogenetics, population genetics, and phenotypes. He enjoys hiking, wildlife photography, and cooking Mediterranean food in his spare time.
Sebastian Escobar (Undergraduate Student)
Sebastian is a is a fourth-year UTEP undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Biological Sciences. He is interested in evolution and genetics.
Camila Gonzalez (Undergraduate Student)
Camila is a third-year UTEP undergraduate pursuing a degree in biological sciences with a biomedical concentration. She is interested in cardiology and medicine. She enjoys solving puzzles and playing the viola in her free time.
Maximiliano Sharboneau (Undergraduate Student)
Maximiliano is a first-year UTEP undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He is interested in microevolution, macroevolution, genetics, and chameleons.
Grace Lee (Undergraduate Student)
Grace is a second-year UTEP undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Environmental Sciences with a concentration in biology. She is co-advised with Dr. Elizabeth La Rue. While interested in many fields including ornithology, she also enjoys hiking, clay sculpting, and photography.
Past People
Oscar Johnson (Postdoctoral Fellow)
Oscar was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow sponsored by Dr. Harvey. He built off his doctoral research on phylogenetics and the biogeography of speciation to study the macroevolutionary dynamics of avian migration and its impact on diversity. Oscar is now an Assistant Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University. See his website for more info.
Marco Antonio Rego (Postdoctoral Researcher)
Marco was a Postdoctoral Researcher on the NSF-funded suboscine project. He databased and georeferenced samples, completed taxonomic revisions, and conducted spatial analyses for the project with the goal of examining the geography of diversity and diversification. Marco is an affiliate of the Florida Museum of Natural History. Check out his Google Scholar page.
Matthew Brady (Collections Specialist)
Matt came to UTEP in 2022-2023 to coordinate reorganization of the bird collection (see UTEP Biodiversity Collections), field work, and training students in museum science. Matt has a long-term interest in ornithology, field work, and museum research.
Emily Johns (MS Graduate)
Emily completed an MS studying the impact of climate on avian migration over time and how climate change is projected to influence future migration patterns. She is now studying climate as a PhD student at the University of Bremen in Germany.
Michael Buontempo (MS Graduate)
Michael completed an MS studying geographic variation and phylogeography of montane rattlesnakes in the Sierra Madre Occidental and Madrean Sky Islands of the desert southwest. He was co-advised with Dr. Phil Lavretsky.
Ximena Larrieu (Undergraduate Student)
Ximena completed an undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences. She is now working as a technician on avian field projects in Hawaii and elsewhere.
Andrea Sariñana (Undergraduate Student)
Andrea completed a degree in Biological Sciences with a Biomedicine concentration. She is interested in medicine and oncology.
Miguel Solis (Undergraduate Student/Post-baccalaureate Fellow)
Miguel completed a degree in Biological Sciences with a Ecology and Evolutionary Biology concentration, and completed research in the lab as a post-bac NSF-PRELS Fellow. His focus is on bioinformatics and computational science.
Pablo Solis (Undergraduate Student)
Pablo completed a degree in Forensic Biology at UTEP. He is interested in molecular biology and genetics and is pursuing graduate work in forensic science.
Adriana Hinojos (Undergraduate Student)
Adriana completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences with a Biomedicine concentration. She is working to become an optometrist and enjoys playing tennis.
Eduardo Rodriguez (Undergraduate Student)
Eduardo completed a degree in Biological Sciences with a Biomedicine concentration. He is interested in pursuing an MD/PhD.
Uriel Santillana (Undergraduate Student)
Uriel completed a degree in Biological Sciences with a Biomedicine concentration. He is interested in birds and museum work.
Bonnie Raechal Beres (Undergraduate REU Student)
Bonnie Raechal is an undergraduate student from Saint Norbert College who worked in the lab for the summer of 2021 as part of the Chihuahuan Desert Biodiversity REU. She studied comparative population genetic structure in Sky Island birds of the borderlands region.
Connor O’Brien (Undergraduate REU Student)
Connor is an undergraduate student from Eckerd College who worked in the lab for the summer of 2022 as part of the Chihuahuan Desert Biodiversity REU. He studied hybridization between Yellow-eyed and “Red-backed” Dark-eyed Juncos using a population genetic approach.
Deandra Silva (Undergraduate Student)
Deandra is a senior majoring in Biological Sciences and interested in becoming a PA. She plans to specialize in Dermatology.
Prospective students
We will consider prospective students in the coming cycle. More info on the UTEP EEB graduate programs including deadlines (when they become available) at this link. Feel free to reach out to Dr. Harvey in advance to discuss the current situation.