I’m a postdoc in Dr. Brenna Henn’s Lab in the Department of Anthropology at UC Davis. I’m broadly interested in the evolutionary history and population genetics of humans, vectors, and diseases. For my PhD I studied gene flow and landscape genetics of the dengue mosquito, Ae. aegypti, in North America. You can read more about my research interests here.

I’m originally from northern California, where I received my BS and MS in Biology at Stanford University. For my honors thesis, I studied decision-making behavior in the red harvester ant with Dr. Deborah Gordon. After graduation, I worked at NASA Ames with Dr. Lynn Rothschild on a synthetic biology project that was launched on the EuCROPIS satellite mission.

In addition to research, I enjoy teaching and mentoring and participating in science outreach events for the public and to support diversity in science.

Email: espless (at) ucdavis.edu

Twitter: @Evie_Pless