Education

Ph.D. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Columbia University, 2005.
M.S. Biology
Villanova University, 2001.
B.S. General Biology
University of California, San Diego, 1997.

General Information

I am an Assistant Curator and Head of Fishes in the Department of Zoology at The Field Museum. I also teach at and have graduate students in the Committee on Evolutionary Biology, The University of Chicago.

My research focuses on the evolutionary biology of marine and freshwater fishes. I am interested in the large-scale phenomona that have shaped the history and diversification of fishes in both geographic space and geologic time. I use a combination of phylogenetic or "family" trees and detailed anatomical, genomic, or biogeographic analyses to understand the evolution of fishes.

I am currently working on a number of projects with funding from The Field Museum, The Grainger Foundation, and The National Science Foundation. If you are interested in learning more about the work in our lab take a look at the publications, research, and lab members pages on my external website.

External Website

The Smith Lab