Bio | Shuzhe Guan, Jerry

I am a third year Ph.D. candidate at Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology (OEB), Harvard University, supervised by Dr. James Mallet. For my thesis, I will study the population genomics of two putatively coevolving species of Heliconius butterflies. My primary goal is to understand the microevolutionary processes driving population divergence and ultimately leading to speciation. I will also investigate the nature of their coevolution, mainly mediated by Müllerian mimicry. Methodologically, I am interested in applying pangenome and genealogy-based methods to study population history and evolution.

Previously, I did my undergraduate study in University of California, San Diego, where I was mentored by Dr. Lisa Levin for undergraduate thesis investigating methane seep ecosystems. I also did an honorary thesis with Dr. Greg Rouse using phylogenetic tools. Then I pursued my master's degree with Dr. Dustin Rubenstein in Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (E3B), Columbia University. My thesis is titled "The genomic architecture and genetic landscape of locally adapted Asian burying beetles in northern Taiwan", supervised by Dr. Molly Przeworski, Dr. Deren Eaton and Dr. Sheng-feng Shen.

I grew up in a rural town of Sichuan (Szechuan), China. I first discovered my innate interest in nature when I was in high school, learning about Darwin's work and the ensuing field of genetics. In my leisure time, I enjoy delicious foods, playing with my cats, and video games. Please see each section for more!