WHO

Education

2003	B.Sc. Biology. Universidad de los Andes (Bogota, Colombia)
2005- present	Graduate Student. Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA)

Background and Research Interests

I am a first year graduate student at Harvard University. Before coming to Harvard I spent two years in Panama working as a research assistant at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). At STRI, I carried my undergraduate thesis work in phylogenetics and molecular systematics of lucinid bivalves and their associated endosymbionts, under the supervision of Dr. Penny Barnes. After that, I became part of the butterfly research group at STRI, headed by Dr. Eldredge Bermingham and Dr. Chris Jiggins, This group seeks to understand the remarkable diversification of Neotropical butterflies that comprise Müllerian mimicry rings through analyses that combine ecology, molecular systematics and genomic mapping of color pattern genes. Most of my research to date has focused on reconstructing phylogeny and studying life history evolution, but I have become increasingly interested in analyzing the processes that give rise to these phylogenetic patterns, and thus the genetic and genomic work that Dr. Pierce and her students have been doing using Arabidopsis/pathogen/insect interactions as a model system is an approach that interests me.

Publications

- Mallarino R., Bermingham, E., Willmott, K. R., Whinnett, A. & Jiggins, C. D. 2005 Molecular systematics of the butterfly genus Ithomia (Lepidoptera: Ithomiinae): a composite phylogenetic hypothesis based on seven genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34, 625-644 [pdf].

- Whinnett, A., Zimmermann, A., Willmott, K.R., Herrera, N., Mallarino, R., Simpson, F., Joron, M., Lamas, G. & Mallet, J. Strikingly variable divergence times inferred across an Amazonian butterfly 'suture zone'. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. In press. [pdf]

- Jiggins, C. D., Mallarino, R., Willmott, K. W., Bermingham, E. Phylogenetic evidence for speciation caused by ecological adaptation in neotropical Ithomia butterflies (Lepidoptera; Nymphalidae). Evolution. submitted. [pdf]

- Mallarino R., 2003. Cryptic species and symbiotic relationships of marine bivalves of the family Lucinidae: A molecular approach. B.Sc. Thesis (Biology), Universidad de los Andes. Bogota, Colombia. [pdf] (In Spanish)