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#WhereScienceLives: Biologist Aida Verdes

Meet a member whose research and field work sheds light on longstanding evolutionary questions.

Published September 25, 2017

By Attila Szász
Academy Contributor

Aida Verdes on the boat heading out to dive off the coast of Abu Dhabi, during an expedition to collect polychaete worms and mollusks.

Academy members conduct their work in a vast range of settings. As a biologist researching marine invertebrate evolution, Aida Verdes is no stranger to doing research in unusual and unexpected places: her work has her out in the field, going on diving expeditions and conducting research aboard floating laboratories worldwide.

Originally from Madrid, Spain, Verdes is now based in New York City, where she is a PhD candidate in evolutionary biology at the City University of New York (CUNY). She is affiliated with both CUNY’s Holford Laboratory and Luminescent Labs, a collective of explorers using “science, technology, and art to understand, share, and protect nature’s living light.”

Verdes studies the genetic basis of convergent evolution, the process by which non-related organisms independently evolve similar traits. She told us: “Studying evolutionary convergence can provide important insights into long standing evolutionary questions such as whether the same genes determine convergent traits in unrelated species. I am studying these questions in marine annelid worms that have independently evolved the ability to produce light (bioluminescence) and venom.”

Check out photos of her at work below:

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