Pandemic year in review

What a journey! Today marks one year from when I last did an in-person seminar – to the Medzhitov Lab at Yale University in a giant socially-distanced room (see inset photo). We could all sense the impending changes, but could not have fathomed the extent to which they would transform society.

To bring into focus my growing lab group at Arizona State University, including how our trajectory has broadened during the pandemic, let’s trace the rough milestones of the past year leading up to the present moment:

Overall, I’m elated to be in Arizona, now teaching Evolution (BIO 345) to an online class of 170 ASU students and engaging with our growing group in the School of Life Sciences and Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center (BioKIC). My work on Mammalia phylogeny, ecological causes of speciation, and comparisons to the genus-level fossil record also continues, though to do that justice will certainly need its own post :)

If you made it to the end here, then you deserve some sledding pandas! Here’s to a positive outlook for the rest of 2021…

Sincerely, –nate