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I'm a biologist interested in mygalomorph spiders' evolution. I did a Biology degree in Valencia, Spain (2014-2018) and a Biodiversity masters in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain (2018-2020). Nowadays I'm doing my doctorate in the University of Idaho with Chris Hamilton (2022-present). I’m taking a modern systematics approach to establish hypotheses about the generation and maintenance of biodiversity, with a focus on the funnel-web spider Euagrus, inhabiting the south of the U.S. and México. As a side project, the IHHE award will allow me to work on the PNW endemic relict spider Microhexura.

Alejandro Anderson currently holds the position of Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Statistical Science, University of Idaho. He received his doctorate in control of dynamical systems in 2019 from the University of Littoral, Argentina. His research endeavors employ a dynamic analytical framework to investigate the feasibility of leveraging drug synergy as a strategy to mitigate bacterial resistance.

Yared Debebe Desta is a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Professor Shirley Luckhart in the Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Nematology at the University of Idaho. He received his doctorate in biological sciences specializing in medical entomology and vector biology in 2020 from Addis Ababa University. Yared also had a postdoctoral training in chemical ecology of diseases vectors at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Sweden. He has research expertise in the field of spatial and behavioral ecology, applied chemical ecology and vector control. Currently, Yared is working to uncover the influence of genetic and biochemical manipulations of the pantothenate kinase (PanK) pathway in mosquitoes on the biology of Plasmodium species in different model organisms to develop novel malaria transmission blocking drugs.