About Me

Michael L. Yuan (He/Him)
Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability
California Academy of Sciences

I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Islands 2030 Initiative at the California Academy of Sciences. Previously, I was a Center for Population Biology Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Davis. I received my PhD from the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley advised by Ian Wang. My PhD was additionally supported by a Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship working with Rayna Bell. My research program is primarily focused on two areas: (1) understanding the generation and maintenance of phenotypic diversity through ecological selection and (2) conservation-oriented phylogeography of Caribbean herpetofauna. As the phenotype lies at the interface between an organism’s genotype and its environment, I approach the study of phenotypic diversity as inherently integrative, combining genomic, epigenomic, morphological, and ecological techniques. I have primarily addressed questions of phenotypic evolution using the radiations of Caribbean Anolis lizards and questions of island phylogeography broadly using Lesser Antillean reptiles and amphibians.