Hi, I’m Eliza
Tarimo
A graduate student and reseacher
I am currently a research assistant in the Uyeda lab at Virginia Tech. Before I came to graduate school, I obtained a Bachelor's degree in Wildlife Management from the Sokoine University of Agriculture (2014), and, right after, I worked as a safari guide back in my home country, Tanzania. My time as a safari guide in what is inarguably the 'cradle of mankind' in the Ngorongoro ecosystem, sparked my curiosity about the adaptations that species evolve to fit their environments best. Now, I use phylogenetics to study adaptive trends, compare evolutionary rates, and make predictions of species' capacity to survive anthropogenic changes. I am broadly interested in the physiological adaptations and macroevolution of body temperature (Tb). I seek to answer questions like: How fast do organisms adapt to the environment? How fast do physiological traits evolve? What are the constraints on trait evolution? Can we predict future trends of disease transmission?.
