Cephalopod Eye Development and the Evolution of Visual System Complexity

Kristen Koenig went to undergrad at UC Berkeley where she majored in History and Molecular and Cell Biology. At Berkeley she studied butterfly wing patterning with Dr. Nipam Patel and after undergrad Kristen worked at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute where she studied sea urchin speciation with Dr. Harilaos Lessios. She did her PhD at University of Texas at Austin in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Gross, who studies zebrafish eye development and regeneration. In the Gross lab Kristen established the squid, Doryteuthis pealeii, as a model for comparative eye development and evolution. At the end of her PhD, Kristen was awarded the John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellowship at Harvard University. This is a fellowship given to investigators immediately upon receipt of their PhD and enabled her to operate as an independent PI with her own lab. At Harvard Kristen, was awarded the NIH Early Independence Award to support the lab’s work and expanded her research program from cephalopods to a diversity of systems, including sea anemones and avian species. She has since been running her group investigating the evolution and development of visual systems at Harvard and is currently a visiting scientist at the University of Texas.

Editor's Note: This talk will also be given online and in person on January 9 at Stanford University. See our event listing for that date.

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