Education
Undergraduate
Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours - Class I), The University of Queensland, Australia I completed my BAdvSc(Hons) majoring in Ecology in 2018. The courses undertaken in this degree included extensive genetic, bioinformatic and evolutionary biology content. My Honours was completed under the supervision of Dr Katrina McGuigan and Associate Professor Cynthia Riginos. In my project, I assessed how environmental variation contributed to morphological variation of a goby species, Bathygobius cocosensis, in the intertidal zone.
Semester Abroad, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Postgraduate
PhD Candidate, The Australian National University I commenced study as a PhD candidate within the Division of Ecology & Evolution in February 2021. I will establish a framework for combining genomic and ecological datasets to assess the eco-evolutionary dynamics of population decline, by leveraging a long-term study of a severely declining population of superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) in Canberra, Australia. The species is an iconic endemic Australian bird, widely distributed across south-east Australia. The population is one of the most comprehensive wild pedigree studies in the world. Alarmingly, the population has almost halved since the study began in 1988. Using high-resolution genomic data, I will test several possible explanations for the population decline, including inbreeding depression, and parasitism.
Publications
- Joshua A Thia, Katrina McGuigan, Libby Liggins, Will F Figueira, Christopher E Bird, Andrew Mather, Jennifer L Evans, & Cynthia Riginos (2021) Genetic and phenotypic variation exhibit both predictable and stochastic patterns across an intertidal fish metapopulation. Molecular Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15829.
- Jennifer L Evans, Joshua A Thia, Cynthia Riginos & James P Hereward (2018) The complete mitochondrial genome of Bathygobius cocosensis (Perciformes, Gobiidae), Mitochondrial DNA Part B, 3:1, 217-219.
- Jennifer L. Evans. 2018. Fine-scale phenotypic variation in a planktonic-dispersed intertidal fish with high gene flow (thesis). The University of Queensland.
Awards & Scholarships
- School of Biological Sciences Honours prize 2018
- Dean’s Commendation for Academic Excellence 2015-2018, multiple semesters
- UQ Abroad Exchange Scholarships 2016
Conferences and Presentations
- Workshop on Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics attended 2019
- Ecological Society of Australia Conference attended 2018
Employment
- Research assistant, Walter-Furlong Lab 2018-2020
- Science Engagement Assistant & Science Ambassador, UQ 2017-2020
- Academic Administration Officer, UQ 2019-2020
Volunteering and experience
- UQ Science Mentor & Tutor 2016-2019
- Fieldwork volunteer, Bush Heritage Australia through iROOS at UQ 2017-2018
- Volunteer Supervisor, World Science Festival Brisbane 2018-2019
- Sub-executive for UQ’s Women in Science Association 2017-2018