About This Site
On this site, you will find information about my research interests, as well as a resources page that seeks to synthesize and layman-ize information about comparative method packages.
My Background
About Me
I am Samuel McCauley, a first-year Ph.D. student in the Tank Lab, located in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Idaho. I study phylogenetics and evolution in plants.
While I currently live in Idaho, I am from the great state of South Carolina, and am an alumnus of the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics. My experience at GSSM proved to be foundational in my current passion of organismal biology and phylogenetics.
I graduated with a B.A. in Biology from the College of Charleston Honors College, summa cum laude. For my Honors Thesis, I worked with Dr. Daniel McGlinn to uncover the spatial and environmental drivers of beta diversity in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) forests from Georgia to North Carolina.
Broadly, I am interested in how geographical movement and trait evolution influence each other, and synergistically drive diversification dynamics. Read more in-depth about my research and study system in my research interests.
Outside of academia, my hobbies include photography, reading, local coffee shops, and botanizing. My current reading adventure is Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series (on book four of fourteen). I also spend my freetime on Twitch (like video games? – check this out).
CV
Find my CV here.
Relevant Links
These are some of the professional societies with which I’m associated. Check them out!
| Society | Link |
|---|---|
| Society of Systematic Biologists | https://www.systbio.org |
| Botanical Society of America | https://www.botany.org |
| Society for the Study of Evolution | https://www.evolutionsociety.org |
| Idaho Native Plant Society | https://www.idahonativeplants.org |