Sarah Boyer

Website: sites.google.com/macalester.edu/boyerlab

Professor Boyer is interested in the diversity and evolution of animal life. She takes a phylogenetic approach to questions in evolutionary biology, using both molecular and morphological data.  Current research projects in her lab focus on understanding the evolution of mite harvesters (tiny arachnids) in New Zealand; this work is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.  She and her students also work on reproductive biology of local daddy long-legs found on campus and at Ordway Field Station.  Professor Boyer works closely with undergraduates in both lab and field settings and regularly publishes papers with student coauthors.  She teaches Biodiversity and Evolution, one of the courses in the Department’s core sequence, as well as upper-level courses in evolution and zoology and a non-majors’ course, Creatures and Curiosities. Other interests include travel, novels, food, family, friends and the great outdoors.

BA: Swarthmore College, 1996

MA: University of California Berkeley, 1998

PhD: Harvard University, 2007