top of page
IMG_4316.jpg
Dr. Benjamin R. Karin

NSF Postdoctoral Fellow

NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow​
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 

Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management 

University of California Berkeley

I am an evolutionary biologist and herpetologist. I am fascinated by the processes that generate biodiversity and the evolutionary forces that generate unique traits. I work in remote parts of the world to track-down, develop, and study exceptional natural experiments using cutting-edge genomic methods..

 

I employ genomic tools to investigate evolutionary relationships, speciation, biogeography, and the genetic basis of traits.  This includes the evolutionary processes that generate biodiversity and cause morphological and physiological diversity to develop, as well as linking genotype to phenotype through genome scans, transcriptomics, functional anatomy, and comparative genomics.

I am currently based in Dr. Ian Wang's Lab

IMG_2031-2.jpg

Benjamin  R. Karin, PhD

About Me.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and spent much of my time exploring the mountains of California. However, it wasn't until college that I flipped a log to find and hold my first salamander as part of a natural history field course. I have been hooked on biology, and herpetology, ever since.

I have been on eight separate research expeditions to Indonesia and Malaysia. Through this work I have a developed a large and global collaborative network. I am a National Geographic Explorer, member of the IUCN Skink Specialist group, and part of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley. 

Education

MVZ_Logo_vector2020_color.png

2023

Ph.D. Integrative Biology

UC Berkeley

​Title: The Evolutionary and Biogeographic History of Sulawesi’s Sphenomorphine Skinks

Advisor: Dr. Jimmy A. McGuire

Villanova_Wildcats_logo.svg.png

2016

M.S. Biology
Villanova University

Title: Phylogeography and Evolution of Three Species of Eutropis on Borneo

Advisors: Dr. Aaron Bauer and Dr. Todd Jackman

Seal_of_University_of_California,_Berkeley.svg.png

2012

B.A. Integrative Biology
UC Berkeley

Highest Honors and Distinction in General Scholarship

bottom of page