Shannon Corrigan

I'm fascinated by the natural history and evolution of marine organisms. My broad research interests include evolutionary ecology, biogeography and conservation biology, particularly of cartilaginous fishes. Previously, I’ve studied wobbegong sharks (Orectolobidae) and shortfin makos (Isurus oxyrinchus). I’m currently working on the molecular component of the CTOL project. We’ve developed new molecular tools that allow us to simultaneously target and sequence more than 1000 genes across divergent species of sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras. We use this data to investigate their species interrelationships. I feel very privileged to be involved in the CTOL project because I've had the opportunity to learn new and extremely powerful molecular techniques and am now able to explore interesting questions across the diversity of Chondrichthyan fishes. I'm excited to share this information with scientists and the general public via the project website. As a female scientist, I'm also hopeful that that this work may serve as encouragement for girls and women that are interested in pursuing a career in STEM fields.

May 2016