I was born and raised in George Town, Malaysia. I earned my B.A. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior from the University of Minnesota. For my undergraduate senior thesis, I studied the phylogeography and population differentiation of Steller’s Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) in the western United States. I remained in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley as a curatorial and laboratory assistant for a year after graduation, during which I continued to work various projects on avian diversification. I am interested in studying the diversification and biogeography of birds, particularly those of my native Asia, where the evolutionary relationships of birds remain poorly documented. With my Ph.D. research, I want to use an integrative approach — combining genetic, ecology, and morphology datasets — to improve our understanding in the aforementioned areas, in order to improve estimates of true diversity, which, in turn, will hopefully improve conservation efforts.