Background
Edel is a PhD student within the Marine Omics research group at James Cook University. Her previous research as molecular ecologist focused on population structure and species complexes within cephalopods, non-invasive genetics of terrestrial mammals and most recently within the Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) project at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Here she developed expertise across high-throughput genome generation, biodiversity monitoring and vector surveillance projects, optimising high-throughput protocols and automated workflows. Her PhD project will investigate the diversity and population connectivity of benthic marine invertebrates around the remote sub-Antarctic Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) and the broader Southern Ocean. By applying the latest genomic techniques to taxa such as echinoderms and cephalopods, this project aims to advance our understanding of their evolutionary relationships and population dynamics across the Southern Ocean.