Student Highlights: William Rosenthal
— MEET WILLIAM —
Class: Graduate
Major: Ecology
William grew up in central Wisconsin and earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in both Genetics and Wildlife Ecology. During his college years, William discovered a passion for freshwater biodiversity and began working for a lab in the limnology department. From there he was excited to begin performing independent research using genetic data to inform matters of conservation concern.
After receiving his Bachelor’s degree, William moved to Laramie to earn his Master’s degree at UW studying hybridization between native Yellowstone cutthroat trout and introduced rainbow trout and was very excited to continue working to integrate evolutionary biology and genetic data with conservation practice. He then stayed at UW to begin working toward his doctoral dissertation.
— WILLIAM’S RESEARCH —
William’s current research involves collaborating with state, federal, and non-governmental partners to perform a genetic assessment of Yellowstone cutthroat trout across their range in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Through this work he hopes to provide valuable information about population health and origins that can aid Yellowstone cutthroat trout conservation for many years into the future. Using this very large genetic dataset—hundreds of gigabytes of data from over 5,000 fish—he also hopes to understand how genetic diversity is distributed across the landscape. If we can find aspects of the local environment that influence a population’s genetic diversity, we can improve conservation prioritization and learn more about the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity.
Backpack electrofishing to collect juvenile trout
Backpacking to collect fish from remote locations near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River
ABOUT STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS
Every year, we award fellowships to graduate and undergraduate students attending the University of Wyoming or Wyoming’s community colleges in order to provide them with funding to engage in real-world research opportunities. Occasionally, we feature one of these students and their research on this blog. For more information about our student fellowships, visit our College Programs page.