2019
2014
Stoddard Lab
MS Evolutionary Biology, San Diego State University
Burns Lab
BA Biology, Brown University
Swartz and Whiteside Labs
Price-Waldman, R., J. Ali, A.J. Shultz, B. G. Hogan, and M. C. Stoddard (2025) Hidden white and black feather layers enhance plumage coloration in tanagers and other songbirds. In Revision: Science Advances.
Price-Waldman, R., and M.C. Stoddard. (2021) Avian coloration genetics: Recent advances and emerging questions. Journal of Heredity. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esab015
Fialko, K., J. Ali, L. Céspedes Arias, J. Drucker, K. Nordén, T. Price, R. Price-Waldman, S. Pruett-Jones. (2021) Book review: The Sensory Ecology of Birds. Ornithology ukab001.
Price-Waldman, R., A.J. Shultz, and K.J. Burns. (2020) Speciation rates are correlated with changes in plumage color complexity in the largest family of songbirds. Evolution 74 (6): 1155-1169 https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13982
Doane, M.P., [...multiple authors], R. Price-Waldman, R.A. Edwards, and E.A. Dinsdale. (2020) The major evolutionary split between elasmobranchs and teleost fishes extends to the diversity partitioning of the skin microbiomes. Microbiome 8 (93)
Bahlman, J.W., R. Price-Waldman, H.W. Lippe, K.S. Breuer, and S.M. Swartz. (2016) Simplifying a wing: diversity and functional consequences of digital joint reduction in bat wings. Journal of Anatomy 229 (1): 114-27 https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12457
Kasprak, A.H., J. Sepulveda, R. Price-Waldman, K.H. Williford, S. Schoepfer, J.W. Haggart, P.D. Ward, R.E. Summons, and J.E. Whiteside. (2015) Episodic photic zone euxinia in the northeastern Panthalassic Ocean during the end-Triassic extinction. Geology 43: 307-310 https://doi.org/10.1130/G36371.1
2023
2022
2021
2021
2021
2017
2014
American Ornithology Society Council Student Presentation Award
Society for the Study of Evolution Rosemary Grant Award ($2780)
American Museum of Natural History Chapman Award ($1500)
American Ornithological Society Wetmore Award ($2500)
Princeton University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Seed Funding ($2500)
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship ($138000)
Richard J. Goss Prize for Honors Thesis (Brown University)
Confocal microscopy; scanning electron microscopy; transmission electron microscopy; UV-vis reflectance spectrophotometry; multispectral imaging; microspectrophotometry
Bioinformatics
Common programs for phylogenetic inference (RAxML and ExaML, IQTree, ASTRAL, SVD Quartets); assembly and analysis of genomic data (BAMtools, SAMtools, Trinity, etc); data analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods (R, Python, Linux).
Lab
Aspects of molecular lab work including extraction of genomic DNA from tissues, historical avian specimens, mammalian fecal samples; DNA quantification and visualization with gel electrophoresis, Qubit, and Bioanalysis; targeted sequence capture of ultraconserved elements (UCEs), PCR.
Field
Camera trap setup; avian field work (basic skills in mist netting, handling birds, sample collection, specimen prep); navigation and orienteering; first aid/CPR.
Creative
Scientific illustration and design.
Last Updated May 2025
Courses
Genomics in the Wild (Princeton Field Course, Laikipia, Kenya) - Assistant in Instruction, Spring 2023
Evolutionary Biology (Princeton University) - Assistant in Instruction, Fall 2019
Evolutionary Biology (San Diego State University) - Teaching Assistant, Fall 2018
Introductory Biology (San Diego State University) - Teaching Assistant, Fall 2016 and Fall 2017
Invertebrate Zoology (Brown University) - Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Fall 2012 and Fall 2013
Illustrations
Genetics and development of coloration
A wide range of genetic and developmental mechanisms underlie the diversity of colors and patterns that make avian feathers, skin, eyes and eggs so stunning. I'm interested in the genetic and developmental bases of coloration, and particularly in understanding how new optical effects evolve in feathers through cooption, modification, or reorganization of existing genetic and developmental pathways. I'm currently studying these questions in a range of birds, and am especially intruiged by non-model systems and unusual color phenotypes.
As an undergraduate researcher and research assistant in the Swartz Lab, I studied the evolution and function of bat wing muscles and joints.
Conservation genetics
I spent three field seasons as a Biological Sciences Technician for the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Program before beginning my Masters.
Mass extinctions
As an undergraduate researcher in the Whiteside Lab, I studied the ocean geochemistry of the end-Triassic mass extinction.