It was actually my interest in the areas of phylogenetics, biogeography and biodiversity. Computational tools have expanded the possibilities of pursuing questions in these areas, including hypothesis testing.

• Basic computer programming
• Genetic laboratory techniques
• Statistical Analysis
• Modeling (genetics, computational(phylogenetics), etc)
• Grant writing!

Lots and lots of reading and practicing on my own time when it comes to basic programming in computing languages. I took a class or two but it was so general it was hard to really get at the capabilities of programs for the specific issues I was interested in. I just had to play around and get familiar with the computing languages to get them. Specific area-based workshops in computational biology have been a huge help as well. Their tutorials are often a great starting point for customizing scripts for my own work.

The math/statistics I've learned were mostly acquired in classes and reading text.

• What are the relationships between species of a given clade?
• What is the history of geographic range evolution of a given population or clade?
• How does that history relate to changes in the abiotic and biotic environment?
• More generally, what is the history of evolution of a given trait within a clade?
• How do answers to the previous questions contribute to our understanding of speciation, biodiversity and adaptation?

I plan to be at SACNAS on Friday. I look forward to meeting people!