My fascination with bats started way back in my undergrad days when I joined my first bat survey in Malaysia. That’s when I was introduced to my first pteropodid and insectivorous bats. The plethora of bat diversity and the services they provide to the ecosystems were influential in shaping my interest in bat research. For my undergraduate research project, I worked on the phylogeny and morphological variation of bamboo bats in Malaysia. Later, I went for my master’s degree and dived into the world of bat flies. Working with bat parasites was tough, but it was also super rewarding! It’s what actually piqued my interest in bat ecology.

Currently, I’m a PhD candidate in the Kingston Bat Conservation Ecology Lab at Texas Tech University. My research focuses on community ecology, functional ecology, and conservation, with a special twist – I’ll also be diving into the world of bat gut microbiome! Now, we all know that land use change is one of, if not the main culprit behind habitat loss and degradation, which is especially true in the tropics. But what is less clear is the underlying mechanisms that drive changes to the bat communities. So, for my doctoral dissertation, I’ll be looking at identifying the community assembly mechanisms responsible for shaping bat communities and their gut microbiome, as well as looking into how changes in prey resource-base influence bat communities. Using these adorable, winged critters as my focal organisms, I’m hoping to uncover some fascinating findings and share them with y’all real soon! Fingers crossed!