Arianna Kuhn, PhD, ’11 CLAS, ’16 MS

Undergraduate exposure to research in Dr. Jackman’s lab, followed by a master’s with Dr. Bauer studying geckos and skinks in sub-Saharan Africa, paved the way for Dr. Kuhn’s doctoral work researching snakes in Madagascar. Now, a year into her role as curator, she conducts primary research on natural history collections while also leading a research program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, work that often takes her back to Madagascar for field studies. “I’m taking the principles of that earlier work with Aaron and Todd and finding ways to apply them to the conservation of different reptile and amphibian groups, as well as more traditional discovery and documentation of biodiversity,” she says. Her own students are beneficiaries of Dr. Bauer’s research acumen as well; on Dr. Kuhn’s first day of fieldwork as a student with Dr. Bauer, he had her inscribe in a notebook the detailed process by which to correctly approach the work. “To this day, I take out my old notebooks from my time in his program to help train my students to do the same.”