YAEL KISEL
Currently seeking postdoctoral employment/funding
http://barralab.bio.ic.ac.uk/people/yael-kisel.html
y.kisel06@imperial.ac.uk
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I am fascinated by patterns of biodiversity, whether in space, time, or across the tree of life. I am
particularly interested in the part of macroevolution in creating diversity patterns, but also in the
interaction of evolutionary and ecological processes. I began my career as a botanist, but I am
ready to study any organism and especially enjoy carrying out broad-scale comparative studies.
EDUCATION
2006 - 2010 Imperial College London and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK
PhD - “The Spatial Scale of Speciation and Patterns of Diversity”
 Supervisors: Prof. Tim Barraclough and Prof. Mark Chase FRS
 Funded by a U. S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
and a Deputy Rector's Scholarship from Imperial College London
 Proposed a new framework for understanding why some groups of organisms
have more species than others, centered on a new concept, the spatial scale of
speciation (the minimum amount of area within which new species are able to
form). Tested this framework using two case studies, one investigating speciation
on islands; the other investigating patterns of diversity in Costa Rican orchids.
2001 - 2005 College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
B.A. Biology with High Honors - Grade Point Average 3.99 (out of 4)
 Advisor: Prof. Bruce Tiffney
 Senior project: “Integrating spatial patterns of morphology and environment in
a wetland plant hybrid zone.”
Additional advanced courses:
2009
2008
2008
2007
Workshop on Molecular Evolution, Český Krumlov, Czech Republic
GIS for Expeditions and Fieldwork, Royal Geographic Society, London, UK
SAM: Spatial Analysis in Macroecology, Silwood Park, UK
Generalised Linear Modeling and Statistical Computing in R, Silwood Park, UK
PUBLICATIONS
Kisel, Y., A. Moreno-Letelier, D. Bogarín, M. P. Powell, M. W. Chase, and T. G. Barraclough.
Testing the link between gene flow and clade diversification in Costa Rican orchids. In prep for
resubmission to Evolution.
 result of PhD research
Kisel, Y., L. McInnes, N. H. Toomey, and C. D. L. Orme. How diversification rates and diversity
limits combine to create large-scale species-area relationships. Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society B 2011. Vol. 366, pp. 2514-2525.
 invited paper for theme issue on global mammal biodiversity
Kisel, Y. and T. Barraclough. Speciation has a spatial scale that depends on levels of gene flow.
American Naturalist 2010. Vol. 175, pp. 316–334.
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result of PhD research
reviewed in Presgraves, D.C. and Glor, R. Evolutionary Biology: Speciation on Islands.
Current Biology 2010. Volume 20, pp. R440-R442.
selected for Faculty of 1000 Biology as “Must Read”
cited 18 times on Web of Knowledge
SKILLS
 Experienced with ESRI ArcGIS, and phylogenetics software including PAUP*, GARLI,
MacClade, TNT, MAFFT, Muscle, COLLAPSE, and the ape package for R
 Advanced statistics using R, including mixed-effects models and model comparison
 Programming in C++, MATLAB, R
 Molecular labwork, including DNA extraction and AFLP reactions and analysis
 Population genetics analyses
 Geometric morphometrics (analysis of shapes)
 Planning and carrying out fieldwork abroad, including applying for permits and funding,
collaborating with local institutions, and managing a team of field assistants
 Botanical skills: using dissecting and compound microscopes; using dichotomous keys to
identify species; botanical illustration
 Additional languages: Spanish (read, spoken and written), Hebrew (read and spoken),
Italian (spoken), Slovene (spoken)
FUNDING AND AWARDS
Fellowships
2007-2010
United States National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
2006-2009
Deputy Rector’s Scholarship, Imperial College London
2001-2005
Regent’s Scholarship, University of California
Distinctions
2011
2nd place candidate, UC Davis Center for Population Biology Postdoc Fellow search
2008
Best presentation, London Evolutionary Research Network conference
2005
Sweeney Award for outstanding academic achievement as an undergraduate in
biology, Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology Department, UCSB
Research Grants
2009
Travel Award, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, for PhD fieldwork
($1000)
2008
Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research, for PhD fieldwork ($500)
2008
Kew Bentham-Moxon Trust Grant, for PhD fieldwork (£2600)
2008
Central Research Fund Grant, University of London, for PhD fieldwork (£1800)
2004
C.H. Muller Award, Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology Department, UCSB,
for an independent undergraduate research project ($800)
Other Grants
2010
Travel Grant, European Society of Evolutionary Biology, for Evolution 2010 (750€)
2010
Travel Grant, American Society of Naturalists, for Evolution 2010 ($500)
PRESENTATIONS
Talks at conferences
2010
Evolution 2010, Portland, USA
2008
Prize, best presentation: London Evolutionary Research Network, UK
2008
NERC Centre for Population Biology Workshop: Outstanding questions in
speciation research, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, UK
(invited)
Invited seminars
2011
Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
2011
Center for Population Biology, UC Davis, USA
2011
Naturalis Museum, Leiden, Netherlands
2011
Dept. of Forest Sciences and Ecology, Georg-August Universitat Göttingen, Germany
2010
Silwood Park, Imperial College London, UK
Posters
2011
2009
2009
2008
2007
Advances in Biogeography: Early Career conference, Oxford, UK
12th Congress of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology, Turin, Italy
Symposium: Evolutionary islands 150 years after Darwin, Naturalis Museum,
Leiden, Netherlands
Symposium: Challenges in speciation research, University of Sheffield, UK
Young Systematists Forum, London, UK
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Supervision
2009
MSc Conservation Science
Tutoring (small group teaching)
2008
2nd year undergraduate Biology
2007
MSc Conservation Science
Co-supervised an MSc student doing a project on
mycorrhizal fungi diversity in Costa Rican orchids
Statistics in R
Corruption, governance, and conservation; Bayesian
statistics and conservation; Decision making
Demonstrating (assisting in practicals/labs/field trips)
2008 & 2009 3rd year undergraduate Biology
Species delimitation; Correlates of diversity; Spatial
patterns in biodiversity
2008
1st year undergraduate Biology
Field course in quantitative ecology
rd
3 year undergraduate Biology
Heathland ecology
MSc Ecology, Evolution,
Bacterial evolution; Statistics in R
Conservation
MSc Conservation Science
Statistics clinic
2006
1st year undergraduate Biology
Organism biology - Protoctista
FIELD EXPERIENCE
2008 & 2009 Collecting orchids throughout Costa Rica for PhD research (independently
planned)
2006
Vegetation and water quality monitoring in 4 national parks & monuments in
Utah, as a Student Conservation Association volunteer with the National Park
Service
2002 & 2004 Vegetation sampling in California native grasslands, as a research assistant for a
restoration ecology study run by the Reichman Lab, UCSB
OTHER EXPERIENCE
2009
Invited member, Environmental Task Group, Imperial College London. This
group of faculty, administrative staff, and students was created in 2009 to
establish environmental and corporate social responsibility strategy and policy for
Imperial College.
2007 - 2009
President, Green Club, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London. I
coordinated recycling and composting for our campus refectory and student
dorms; liaised with college administration, staff, and students; organized events
including an annual Green Week; and led a voluntary carbon-offsetting initiative
for our campus.
REVIEWER FOR
American Naturalist; Plant Ecology; BMC Evolutionary Biology; Heredity