Cynthia Steiner

Dr. Cynthia Steiner is a Senior Research Associate in the Genetics Division at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (ICR). Cynthia earned her B.S. degree in Biology at the University Simon Bolivar (Caracas, Venezuela). She pursued her master’s degree and doctorate in evolutionary biology at the University of Montpellier (France) working on the phylogeny and phylogeography of South American marsupials. She completed her first postdoctotal appointment at the University of California, San Diego under the supervision of Dr. Hopi Hoekstra working on the genetic basis of adaptive traits in the genus Peromyscus.

She was appointed for a second postdoc at the Genetics Division at ICR with Dr. Oliver Ryder working on the phylogeny and evolution of mammals in the framework of the Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) project.
Her research interests include: taxonomy and evolutionary history of mammals, chromosome evolution, genetic basis of adaptive traits and hybrid sterility, development and application of genetic methods for identifying species and detecting hybridization, and use of genomics to assist management of captive and wild threatened populations.