Dr. Margarita Lopez-Uribe will be giving a talk titled, “Genetic signatures of range expansion of the host-plant specialist squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa,” on Friday, January 31.  She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) in 2004 and her Masters degree in Genetics and Evolution at Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil) in 2006 under the supervision of Dr. Marco Antonio Del Lama. Currently, she is a PhD student of the Entomology Department at Cornell University researching genetics and population structure of solitary bees.  Her particular interest is in understanding the historical and current role of geography and landscape in shaping gene flow patterns and population structure of bees.  For more information on this research, please visit her website.