Nayeli Gutiérrez

Nayeli Gutiérrez is a Richard Gilder Graduate School PhD student at the American Museum of Natural History. Her research focuses on the evolution of milkweed longhorn beetles of the genus Tetraopes, their natural history, molecular ecology, and interaction with their host plants. Other interests include the diversity of beetles in different ecosystems, which has led her to describe several new species and led expeditions in Mexico and other countries.

After receiving a BA in Biology from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, she earned an MS in Biological Sciences by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. During this time, she participated in the curation of entomological collections and developed an interest in their reassessment as valuable sources of knowledge. In addition, she became involved in scientific outreach projects where she sought to spread her continued astonishment at the diversity of insects and the urgent need for their study and conservation.

What Nayeli likes the most about her job is doing field work in tropical environments, studying the enormous diversity of beetle shapes, colors and sizes, and analyzing genomic data sets using bioinformatics tools. In addition to her work as a scientist, she enjoys taking long bike rides and reading in her spare time.