Internships

Mulin Huan ’26

Major

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Project Title

Seasonal Evolution of Fruit Fly Competitive Ability

I studied how fruit fly phenotypes such as heat tolerance, starvation tolerance, chill coma recovery and fecundity can rapidly evolve over a few months and used experiments to examine how these rapid evolutions affect their competitive abilities. I set up a field experiment site with fly cages and tents at the Princeton University nursery but ran into several issues when storms knocked down the tents and cages. However, my adviser and I came up with ideas to fix the problem. I also took part in making food for all the flies and recording data during the phenotyping of the flies. I learned many techniques, especially skills involving collecting and sampling flies from orchards and cages. As a rising sophomore, this opportunity offered me great insights including how to work safely and efficiently in a university laboratory and deal with unexpected challenges in the field. Overall, I developed further confidence in my aspired career as a researcher in ecology and evolutionary biology.

* This internship is connected to the HMEI Biodiversity Grand Challenges project, “The Maintenance of Species Diversity through the Rapid Evolution of Competitive Ability.”