Mercedes Burns has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship for her research on genital biomechanics and the evolution of mating behavior in harvestmen (Opiliones). The highly competitive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship provides three years of stipend, tuition remission, travel money, and access to the NSF-funded TeraGrid Supercomputer.

A wide array of morphological and behavioral traits may be found within the order Opiliones. Mercedes’ research will examine sexually antagonistic coevolution in closely related taxa within the harvestmen genera Leiobunum and Hadrobunus, testing the hypothesis that mating-system diversity in these groups is the result of a long-term sexual arms race. She is currently engaged in the phylogenetic reconstruction of harvestman lineages using sequential, morphological, and restriction data.

Mercedes is a Ph.D. student in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Shultz.