Bonnie is one of 40 to compete at the finals of the Intel Science Talent Search! Bonnie won for her work on classification and systematics of sea slugs, with data she collected in 2009. According to Bonnie, the training at the Davalos lab in 2010 made all the difference.

Late in 2009 Bonnie searched for a lab where she could continue her work in morphological and molecular systematics, and where there was an integrative approach to questions about speciation. She found the Dávalos lab was the best for that. Classification and systematics is the first step toward understanding the ecology and evolution of all biodiversity. There are few full-time scientists devoted to classification and systematics of most organisms, which creates a huge impediment to all branches of biology. There are fewer still who integrate different kinds of data, with most labs specialized in either morphology or molecular data collection. The significance of Bonnie's project lies in integrating across data sets, and applying advanced biostatistical and bioinformatics approaches to an understudied group of organisms. Go Bonnie!