Dr. Sharlene Santana is a Professor in the Department of Biology and Curator of Mammals in the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on understanding why some groups of mammals –particularly bats– are more diverse than others. As an integrative biologist, she combines expertise from multiple fields, including evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, comparative anatomy, and biomechanics. While much of her work takes place in her lab at the University of Washington, it also involves fieldwork in biodiverse places like Costa Rica. Dr. Santana’s current projects are examining various external and internal factors that may have driven the diversification of bats, or of highly diverse groups within bats. These include the anatomical and biomechanical specialization of the skull for different sensory and feeding strategies, the evolution of frugivory, and the facilitation of morphological change by development.

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Dr. Santana currently leads several research projects on bats, including macroevolutionary analyses of craniodental morphology and function, and coevolutionary dynamics between fruit bats and their mutualistic plants in Costa Rica. Her lab includes a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, international scholars, and collaborators from biology and other disciplines.

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Dr. Santana is part of the Board of Directors of the North American Society for Bat Research (NASBR), where she chairs the Awards Committee, and is an Associate Editor for the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology. She has been active in equity and inclusion efforts by being part of committees at UW Biology, the Burke Museum, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, and NASBR.