Basanta Khakurel

Hello!

Welcome to my website.

My name is Basanta Khakurel, and I am a computational biologist and evolutionary biologist from Kathmandu, Nepal.

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at Ludwig Maximilianas-Universität München (LMU-Munich), where I work in the lab of Dr. Sebastian Höhna. My doctoral research is focused on developing robust statistical models for phylogentic inferences using morphological data. I am broadly interested in Bayesian statistics and evolutionary modeling, with the goal of creating more realistic and powerful methods to understand the evolutionary history of life.

My journey in phylogenetics began at Southeastern Louisiana University, where I completed both my B.S. (with minors in Chemistry and Political Science) and M.S. in Biology under the mentorship of Dr. April Wright. For my Master’s thesis, I investigated the inference of phylogeny using discrete morphological characters, exploring the impact of state space partitioning and using posterior predictive approaches to test model adequacy. My undergraduate research culminated in a project on the species delimitation of the Eastern Pinesnake complex (Pituophis melanoleucus).

On this site, you can find more about my research, pulications, and professional activities. Please feel free to get in touch!