Welcome to the Laboratory of Dr. Melanie Culver

The Culver Conservation Genetics Lab specializes in using genetics and genomics to inform management and conservation decisions.

Mission Statement

We envision genetics playing a key role in urgent environmental challenges, and we appreciate the role our results and analyses might contribute to present conservation decision making and future policy actions. 

The Culver Conservation Genetics Lab pursues genetic and genomic research along with camera trap monitoring, that integrates systematics, population biology, evolution, and disease related knowledge and modeling in order to gain a more robust understanding of ecological systems and intact biodiversity. 

We welcome students, interns, and researchers of diverse backgrounds and cultures into the Culver Conservation Genetics Lab and the Wild Cat Center. The lab encourages the mentorship of women, minorities, and under-represented students.  (Please see the Mentorship link).

We also value citizen science for the benefit it provides to the volunteers, to the science, and for how they enhance the Tucson community as the volunteers relay their knowledge to others around them, formally and informally.

Our lab participates in outreach and service activities throughout the year, at the K-12 level, at the University, and in the Tucson community. These activities are centered around providing information and how we do our science, in an engaging format, to the broader community.

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.