Dr. Carolina Bonin Lewallen

Assistant Professor, Marine and Environmental Science
Location: Marine Science 113
Phone: 757-727-6044
E-mail: carolina.lewallen@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Population Genetics, Marine Mammal Ecology, Bioinformatics

Dr. Carolina Bonin Lewallen is a marine biologist trained in population genetics and the use of molecular tools to study the ecology and behavior of marine organisms. She is particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms that generate and maintain genetic diversity in wild populations of marine mammals. Dr. Bonin earned her PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (San Diego, CA) working on Antarctic fur seals. She has devoted most of her career to the study of population genetics and mating systems of marine mammals. Dr. Bonin is also interested in bioinformatics, and spent two years at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) as a post-doctoral fellow. While there, she was trained in advanced molecular biology techniques and worked on mining large datasets, in particular DNA methylation and RNA-seq. At Hampton University, Dr. Bonin continues to study marine mammal ecology and behavior using molecular techniques to address new problems in marine science. She published numerous manuscripts and is an associate editor for Gene. She is also the co-director of the NSF- Association of Limnology and Oceanography Multicultural Program.