Rate My Professor Sarah Boyer

Professor Boyer's laboratory at Macalester is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the National Park Service. She collaborates closely with undergraduate students on fieldwork in New Zealand, California, and Minnesota, leading to discoveries of new arachnid species and co-authored publications. Many former lab members have pursued successful PhD programs and faculty positions. Key publications include "Biogeography of the widespread Aotearoa New Zealand mite harvester genus Rakaia (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi) based on UCE-derived subgenomic data" (2026), "Machine learning approaches delimit cryptic taxa in a previously intractable species complex" (2024), "Phylogeography reveals the complex impact of the Last Glacial Maximum on New Zealand’s terrestrial biota" (2022), "A well-resolved transcriptomic phylogeny of the mite harvestman family Pettalidae (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi) reveals signatures of Gondwanan vicariance" (2020), and "Regional biogeography of the Gondwanan mite harvestman family Pettalidae" with Gonzalo Giribet (2009). Her scholarship has accumulated over 2,000 citations. As Managing Editor of Macalester Reviews in Biogeography, she contributes to editorial efforts in the field. Professor Boyer teaches Biodiversity and Evolution, upper-level courses in evolution and zoology, and Creatures and Curiosities for non-majors.