Ever wonder what our students do for research? EEB Phd students, Benjamin Nicholas and Juan Gabriel Albornoz spent two weeks in Peru, drove more than 4,000 km (2,485 miles) to reach different sampling sites, met all the logistic challenges head-on and succeeded in collecting specimens, tissue samples, high-quality images of live specimens and sampling sites, as well as ecological data!

The expedition party was composed of Peruvian researchers from the Fish Department of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (MUSNM) and the University of Michigan and included postdocs,  Ph.D. students, and undergraduates. They conducted a scientific expedition to several localities along the Ucayali and Madre de Dios rivers in Peru. The main goal of this expedition was to sample at the type localities of several fish species from the family Stevardiidae, which is the system of Juan's project. 

And the best part? Juan says: "I would say this expedition was full of amazing moments, but if I had to pick just one, it would be realizing that we were sampling in the very headwaters of the Amazon River."

(they also brought back amazing photos!)