Madeleine Becker is a graduate student researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Genomics. Her scientific interests include evolution, population genetics and phylogenomics in mammalian systems. She is also passionate about taxonomy, museum collections and incorporating museum specimens into genomics projects. For her dissertation research, Becker is focusing on rodent evolution and phylogeography on the California Channel Islands, investigating the evolutionary history of endemic island deer mice subspecies and sequencing the genome of the extinct giant island deer mouse.

Becker earned her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of Southern California in 2019, where she also conducted genomics research on the Channel Island fox. She is now pursuing her Ph.D. with George Mason University’s School of Systems Biology, supported by the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation.