Kira M. Long

Kira Long is a Data Scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Genomics. Her research focuses on the analysis of animal genomes, conservation genomics, hybridization, and sexual selection using computational genomics and bioinformatics, particularly in tropical birds of the Americas.

Long earned her B.S. in Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity from the University of California Davis and her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She then held a postdoctoral position at the University of Idaho before joining the Smithsonian in 2024. Her work has been published in Evolution, Molecular Ecology, Current Biology, Science Advances, and other journals featuring themes in evolution and molecular ecology.

During her Ph.D. research, she investigated the hybridization dynamics of a hybrid zone between the golden-collared manakin and white-collared manakin in western Panama. She assessed temporal changes in male plumage and the underlying genetic architecture of the hybrid zone with both wild-caught and museum specimens from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 

Her postdoctoral research focused on applying genetics to conservation questions, where she worked with long-term genetic monitoring data of the endangered Colombia Basin pygmy rabbit. During her postdoc, she also collaborated with Trout Unlimited on modeling the effects of hatcheries on the genetics of salmon and how genetic diversity is maintained in the wild. 

Long’s current work at the Center for Conservation Genomics focuses on the conservation genomics of the endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow and Caribbean grasshopper sparrows. She assesses the underlying genomes of these birds to identify issues with inbreeding and isolation as well as the genetics of migration.

Long is a trained evolutionary biologist whose research leverages evolutionary theory, genomics and bioinformatics to explore how genomes behave and evolve in hybridized or outbred systems, and how evolutionary genomics can inform and empower conservation biology. While her research is primarily in birds, she has also applied evolutionary genomics to mammals and fish in a conservation context. Her main research interest is two-fold: 1) apply evolutionary genomics in hybridizing species to study the effects of outbreeding on species genomes, and 2) link cutting edge genomics and evolutionary theory to aid in the conservation of threatened species with small population sizes. Her research spans two sides of a spectrum, outbred hybrids and inbred endangered species, better enabling the understanding of the mechanisms underlying genetic diversity in biological populations and the evolutionary resiliency of populations into the future.