Kevin Mulcahy

Kevin Mulcahy is a 2024-2028 Self Graduate Fellow pursuing a PhD in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. Specifically, Kevin is studying vertebrate paleontology, focusing primarily on the evolution of mammals following the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Originally from a small town outside of Philadelphia, Kevin has had a lifelong passion for paleontology and earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022, both with highest honors. He is particularly interested in understanding the effects of worldwide climate change on mammalian diversity, evolution, and displacement during an event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, taking place some 56 million years ago. This interval preserves some of the best records of global warming in the fossil record, and as such represents an ideal study system from which to gain insight into the ways climate change may affect vertebrate communities in the present and the future. 

Mentor: Dr. K. Christopher Beard, Senior Curator, Biodiversity Institute, Distinguished Foundation Professor