An avid bird nerd from Boston, Massachusetts, Em Daly transferred to the University of Helsinki in 2018 and completed a bachelor's in mathematics there before continuing on to join the Life Science Informatics master's program. Having had a passion for birds (and anything else involves being outside) since a very young age, and eager to contribute to ecological research, the Informed Birds group was naturally an easy favorite out of potential project advisors. Em will be working with Rose Thorogood and the reed warbler group to attempt to use the newly-refined reference genome of the species to identify candidate genes for different observed behaviors in the field. These birds being highly parasitized by cuckoos means there are many potential defensive adaptations to explore genetically, as well as behaviorally, that we've yet to fully uncover!