Rebecca Jean Millena

Featured on May 5, 2024

Starting us off for May is Pinoy Scientist Rebecca Jean “RJ” Millena! She is currently taking up her PhD in Comparative Biology from the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History, United States.

RJ received her Bachelor’s degree in Entomology from the University of California Davis, where she double minored in Nematology and Ecology, Evolution, & Biodiversity. While there, she worked as an undergraduate researcher at the Department of Entomology and Nematology, performing her research under the UC LEADS scholarship. After her graduation in 2021, she jumped straight into her PhD at the American Museum of Natural History Richard Gilder Graduate School. While studying there, she also served as a graduate assistant at the Dragonfly Society of the Americas and an assistant instructor at Columbia University, New York.

RJ is now a PhD candidate studying twisted-wing insect parasites (Strepsiptera) where she is making thorough use of the collections at the American Museum of Natural History to investigate their host-parasite relationships, evolution, and genomics.

Some fun facts about RJ:

• She’s originally from the East Bay in California! She grew up in Concord/Walnut Creek and went to De La Salle/Carondelet High School.
• She has vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder that causes her white blood cells to attack her skin pigment in certain areas. She has some patches of white skin usually hidden by her clothes and a streak of completely white hair under her bangs.
• Since undergrad, she has kept and raised approximately 50 individuals across 15 species of arthropod. She has also housed 4 axolotls and 9 chelonians (turtles). In her office, she currently has ~35 arthropods (8 species), one red-eared slider, one box turtle, and one redfoot tortoise.