Prof Cynthia Riginos is an evolutionary geneticist with wide-ranging interests spanning population genomics, seascape genetics, molecular ecology, speciation, hybridization, invasive species, and conservation. Overall, her research seeks to understand how marine biodiversity is created, where that biodiversity has accumulated, and how this knowledge can be used preserve biodiversity and the processes that create it in a changing world. Her research uses genetic tools to uncover how dispersal (gene flow) and adaptation (natural selection) affect genomic variation and limit gene exchange across genomes, populations, and species. Her work has uncovered guiding principles for how seascapes and species’ attributes affect dispersal and adaptation. Cynthia is especially fond of corals, reef fishes, and molluscs but easily distracted by other taxa. She leads the Coral Reef Adaptation Team at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and is a Professor at the University of Queensland in the School of the Environment.