Bisha Shahid
Tamayyuz Research Fellow
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BSc New York University Abu Dhabi
Research Websites: Center for Genomics and Systems Biology
Research Areas: Population genomics; comparative genomics; evolutionary adaptation; invasive species biology; bioinformatics
Bisha Shahid earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from New York University Abu Dhabi in May 2025, completing a Capstone thesis on adaptation in red palm weevil populations. She was recognized as a University Honors Scholar and received NYU's Founders' Day Award, given to the university's top-ranking graduates.
Shahid is currently a Tamayyuz Research Fellow — a highly selective, year-long fellowship awarded to just one graduating student per science division — at NYUAD's Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, where she leads a comparative genomics study of the Rhynchophorus palm weevil species complex across Southeast Asia. Using whole-genome data from populations in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, her work aims to resolve species boundaries that morphology alone hasn't been able to and to uncover the genetic basis of traits like body coloration.
Summary of Research
Shahid is leading an independent, year-long comparative genomics project on the Rhynchophorus palm weevil species complex (R. ferrugineus, R. bilineatus, and R. vulneratus) across Southeast Asia. She is working with whole-genome sequencing data from nine populations spanning Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia to resolve species boundaries that traditional morphology-based taxonomy has struggled to pin down. Shahid's approach combines population structure and demographic analyses (PCA, ADMIXTURE, GADMA) with tests for gene flow and introgression between species (Dsuite), alongside FST scans and GWAS to map the genomic loci behind diagnostic traits like body coloration — using Indonesia's island geography as a natural lens for studying how isolation drives divergence. The project builds directly on her Capstone and postgraduate work on red palm weevil adaptation. She is currently preparing the findings for publication as "Comparative Genomics of the Weevil Species of the Genus Rhynchophorus in Southeast Asia," with Stephane Boissinot.