I completed my undergraduate degree majoring in Biotechnology at Monash University, under the supervision of Dr. Beng-Kah Song, studying the diversity and evolution of a noxious weed called weedy rice across Peninsular Malaysia. Upon completing my BSc, I returned to my home country, Indonesia, to work as a research assistant at the Stem-cell and Cancer Institute, investigating the molecular genetics of cancers. In 2013, I decided to return to my roots in plant evolutionary biology and pursued my PhD at the Biodiversity Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program – a joint degree offered by Academia Sinica and National Taiwan Normal University. For my dissertation, I studied the molecular evolution and phylogeny of the two largest conifer families, Pinaceae and Podocarpaceae, by using their plastid genomes. I am currently a postdoctoral research associate at Dr. Shu-Miaw Chaw’s lab at the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica. My research focuses on the genomics, molecular phylogenetics and evolution, and organellar genomics of land plants, with a special interest in gymnosperms (non-flowering seed plants).