User:Snethan/Umilaela Arifi

Umilaela [oom-EEL-eye-aal-aa] Arifin is an Indonesian herpetologist and educator. She is currently a Research Associate at the University of Hamburg, in Hamburg, Germany.

Education
Arifin first studied in the STEM-renowned Bandung Institute of Technology, in Bandung Indonesia. There she received both her undergraduate (2006) and master’s (2008) degrees in biology. Later, she went on to study at the University of Hamburg, specializing in herpetology, and receiving her PhD in 2019.

Career & Research
After receiving her master’s degree from Bandung Institute of Technology, Arifin served there as research assistant between 2010 and 2012.

Beginning in 2007, she has been listed as an author of 38 publications. Arifin’s focus in herpetofauna, with an emphasis on Anurans. Her work has described several species of frog, toad, and lizard. Her recent paper on phylogeography of Sumatran ranids was published by nature.com in 2022.

Arifin is best known for her work on the Huia complex, which is now comprised of many genera partially thanks to her work. These frogs exhibit gastromyzophory, and when she described a unique genus and several species in this complex for the first time, the breakthrough study was reported by Forbes. Through molecular data and tadpole morphological study, Arifin remapped the phylogenetic tree of this group in 2018. Her study of the Huia complex is ongoing, subjecting both current and historical museum specimens to DNA sequencing, hoping to further clarify taxonomy, and contribute evolutionary evidence for the emergence of gastromyzophory.

Activism
Arifin is an advocate for women to pursue advanced degrees in the STEM fields. Arifin is a lead organizer of the Global Women in Herpetology Project, a multinational, multicultural activist group that seeks to put a spotlight on female researchers in herpetology. This group plans to publish a capstone book documenting their stories in the near future, and use the proceeds to create financial scholarships for women.