Walter Tapondjou was born in Douala, Cameroon, in Central Africa. He describes himself as a proud Bamiléké from Dschang, a small city in the highland of the west region where his parents originated. He is a herpetologist with several years of experience in Africa. Walter has completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Yaoundé 1 in Cameroon and recently graduated with a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas. His graduate research focused on understanding the diversification mechanisms responsible for the diversity and distribution of mountain-endemic chameleons from the Cameroon Volcanic Line. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Backburn lab at the Florida Museum of Natural History, working on the phylogenomic and niche evolution of night frogs (Astylosternus) and hairy frogs (Trichobatrachus) from Central Africa. Walter sees himself leading a diverse lab focusing on evolutionary and phylogeographic research in West and Central Africa.
