I spent the summer working with Dr. Sarah Tishkoff and Dr. Michael McQuillan, characterizing genomic and phenotypic variation in various African populations. Specifically, I focused on the Southern African Khoesan populations. The African continent is home to the most genetic diversity across the planet, and is where all homo sapiens originate from. The Khoesan speakers, known as the San, are hunter-gatherer populations spread across Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and South Africa. They have the most basal genetic lineages, as  they diverged very early from other human populations. The Khoesan have unique morphological and physiological features, such as the lightest skin tone out of other African populations, a unique hair texture, and are adapted to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in a desert climate. I looked for genomic signatures of natural selection to identify genetic variants or genes that may have been adaptive in this population.