Chris Parsons is a paleobiologist who studies microbial evolutionary history using the tools of computational phylogenetics. His chief aim has been to leverage ancient horizontal gene transfer events to provide age estimates for prokaryotic clades with scant fossil records. He earned his B.A. in Geology from Carleton College in 2018 and completed his Ph.D. in Geobiology at MIT in 2024. Chris is an Auburn local, and has previously interned in the Geoscience department, picking forams for Professor Emeritus Ronald Lewis, and at the AUMNH, organizing invertebrate fossils.