Recent Spotlights

I am a first-year PhD student in the Vitousek Lab. My research interests include neuroendocrinology, behavioral ecology, and microbial ecology. During my doctoral research, I intend to characterize the impacts of gut microbiome composition on host phenotypic traits vital to stress responsiveness and their fitness consequences. More specifically, I’m interested in the mechanistic links between…

  I am a first-year graduate student interested in studying anthropogenic stressors on Tree Swallow populations in the Vitousek Lab. With a background in population level ecology, I have become increasingly interested in understanding underlying factors to large scale patterns. By studying across organizational levels, I intend to develop a deeper understanding of how stressors…

I am a fourth-year graduate student studying plant-virus interactions in the Power lab. My work considers the impact of environmental change on plant response to viral associations. In order to integrate host adaptation to both variable abiotic conditions and heterogeneous biotic pressures (i.e. the real world), I study a single plant across its’ full known…

I’m a finishing PhD Candidate in Alex Flecker’s lab. I am interested in drivers of elemental movement through streams, how their cycles interact and how elements are taken up and used by aquatic organisms. I study streams in Ecuador that are contaminated with arsenic as a result of geothermal activity and how nutrient availability in those streams affects…

I am a fifth year student in Amy McCune’s lab. I study the evolution of novel phenotypes using comparative developmental genetics. More specifically, I am investigating the evolution of the gas bladder in ray-finned fishes from the lungs of the bony-vertebrate common ancestor. The key morphological difference between these homologous organs is the site of…