The biology department is pleased to announce that six Ph.D. students and six M.S. students successfully defended their dissertations in the past year. The students’ names and dissertation or thesis titles are listed below. Mayara Ribeiro and Neha Mohan Babu were awarded the Alexander Gourevitch Memorial Award in Biology for their outstanding dissertations. Ribeiro also received the All-University Doctoral prize for College of Arts and Sciences for her impactful research in the MacDonald laboratory. Anne Cure was awarded the Biology Research Excellence Doctoral Funding (REDF) Fellowship for 2021-22.

Ph.D. degrees awarded

• Neha Mohan Babu, A tale of three resources: the influence of multiple resource limitation of plants on herbivores, herbivore impact on plant biomass, and plant traits, Ritchie laboratory
• Joshua Burton, Signaling Pathways Regulating Cyst Breakdown, Primordial Follicle Formation, and Meiotic Progression in the Mouse Ovary, Pepling laboratory
• Anne Elizabeth Cure, Understanding How Whole Genome Duplication in Plants Impacts Herbivore-Plant Interactions, Segraves laboratory
• Alexander Richard Ebert, Rooting for the home team: arbuscular mycorrhizas and root traits in native and invasive woody shrubs, Fridley and Frank laboratories
• Mayra Ribeiro, Vitamin D modulates Rett syndrome phenotypes and underlying cellular pathways in an Mecp2-mutant mouse model, MacDonald laboratory
• Linnea Judith Ritchie, The Nature of Phenotypes: Provoking and Measuring the Dynamic Processes of Swarm Expansion, Predation, and Antibiotic Resistance in Myxococcus xanthus, Welch laboratory

M.S. degrees awarded

• Rebecca Marie Ellingston, The impact of nitrogen fertilization and the overexpression of alanine aminotransferase on Populus tremula x alba, Coleman laboratory
• Eric Joseph Ingram, The role of Rab11/8-associated membranes during Kupffer’s vesicle (KV) lumen formation in vivo, Hehnly laboratory
• Mariah Claire Maxwell, Exploring the educational and psychological impacts of Peer Led Team Learning and cyber Peer Led Team Learning on undergraduate students in a large-enrollment introductory biology course, Wiles laboratory
• Jessica Mary O’Connell, Evaluating Apoptosis, Autophagy, and Hormonal Effects on Oocyte Regulation and Cyst Breakdown, Pepling laboratory
• Jordan Rebecca Stark, Fine scales, broad consequences: Drivers and effects of local climate variation in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fridley laboratory
• Sarah Weiss, Investigating the behavioral and social context of sound in the surface foraging strategies of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), Parks laboratory

Next Year

We are excited about our new graduate students starting in the Fall 2022! We have twelve new Ph.D. students and one new M.S. student, which includes nine Molecular/Cellular/Neuroscience students and four Ecology and Evolution students. Olivia Rojo (Oliverio laboratory) is our new Marilyn Sue Kerr Fellow, and Isabel Ross (rotation student) is our new Syracuse University Fellow.