Boston University Department of Biology

Graduate Student Profiles

Four of our current students write about their experiences below. To learn more about the range of research being conducted in the department, please take a look at recent dissertation titles and publications by our graduate students.

Tracy L Pritchett

Cell and Molecular Biology 

During my summers as an undergraduate at Virginia State University I spent my time working in the laboratory. This work led me to pursue a career in research science. After graduating I spent two years at the National Institutes of Health working in the postbaccalaureate program under Dr. Jonathan Wiest.

My reasons for coming to BU are two fold. I was excited by the faculty and students I met here and I was overjoyed with the biomedical, pharmaceutical and academic opportunities that were available in the Boston area.

I’m currently a fifth year working in the McCall lab. We are using the model system Drosophila melanogaster to study the process of cell death which is essential for the development of a mature oocyte. My work focuses on the role of cell signaling in stress induced PCD during mid-oogenesis and the transmission of the death signal during late oogenesis.

During my time here I have been able to work with the Alliance for Graduate Education and Professionals. The goals of AGEP are to recruit and maintain underrepresented minorities in graduate school. I have been able to go on several recruiting trips and I have also helped organized workshops about funding, time management and job opportunities after graduate school.

Heather Yu

Neurobiology

As an undergraduate in biology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, I developed a love for neuroscience and knew that I would go to graduate school to pursue it further. After graduating, I worked as a technician for two years in Boston and then in Fort Collins, CO, studying sexual differentiation of the developing brain. I also spent a year as a research technician in an immunology lab here in Boston, generating monoclonal antibodies to the SARS virus. While working as a research technician, I decided that I wanted to do my own neurobiology research and eventually to become a professor.

I specifically came to Boston University to study the neural basis of behavior, and I am now in my fourth year working in the lab of Dr. Ayako Yamaguchi. I have been studying the role of serotonin in the vocal behavior of Xenopus laevis (the African Clawed Frog). Boston University has provided me with a great environment to learn from innovative scientists and to have the opportunity to interact with undergraduates doing research. As an undergrad at U-Mass-Amherst, I rowed for four years and was the captain of the varsity women’s rowing team. When I’m not doing research, I enjoy reading or distance running. I am currently preparing to run my third marathon!

Jeffrey DaCosta

Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution

I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where I first learned about the amazing natural history of birds. After graduating I served as an assistant on several avian ecology projects, and was introduced to life as a graduate student. After working at a biotechnology company and learning various laboratory techniques, I started my own graduate career as a master’s student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. There I received training in systematics and phylogenetics, complementing my previous experiences in ecology, behavior, and molecular biology.

I chose to continue my graduate training at Boston University, where I am working with Dr. Michael Sorenson to extend his ongoing research on indigobirds into East Africa. Indigobirds are brood parasites that are specialized on a single host species. Mimicry of the host during development leads to adult behaviors that maintain both assortative mating and host specificity, making sympatric speciation by host shift plausible in this unique system. I have completed three field seasons in Tanzania and am now exploring the evolutionary history of these fascinating birds by using cutting-edge methods in analyses of their morphology, vocalizations, behavior, and genetics.

I feel fortunate to be completing my graduate training in the BU department of biology. The ecology, behavior, and evolution program features faculty and students with diverse research interests, making for a stimulating environment that has greatly enhanced my development as a scientist.

Katie Kovitvongsa

Marine Biology

I did my undergraduate degree at Michigan State University in my hometown of East Lansing, MI. After graduation I did a stint as an intern and research tech at the Marine Field Station at Rutgers University, and then at Mote Marine Lab working with the Center for Shark Research. I found that I really enjoyed teaching and conducting animal behavior research in the field. I found the focus of the Lobel Lab to offer great opportunities to do this kind of work. I also chose to come to BU because of the impressive faculty in the BU Marine Program and the outstanding opportunities for students and teaching in the unique BUMP semester.

Most of the fieldwork in the Lobel Lab is conducted in Belize and I have been able to teach the BUMP ichthyology field course that travels there. I have also advanced my scientific diving skills while working with a reef-monitoring project on the Belizean Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Now in my 3rd year, I am interested in the bioacoustics of fish; how and why they make sounds and the behaviors associated with them, and how the environment constrains and shapes them. My current work has focused on analyzing and comparing sounds between various species of Belizean toadfish and our local species, Opsanus tau.