JK Da-Anoy Receives 2025 Economakis Award
J
K Da-Anoy of the Davies Lab received the 2025 Alistair Economakis Award in Marine Science. This award provides support for graduate students conducting research in marine science with a focus on research related to ecology, evolution, or behavior.
JK is a Filipino PhD student fascinated by evolution of metazoan complexity. He received his Master’s degree at the University of the Philippines, exploring stress response and evolutionary neurobiology under Dr. Cecilia Conaco’s supervision.
Congratulations, JK!
Isabel Novick Receives 2025 Thomas H. Kunz Award
Isabel Novick, a Biology PhD student in the Mullen Lab, received the 2025 Thomas H. Kunz Award. The Kunz Award recognizes and celebrates exemplary contributions by an early or mid-career scientist to the study of bats, including measurable impacts on bat research and/or conservation, student mentoring, public education, and collaborations.
Isabel studies the phylogenetics, biogeography, and speciation of fungus moths (Tineidae family), specifically the widespread pest species, the webbing-clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella). She is most interested in the causes and consequences of synanthropic life-history evolution: how have these organisms colonized the anthropogenic environment?
This award provides support for Ecology, Behavior & Evolution (EBE) PhD candidates who have completed the qualifying exam, with a preference for those conducting field research in the award year. The award was established in 2015 in recognition and appreciation of Professor Thomas H. Kunz’s mentorship. His current and former graduate students established this award to serve as a lasting legacy of Tom’s contributions at BU and beyond. Learn more about Dr. Kunz and how you can support this award.
Congratulations, Isabel!
Corinne Vietorisz Receives 2025 AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship
Biology PhD candidate Corinne Vietorisz of the Bhatnagar Lab recently received a 2025 American Dissertation Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). This Fellowship offsets scholars’ expenses during their final year of dissertation writing and is open to women in all fields of study, though those engaged in science, technology, engineering, and math fields, or those researching gender issues, are especially encouraged to apply.
The goal of Corinne's research is to understand the roles that different groups of fungi and bacteria play in soil nutrient cycling, and their contributions relative to plant and abiotic factors. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing, meta-transcriptomics, and biogeochemistry methods, she examines how microbial community composition and gene expression are linked to soil net ammonium, nitrate, and phosphate mineralization in forests. Her dissertation gives new insights into how microbial communities impact soil nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, which is necessary to understand how nutrient availability, plant growth, and carbon cycling will respond to our rapidly changing world.
Congratulations, Corinne!
Emerson Conrad-Rooney Receives the AAAS 2025 Student E-Poster Competition in the Environment and Ecology Award
Biology PhD student Emerson Conrad-Rooney of the Templer Lab received the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2025 Student E-Poster Competition in the Environment and Ecology award. The AAAS showcases undergraduate and graduate students' innovative research and communication skills and highlights the importance of making science accessible and engaging for all.
Emerson attended the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston this February. There, they won first place in the AAAS 2025 Student E-Poster Competition in the Environment and Ecology category. Their poster was titled, “Effects of Growing Season Warming and Winter Freeze/Thaw Cycles on Tree Growth.”
They shared results from the Templer Lab’s decade-long Climate Change Across Seasons Experiment (CCASE) at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire, an experiment that quantifies the combined effects of growing season warming and a smaller winter snowpack on temperate forest ecosystem processes. Emerson measured tree growth using tree cores and found that after a decade of treatments, growing season warming increases annual rates of tree growth for red maple (the most common species); however, winter soil freeze/thaw cycles counteract this effect.
Congratulations, Emerson!
2025 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mentions
The awardees and honorable mentions for the 2025 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition were recently posted and several Biology students were recognized. Biology PhD student Alejandra Castillo Cieza of the Bhatnagar Lab, MCBB PhD student Anne Curtis of the Chantranupong Lab, Biology PhD student Emma Daily of the Templer Lab, GPGG PhD candidate Abigail Fowler of the Tay Lab, and Biology PhD student Sara Parker of the Strickland Lab all received honorable mentions.
 Alejandra studies the effects of fire and urbanization on the microbiome and regeneration of oak woodlands in California. |
 Anne characterizes neuromelanin, a pigment lost in dopamine neurons during Parkinson’s Disease. Building off her stem cell experience at UC Santa Barbara, she is establishing the lab’s first induced pluripotent stem cell bank and optimizing the directed differentiation of midbrain organoids. She plans to track neuromelanin granule formation and function in her midbrain organoid model to better understand the role of this poorly studied pigment in dopaminergic neurons. |
E mma is interested in the relationships between climate change and forest biogeochemical cycles. Her current work investigates the effects of urbanization and forest fragmentation on the leaf surface. Urbanization and forest fragmentation are associated with higher levels of ambient particulate matter (PM) pollution, but the combined effects of these land use changes on microbes and PM on the leaf surface are unknown. By analyzing scanning electron microscope photos of leaves across a gradient of urbanization and forest fragmentation, Emma’s dissertation investigates the combined effects of these land use changes on the leaf surface environment, known as the phyllosphere. |
A bigail studies microglia and their role in Alzheimer's Disease. Microglia are the brain’s resident immune cells, and are critical for maintaining brain homeostasis. Abigail’s work investigates how microglial phagocytosis — the process by which cells engulf and clear debris — is altered in models of Alzheimer’s Disease. By combining genetic, molecular, and behavioral approaches, her research aims to deepen our understanding of how microglia contribute to the progression of neurodegeneration. |
 Sara is a first-year PhD student in the Strickland lab, where she studies color polymorphism, a phenomenon where multiple genetically distinct color-pattern phenotypes persist within a species. Color polymorphisms are somewhat of an evolutionary paradox, as within-population variation is expected to either lead to speciation or dwindle in the face of genetic drift. Sara focuses on Neotropical tortoise beetles in the genus Chelymorpha, whose color-pattern phenotypes range from plain red forms to red and black-striped forms, to glittering metallic gold forms with black spots. By integrating complex life histories with genomic sequencing technologies, Sara hopes to uncover the ecological and molecular mechanisms underlying color-pattern adaptation and diversity, particularly in insects. |
Congratulations to the honorable mentions on your hard work and this well-deserved honor.
KathrynAnn Odamah Receives 2025 Charles Terner Award
Sabrina Kistler Receives 2025 Marion R. Kramer Scholarship
Sabrina Kistler, a Biomolecular Pharmacology PhD student in the Ho Lab, received the 2025 Marion R. Kramer Scholarship.
Sabrina's research investigates the role of alternative RNA splicing in Alzheimer's disease (AD), with a particular focus on the apolipoprotein E (APOE) and Reelin receptor, APOER2. The ε4 allele of APOE is a well-established genetic risk factor for AD and a Reelin variant was recently found to be protective against AD cognitive impairment. APOER2 undergoes extensive alternative splicing, which is altered in AD brains. The central hypothesis of this project is that differences in APOER2 splicing in AD change its interactions with APOE and Reelin, leading to transcriptional changes, synaptic deficits, and subsequent neuronal dysfunction. To explore this, Sabrina is utilizing both human brain samples and knock-in mouse models to examine how different APOER2 splice variants, in conjunction with APOE3 and APOE4 isoforms, contribute towards disease progression.
Congratulations Sabrina!
Abby Robinson Receives 2025 Belamarich Dissertation Writing Award
Abby Robinson of the Mullen Lab received the 2025 Belamarich Dissertation Writing Award. This award complements the Belamarich Award, and is given to support an outstanding PhD student through the dissertation writing stage.
Abby’s research focuses on understanding the ecological and evolutionary factors that allow mimetic butterflies to persist in natural environments. Specifically, whether a mimic is protected from predation is determined by the relative abundance and toxicity of models and mimics, and how predators learn and respond to these signals. While theoretical expectations for mimetic survival are well established, how mimetic phenotypes persist in nature where prey occurrence, density, frequency, and palatability are constantly in flux remains unclear. Abby’s work combines field and rearing experiments, chemical ecology, and hierarchical ecological models to bridge this gap in temperate and tropical mimetic butterflies.
Congratulations Abby!
Ninon Martinez Receives the Dana Wright Fellowship
Ninon Martinez, a PhD student in the Finnerty Lab, received the Dana Wright Fellowship.
Globally, reef corals are experiencing major declines, largely driven by climate change. However, many “reef corals” are habitat generalists, thriving in reef-associated habitats, such as mangroves and seagrasses. These habitats were once considered inhospitable to corals, due to their higher and more variable temperatures, low light levels, and limited settlement substrate.
However, corals occupying these habitats have been found to experience lower rates of bleaching and mortality, so Ninon hopes to understand what factors and conditions contribute to these corals’ survival. Ninon’s PhD research focuses on comparing the survival, growth, and biotic associations of corals across mangrove, seagrass, and reef habitats in Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, Belize. Ninon hopes to figure out whether these corals are locally adapted and how they perform in alternative habitats, shedding light on the potential for coral adaptation and resilience across the seascape.
This fellowship was established in memory of Dana Wright (CAS ’00), an alum of the BU Marine Program. After completing her studies, Wright went on to work in research in right whale acoustics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod.
Congratulations Ninon!
Jacob Jaskiel, Peter Schroedl, and Lili Vizer Receive the Warren McLeod Summer Award
Jacob Jaskiel, a PhD student in the Rotjan Lab, Peter Schroedl, a PhD candidate in the Marlow Lab, and Lili Vizer, a PhD student in the Buston Lab, received the Warren McLeod Summer Award.
Jacob studies tropical Pacific tunas including skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye, which constitute some of the world’s largest wild capture fisheries. His research focuses on questions relating to large-scale basin-wide population dynamics, as well as larval dynamics potentially affecting recruitment (e.g. predator-prey interactions). Jacob’s fisheries-independent research relies largely on high-resolution zooplankton sampling inside the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), and employs next-generation sequencing, metabarcoding, and community assemblage analyses to: 1) understand which tuna species utilized PIPA as a spawning ground during its fully no-take status, how their populations are structured, and what their recent demographic histories were; 2) Identify important trophic linkages involving tuna larvae through 18s rRNA sequencing of larval gut contents; and 3) Leverage a dataset of over 20,000 larval fish (N=1,141 tuna) and 80,000 individually identified zooplankton to characterize persistent assemblages containing tuna larvae, additionally combining information on larval diets from Chapter 2 to make inferences about larval ecology and planktonic interactions possibly influencing recruitment.
During Jacob’s Warren-McLeod Fellowship, he will process and analyze 18s v9 rRNA sequencing data of gut contents, resulting in the first characterization of larval tuna diets in the central Pacific Ocean. Larval tuna feeding preferences have been studied in other regions, yielding fascinating insights into trophic niche partitioning and other ecological dynamics, but no such studies have been conducted within the Western and Central Pacific, a region that supplies over half of the world’s tuna. Investigating tuna feeding ecology during their most critically important life history stage is a necessary step in gaining a holistic, ecosystem-informed perspective on the factors governing the successful recruitment of larvae and juveniles to the fisheries on which millions of people depend.
Peter is a 5th year phd candidate in the Marlow Geomicrobiology Lab. His phd focuses on microbe-mineral interactions in extreme environments. At the ~4,000m deep Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, polymetallic nodules rich in iron, manganese, copper, cobalt, and other valuable metals carpet the seafloor. They are found in discrete regions within every ocean basin and many freshwater lakes on Earth. On a UN mandated environmental impact assessment, our collaborator Dr. Andrew Sweetman studied seafloor ecology with deep-sea landers. He measured unexpected seafloor increases in oxygen on this and other cruises. Shipboard, we also preserved samples for future analyses and detected populations of microbes capable of dark oxygen production and biomineralization. This fellowship will aid in our understanding of the geomicrobial mechanisms impacting polymetallic nodule formation and dark oxygen production in the deep-sea and perhaps other valuable ecosystems (e.g. subsurface aquifers) which have also been found to generate oxygen without photosynthesis.