2024 REU Participant, Mentors and Projects | Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology

2024 REU Participants, Mentors and Projects

Brandon Brooks-Patton Northern Kentucky University Faculty mentor: Benjamin de Bivort (OEB) Project: Exploring individuality through variability in Drosophila melanogaster's thermal tolerance	Rain Bugado University of New Hampshire Faculty mentor: Charles Davis (OEB) Project: Conservation of the Brazilian Campos Rupestres under Climate Change Using the Iconic Plant Vellozia as a Model
America Cox University of Utah Faculty mentor: Carolyn Elya (OEB) Project: Do all zombies need brains? Impact of the blood-brain barrier on Entomophthora muscae presence, distribution and behavioral manipulation	Megan Frisby Utah Valley University Faculty mentor: Don Pfister (OEB) Project: Resolving the taxonomy and systematics of Coralloid thelephora through microscopic and molecular techniques
Vicente Mora Ortega Carroll College Faculty mentor: Peter Girguis (OEB) Project: Animal and microbial adaptations to ocean acidification	Nya Nicholson Georgia State University Faculty mentor: N. Michele Holbrook (OEB) Project: Sweaty desert shrubs: Salt secretion mechanics of Nolana molis
Lesley Rendon-Hernandez University of Connecticut Faculty mentor: Terry Capellini (HEB) Project: Are Neanderthals to blame for my osteoarthritis? Investigating the impact of introgressed variation on musculo/skeletal disease risk in modern humans	Jorge Robles California State University, San Marcos Faculty mentor: Charles Davis (OEB) Project: Next-gen herbariomics: Leaf spectra to predict leaf traits and taxonomic identity of herbarium collections
Solomon (Theo) Scheiner SUNY Old Westbury Faculty mentor: Elena Kramer (OEB) Project: Bursting the Bubble: Expression Profiling of Novel Nectary Development in Aquilegia	Atlas Seres Bennington College Faculty mentor: Scott Edwards (OEB) Project: Genomic associations of brain size variation in shorebirds
Michelle Tran Mount Saint Mary's University, Los Angesles Faculty mentor: Scott Edwards (OEB) Project: Gene loss in the evolution of avian brood parasites	Robert Wray Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Faculty mentor: Erin Hecht (HEB) Project: Attachment in Golden Retrievers: A study in loneliness in our canine companions