Skip to main content

National and International

 

Glacier National Park, Montana (and other mountain ranges in the Pacific Northwest)
Scott Hotaling PhD 2017 (Weisrock Lab)
Climate change is significantly impacting species worldwide and globally represents a major threat to biodiversity. One underexplored aspect of this change is how warming climate will impact biodiversity at the most fundamental level, that of genetic diversity. This is especially important in the context of species evolving to adapt to novel environmental conditions as standing genetic diversity represents a major target upon which natural selection can act. For range-restricted, mountaintop species inhabiting narrow bands of bioclimatic space, this issue of standing genetic diversity and the ability of an organism to leverage an adaptive response is an incredibly pressing one. My work utilizes genomic tools to explore this relationship for a suite of alpine aquatic insects residing in alpine, glacially-fed streams of Glacier National Park, Montana.”
 

Kentucky and Trinidad (Caribbean Island)
Rose Marks PhD 2019 (McLetchie Lab)
“My research is on the mechanism of desiccation tolerance in Marchantia inflexa, a bryophyte species capable of enduring considerable drought. The species occurs in the tropics, and my field sites are in Trinidad. Although much of my time is spent in the lab using molecular genetic and bioinformatic techniques to address my research questions, the fieldwork is what I enjoy most. Having the opportunity to conduct research in the tropics is fantastic.”
 

Biomedical Science Research Group (BSRG LLC), St Kitts and Nevis, West Indies
Megan RhoadsPhD 2018 (Osborn Lab)
“We study mechanisms of spontaneous hypertension in the African Green Monkey, commonly known as the vervet monkey. We are particularly interested in the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathophysiology of hypertension as well as adrenergic control mechanisms of blood pressure. The vervet monkey is an invasive species in the West Indies, so not only did I get to work with the monkeys in a research capacity, but I was able to see them in the wild! This research collaboration has given me a unique opportunity to study physiology in a non-human primate for my graduate education and has greatly encouraged my growth as a scientist.”