Research interests
I am currently interested in studying host-pathogen interactions during embryonic development in whitefish (Coregonus sp.). To begin this study, I am rearing eggs of known parental combinations in the laboratory, using a full factorial breeding design, and conducting controlled infections with Pseudomonas fluorescens and Saprolegnia sp. This approach not only allows me to study the interactions between the pathogens themselves, but also permits me to assess the parental contributions that render embryos more or less susceptible to infection.
Curriculum vitae
Born December 10th 1984 in Cincinnati, Ohio
September 2008 – Present
PhD student in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, under the supervision of Claus Wedekind
September 2006 – September 2008
M.S. in Microbiology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, under the supervision of Elizabeth S. Stuart. Thesis topic: Assessment of chlamydial prevalence among sheep, alpaca, and goat cohorts in Hampshire County, Massachusetts
June 2006-August 2006
Summer Research Assistant in Christine White-Ziegler’s lab in the Department of Biology, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Topic: Transcriptional regulation of an iron-expression gene in Escherichia coli
September 2003 - May 2006
B.A. in Biological Sciences at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Undergraduate thesis topic, under the supervision of Stephen Tilley: Genetic differentiation and the effects of habitat fragmentation on wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) in Western Massachusetts
September 2002 – May 2003
Studied marine and medical biology at the University of New England, Biddeford, Maine
