Students

The Brown - MBL Graduate Program attracts talented and dedicated students interested in a wide range of biological and environmental questions. Read more about the exciting work being done by these students, and why they chose the Brown/MBL Program.

Student Profiles:

Justine Allen is interested in changeable, adaptive camouflage and study a cephalopod model, the European cuttlefish Sepia officinalis. She is particularly focused on the neurophysiology of this animal’s three-dimensional papillae, elements that allow for dynamic skin texture change, and the visual cues that evoke their expression. Laboratory experiments are complemented by underwater photography and videography, and Allen is an AAUS certified scientific diver. At the MBL, she works with Dr. Roger T. Hanlon.

Angus Angermeyer is a graduate student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department. His work with Julie Huber at the MBL focuses on the exploration of microbial diversity in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. By studying the extent and composition of microbial assemblages in this system he hopes to gain insight into the process that drove early evolution on earth and, possibly, other planets.

Graduate student Lindsay Brin is working with Jeremy Rich, Assistant Professor in Brown's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Anne Giblin, Senior Scientist at the MBL Ecosystems Center. She is studying the effect of changing environmental factors on nitrogen cycling in coastal and estuarine ecosystems. In particular, she is investigating how temperature and organic matter availability affect the balance of nitrogen that is removed from or recycled within coastal ecosystems.

Graduate student Sarah Corman is working with Heather Leslie, Assistant Professor in Brown University's Center for Environmental Studies and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and Linda Deegan, Senior Scientist at the MBL Ecosystems Center. She is interested in the impact of multiple stressors (including climate change) on coastal marine ecosystems, particularly rocky shores and salt marshes.

Anupriya Dutta is working with David Mark Welch at the MBL studying genome evolution of bdelloid rotifers. Her research focuses on understanding the importance of sex for long-term evoutionary success. Bdelloid rotifers are microscopic invertebrates that make up one of the few known ancient asexual lineages among animals. Unraveling the reasons for their remarkable asexual evolution by using a comparative genomics approach will provide the essential clues needed to answer this fundamental question in biology.

Graduate student Shelby Hayhoe Riskin is working with Stephen Porder, Assistant Professor in Brown's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Chris Neill, Associate Scientist at the MBL Ecosystems Center. She is interested in the impacts of agricultural expansion and intensification in the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, she is looking at biogeochemical and hydrological differences in streams and soils between primary forest and soy agriculture.

Yuko Hasegawa is a fifth-year graduate student from the MCB Graduate Program. At the MBL, Yuko is advised by Drs. Gary Borisy and Mitch Sogin. She is developing an imaging technique to analyze micron-scale spatial distribution of a synthetic human gut bacterial community using a mouse model. Yuko is particularly interested in simultaneously analyzing multiple target bacterial groups (1) by using a molecular biology technique called fluoresce in situ hybridization (FISH) to fluorescently label specific bacteria of interest and (2) by performing spectral imaging analysis of fluorescent dyes.

Graduate student Alex Valm is developing novel fluorescence microscopy methods to study the spatial structure of complex microbial communities under the direction of Professor Rudolf Oldenbourg and Dr. Gary Borisy. As a member of the Cellular Dynamics Imaging program and the Imaging Microbial Diveristy Group at the MBL, he is working to greatly expand the number of distinguishable fluorescent labels in a single recorded microscope image and applying this new capability to the study of human oral microbial communities.

Susanna Theroux is working with Yongsong Huang in the Department of Geosciences at Brown and Linda Amaral Zettler at in the Josephine Bay Paul center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution at the MBL. She is interested in the use of molecular biological tools to answer paleoclimate questions. Susie is currently studying Arctic species of haptophyte algae and their organic biomarkers.

Xi Yang is interested in the interdisciplinary research of remote sensing, terrestrial ecosystem ecology and climate change. I'm focusing on the observation of shifting vegetation phenology using remote sensing and ground-based cameras, the internal and external drivers of vegetation phenology, and the changes in carbon cycle due to the shifting vegetation phenology.

Recent Program Graduates:

Gillian Galford received her Ph.D. in November 2009 in the field of terrestrial remote sensing with Brown Associate Professor of Geological Sciences Jack Mustard. At the MBL, she is collaborating with Ecosystems Center co-director Jerry Melillo to use remote sensing as a tool to understand temporal and spatial patterns of land cover and land use change in a region of Southwestern Brazil. Gillian is now a post-doctoral research associate at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Galford website

Erica Lasek-Nesselquist worked with Dr. Mitchell Sogin exploring the population biology of Giardia duodenalis, including the genetic exchange, prevalence, and geographic and host species distributions of Giardia duodenalis lineages using molecular techniques, with an emphasis on elucidating the status and zoonotic potential of Giardia duodenalis in marine systems. She is interested in the population biology and transmission dynamics of parasites in marine systems as well as the molecular evolution of protists.

MBL News Release: Brown-MBL Graduate Students Receive Ph.D. as Program Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

Yawei Luo received his Ph.D. in August 2009. He was co-advised by Dr. Hugh Ducklow at the MBL’s Ecosystems Center and Dr. Warren Prell at Brown University. His major scientific interest is ecosystem modeling and microbial ecology of the open ocean. Luo Website

MBL News Release: Modeling Open Ocean Microbial Ecosystems is Focus of First MBL/Brown Ph.D. at the Ecosystems Center