Mónica Medina
Principal Investigator, mum55 at psu dot edu
I am interested in a wide range of topics dealing with the ecology and evolution of marine organisms. Recently I have become engaged with different artists to advocate for social change to address the climate crisis. Please contact me if you are interested in participating in those efforts. My Google Scholar profile is available here.
Victoria Sharp
Ph.D candidate, vzs95 at psu dot edu
I am interested in exploring genetic regulation in marine invertebrates, specifically cnidarians. My research looks at the model Cassiopea xamachana across the establishment of symbiosis from diverse symbiont species
Julia Stewart
Ph.D. candidate, jus1828 at psu dot edu
I am interested in coral immunity and discovering bioindicators of coral health that can be used for coral conservation. As part of the EMP500, I am studying coral health by analyzing the metabolomes, metagenomes, and microbiomes of the biological compartments of coral tissue, mucus and skeleton. I am also comparing the metabolomes and microbiomes of healthy and diseased corals to describe the pathogenicity of the lethal stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD).
Colin Howe
Ph.D. student, czh245 at psu dot edu
I am interested in tropical marine ecology and how coral microbiomes influence coral physiology. Currently, I am interested in studying a novel technique using ancient DNA (aDNA) found within skeletal cores of Caribbean scleractinians to better understand how past endosymbionts and endolithic algae communities shifted over the last century and beyond.
FORMER LAB MEMBERS
Graduate students
Sofia Roitman, post-doc (Ph.D. student, class of 2021)
Viridiana Avila Magaña, post-doc at the University of Colorado, Boulder (Ph.D. student, class of 2020)
Ana María González Ángel (Ph.D. student, class of 2019)
Aki Ohdera, post-doc at Cal Tech (Ph.D. student, class of 2018)
Styles Smith (Master’s student, class of 2018)
Bishoy Hanna Kamel, Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico (Ph.D. student, class of 2016)
Erika Diaz, Assistant Professor at the New College of Florida (Ph.D. student, class of 2015)
Collin Closek, post-doc at Stanford University (Ph.D. student, class of 2014)
Elizabeth Green (Master’s student, class of 2014)
Aubrie O’Rourke (Master’s student, class of 2011)
Zer Vue, post-doc at UCSF (Master’s student, class of 2010)
Shinichi Sunagawa, Principal Investigator at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Ph.D. student, class of 2008)
Michael DeSalvo, Phalanx Biotech Group (Ph.D. student, class of 2008).
Postdoctoral fellows
Allison Kerwin, Assistant Professor at McDaniel College, (postdoc, 2018-2019)
Joseph Pollock, Director of Coral Strategy for The Nature Conservancy Caribbean Division (postdoc 2015 – 2017)
Carlos Prada, Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island (postdoc 2014-2016)
Michele Weber (postdoc 2012-2014)
Kristen Marhaver, Principal Investigator at CARMABI Foundation (postdoc 2011-2013)
Emmanuel Buschiazzo (postdoc 2010-2012)
Kevin Portune (postdoc 2008)
Christian Voolstra, Associate Professor at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (postdoc 2006-2008)
Alejandro Reyes-Bermudez, Principal Investigator at the Universidad de la Amazonia in Colombia (postdoc 2007)
Jodi Schwarz, Professor at Vassar (postdoc 2004-2005)
Undergraduate students
Daniel Winstead, Biology major with minors in Marine Science, and Wildlife and Fisheries; studied the process of host-symbiont specificity between multiple Symbiodinium species and Cassiopea xamachana. Daniel is now working in fish conservation.
Leslie Johnson, Biology major; characterized the physiology of symbiotic bacterial strains associated with Orbicella faveolata. Leslie is now a Master’s student at San Diego State University.
Tori Takaoka, Marcos Espinoza, Shay Moonsor, Lewis Gotico, Zer Vue, Claudia Velazquez, Angelina Velazquez, Martha Gallegos, Bryan Water, Matthew Kellom, Stephany Escalante, Nicole Masuoka, Andres Estrada, Julia Schnetzer, Taranjeet Dhatt, Yogesh Narayan, Yuriana Aguilar, Andrew Col, Joshua Kan, Miriam Zavalza, Pang Kuo Chang, Julianne Liberto, Siobhan Kelly, Christopher Clark, Kristen Valentine, Heather Moran, Ashley Porter, Caroline Baldwin, Lyndzy Gazda, Alaina Weinheimer, Maikel Mansour, Morgan Gannon, Khushboo Attarwala, Victoria Wu, Jamie Proffit, Andrea Gade, Fabiola Maldonado, Kelly Watson, Gabrielle Swain, Sonia Donskaya