Undergraduate mentorship was a central component of my graduate work. Each mentee developed an independent project and was responsible for developing ideas, designing a testable experiment, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting results.
My role was to guide students through this process and to provide training on specialized skills and analytical methods. Several of these students are profiled below.
My role was to guide students through this process and to provide training on specialized skills and analytical methods. Several of these students are profiled below.
Cornell undergraduates Camille Tucker (left) and Winnie Chu (middle) worked with me and Maíra Moraes (right) on a field mesocosm experiment. Winnie and Camille undertook independent projects on fish excretion and behavior and worked with Maíra Moraes, a visiting Ph.D. student from Brazil to identify and survey invertebrates from field surveys in Trinidad. Camille is now teaching science in New York City and Winnie is pursuing a career in medicine.
While many of her friends traveled to beaches for spring break, Karen Tracy instead traveled to Trinidad to assist with field research and experiments on guppy behavior and physiology. On returning from Trinidad, Karen took an essential role in assisting with the design and execution of a lab study that was published in the journal Ecology (on which she is the second author). Karen adapted the method of enriching fly larvae in N-15 for a stable isotope study on nitrogen turnover under predation risk. Karen is now pursuing her Ph.D. in Immunology.
Swati Sureka led a team of two classmates (Elizabeth Denning and Shafika Deria), code-named 'Team WigL Bug', in honor of the lab device they worked with to grind fish samples. When not grinding fish, the team was analyzing fish samples for carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus content and designing a fish behavior assay that was used to identify a behavioral syndrome in HP and LP fish. Swati is now a science assistant at the National Science Foundation.
Priscila Cunha (left; Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) and Cornell undergraduate Alicia Zhao (right) worked together for one fall semester on how the density of guppies affects their growth and excretion, and whether that difference depends on whether the guppies are from high or low predation environments. Priscila is now a doctoral student in Brazil (and recently published her first paper) and Alicia is a Master's Candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment.
Will Aragundi worked on a project exploring guppy behavior under different type of risk cues. His research assessed the different reactions of guppies to crushed conspecifics (move to bottom of tank) and predator kairomones (moved to surface of tank). Will is now the shark keeper for the New York Aquarium.