Interdisciplinary CollaborationsI am interested in the efficacy of interdisciplinary projects in generating novel research and connecting academic scholars with broader public audiences. Interdisciplinary collaborations are necessary for solving “wicked problems” yet the structure of academia can often pose obstacles for faculty to work across departments. My research has been focused on programs that facilitate activities that allow faculty support in forming meaningful collaborations. In my role in museums I help faculty connect with community partners and provide a space for innovative public programing such as our Natural Wonders program that brings museum research to public libraries. I conduct research on cross disciplinary teaching and learning, including the effect of Writing Center visits on STEM students write-to-learn projects and the effect of service-learning course on STEM identity. However, I am most excited about my work with STEAM Factory.
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Over the past 7 years, the STEAM Factory has organically grown into the most diverse academic network in the University, embracing 200+ members in 66 departments across 13 colleges. Our study analyzes the growth using self-reported data, and demonstrates that the network has deepened over time with more collaborations and a greater overlap in collaborative clusters across diverse disciplines.
Biology
I studied how organisms adapt to cope with environmental stressors and other challenges in the environment. This work can be broken down into three projects, Genomic plasticity in alcohol metabolism (postdoctoral work), the patterns and genetic basis of phenotypic plasticity (Ph.D. dissertation) and the effects of egg size on performance (Master's thesis).
Postdoctoral work:
Drosophila melanogaster has adapted to utilize a variety of fermented food sources, requiring efficient metabolism of ethanol and acetic acid. The matching of enzyme activities within the ethanol and acetic acid catabolic pathway confers a high tolerance by reducing toxic intermediates. My project explores the role of epistasis and gene networks in adaptation to novel environments. I worked on identifying and characterizing novel genes responsible for maintaining fitness within alcohol stressed environments to better understand alcohol tolerance across life stages. This work provides useful insight into the link between metabolism, gene expression and the resulting phenotype.
Dissertation:
(1) Patterns of plasticity in natural populations.
Plastic responses are thought to be evolutionarily favored under specific conditions, yet many theoretical predictions about the distribution of these responses remain untested. To evaluate patterns of plasticity and the genes that mediate the plastic response, this work studies Drosophila melanogaster and its sister species Drosophila simulans, collected from natural populations from three locations along the east coast. The geographic pattern in the strength of the plastic response to daylight and seasonal diets is only present in some traits and absent in others, which highlights the modular nature of phenotypic plasticity.
(2) Candidate gene for plastic response.
The genes responsible for ecologically-relevant phenotypic plasticity are not known in most systems. This project studied how specific alleles of the couch potato (cpo) gene affect plasticity of life history traits in response to nutritive environments that reflect seasonal diets. We find that cpo genotypes modulate the plastic response for both life history traits, such as development rate and lipid content, and two ecologically important behaviors: food and oviposition choice. Furthermore, cpo genotypes have differential plasticity that varies across traits. Our findings strongly demonstrate that plasticity is affected by allelic variation at a single gene, and that the effect of seasonal diets on life history traits depends on both allele and trait.
Masters Thesis:
In the 2005 field season I worked with Dr. John Baker (Clark University) to make fish-crosses and rear a large series of stickleback fry for an NSF-funded project. That is how I became interested in working with young fry and juvenile stickleback, and in understanding the evolutionary forces that produce the array of offspring sizes and traits we see in Alaskan populations. My Master’s Thesis linked egg size to pre-hatch and post-hatch performance in different environment types. I first demonstrated that egg size effects growth rate in the face of food competition. This showed that fry from larger eggs are better at overcoming environmental toxins, such as tannins. This work captured the interest of three dedicated undergraduates, Daniel Kousathanas (’08), Kate Massarone, (’09) and Jeremy Weiss (’10).
Drosophila melanogaster has adapted to utilize a variety of fermented food sources, requiring efficient metabolism of ethanol and acetic acid. The matching of enzyme activities within the ethanol and acetic acid catabolic pathway confers a high tolerance by reducing toxic intermediates. My project explores the role of epistasis and gene networks in adaptation to novel environments. I worked on identifying and characterizing novel genes responsible for maintaining fitness within alcohol stressed environments to better understand alcohol tolerance across life stages. This work provides useful insight into the link between metabolism, gene expression and the resulting phenotype.
Dissertation:
(1) Patterns of plasticity in natural populations.
Plastic responses are thought to be evolutionarily favored under specific conditions, yet many theoretical predictions about the distribution of these responses remain untested. To evaluate patterns of plasticity and the genes that mediate the plastic response, this work studies Drosophila melanogaster and its sister species Drosophila simulans, collected from natural populations from three locations along the east coast. The geographic pattern in the strength of the plastic response to daylight and seasonal diets is only present in some traits and absent in others, which highlights the modular nature of phenotypic plasticity.
(2) Candidate gene for plastic response.
The genes responsible for ecologically-relevant phenotypic plasticity are not known in most systems. This project studied how specific alleles of the couch potato (cpo) gene affect plasticity of life history traits in response to nutritive environments that reflect seasonal diets. We find that cpo genotypes modulate the plastic response for both life history traits, such as development rate and lipid content, and two ecologically important behaviors: food and oviposition choice. Furthermore, cpo genotypes have differential plasticity that varies across traits. Our findings strongly demonstrate that plasticity is affected by allelic variation at a single gene, and that the effect of seasonal diets on life history traits depends on both allele and trait.
Masters Thesis:
In the 2005 field season I worked with Dr. John Baker (Clark University) to make fish-crosses and rear a large series of stickleback fry for an NSF-funded project. That is how I became interested in working with young fry and juvenile stickleback, and in understanding the evolutionary forces that produce the array of offspring sizes and traits we see in Alaskan populations. My Master’s Thesis linked egg size to pre-hatch and post-hatch performance in different environment types. I first demonstrated that egg size effects growth rate in the face of food competition. This showed that fry from larger eggs are better at overcoming environmental toxins, such as tannins. This work captured the interest of three dedicated undergraduates, Daniel Kousathanas (’08), Kate Massarone, (’09) and Jeremy Weiss (’10).