Maria Pisciotta (’25). Maria is an Animal Behavior major who spent a field season on Middleton Island, AK in the summer of 2024 collecting data on black-legged kittiwakes and learning about different species of seabirds. She completed her honors thesis about predictors of siblicide in kittiwakes. She loves to spend time outdoors, skiing and hiking, and also loves to cook.
Amelia (“Mia”) Ruck (’25). Mia is an Animal Behavior major with minors in Environmental Studies and Creative Writing who joined the lab in the Fall of 2024. She is unsure of her goals beyond graduation but is open to suggestions. Outside academics, Mia worked at Bucknell’s rock wall and challenge course and volunteers as a Buckwild and Outdoor Education Leadership (OEL) Adventure Trip leader. Mia loves to spend as much time outdoors as possible; whether hiking, snowboarding, bouldering, wake surfing, fishing, or sailing, she loves it all.
Stephanie Walsh (’24). Steph joined the lab in Fall of 2022 with the goal of acquiring expertise in behavioral analyses. She developed an ethogram to evaluate parent:chick interactions, and taught herself to use the software BORIS, using it to quantify ~60 hours of footage of kittiwake chicks and adults. Half those data were used for her own honor’s thesis, which she presented in a talk at SICB in January 2024 (an awesome accomplishment for an undergraduate). The other half is part of an in-prep paper about the effects of exogenous corticosterone on behavior. Outside the lab she was a Biology major and a competitive swimmer. She is headed for a graduate program in clinical psychology after she graduates and working in clinical research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Alex Le (’24). Alex is a neuroscience major, a stand-up comedienne, and choir vocalist. She contributed to a variety of projects in the lab, conducting DNA extraction and PCR/electrophoresis for sexing, assisting with EIAs and running colorimetric assays for metabolites. She presented a poster about triglyceride levels in kittiwake chicks at SICB in January 2024.
Ali Jackson (’25). Ali held a prestigious Presidential Fellowship at Bucknell University, and started her work in our lab her first semester in college. She developed expertise in DNA extraction, PCR and gel electrophoresis for genetic sexing (she sexed hundred of kittiwake chicks from red blood cell samples), and was involved in running EIAs. She was a psychology major who is interested in a career in pediatric medicine, but she transferred to Thomas Jefferson and we miss her!
