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!
