Current Students
Jack Koger is a senior biology major at Radford University. In collaboration with Dr. Sarah Foltz, we are studying graveyard biodiversity along an gradient of urbanization (i.e., city development). Pictures forthcoming.
Gabriella "Gabi" Richards is a biology major in her second year at Radford University. She is spending the Fall 2021 semester collecting preliminary data to support the submission of her Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) proposal entitled, “The effect of pipeline installation on predator and prey densities in a small stream ecosystem.” She is also preparing for the Physics study abroad trip, where she is to traveling to Alaska for one week to conduct research with Dr. Rhett Herman. There, she will be sampling ice cores about 320 miles north of the Arctic circle and determining whether she can detect environmental DNA within the ice.
Gabi not only excels in research, but also thrives in leaderships roles. Last year, she served as the secretary of Biology’s chapter of Beta Beta Beta, a National Biology Honors Society, and is serving as the president during the 2021-2022 academic year. Gabi plans to earn a doctorate in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences and become an ecology professor. |
Jynna Harrell is a senior who spends her time in the field, identifying insects, and fine-tuning the method to collect groundwater at our sites.
|
Mandi Gills is a senior who is working on her Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) certification to map the landscape features (e.g., vegetation, microclimate) of our stream sites.
|
Tessa Vigilante is a senior who spends her time in the field and identifying insects. She is a co-author on a manuscript documenting emerging insects in Wildwood Park.
|
Alumni
Donya Mohamed ('21) is now working as a lab tech in Dr. Sally Entrekin's lab in the Department of Entomology and as as science writer in the pesticide program at Virginia Tech. While at RU, she studied environmental biology with a minor in international relations. She studied the natural variation in physical habitat, water chemistry, and insect assemblage structure across five seasons - pre-pipeline construction. She became persistently and patiently skilled in performing multi-variate statistical analyses in RStudio, including principal components analysis (PCA) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). She presented her work at local, regional, and international conferences. She is also a co-author on a manuscript in Northeastern Naturalist that summarizes the insect assemblages in Wildwood Park, Radford, Virginia.
She enjoyed picking through the insect samples and seeing how many different kinds of species were found. Most of them consisted of things she had never seen before! What she enjoyed most about this research is that she got to be outside doing what she loves and making a difference at the same time! She found peace in the outdoors and the scenic views. She often meditated in between sampling, because field work can get rough sometimes. Her advice to future students would be "to just take it easy when things get hard, take deep breaths and think about the good things." Whenever she would get frustrated, she would just think about how blessed she was to be somewhere so beautiful, doing something that’s important to our area. She reminds us that "It’s not easy work, but its fun 😊." |
Sierra Bradley ('20) is now a first year graduate student at Virginia Tech. While at RU, she studied General Biology and Anthropology. Sierra was instrumental in setting the stage for our research program on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). She assisted with selecting the locations, talking to landowners to gain access to the sites, and designing a study to determine how the water depth influences the diversity of caddisfly larvae - pre-pipeline construction. Sierra was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) for her work relating stream flow and caddisfly diversity; she presented her work at local and regional conferences.
She loved looking at aquatic insects, knowing there is an enormous assemblage swimming in our streams that many people don't know about. She combined her love of ecology and her passion for learning by creating a research project that opened up a world of opportunities for her. As her father always says, "you should feed the passion." She is taking her passion and "running with it" to find her dream career in animal conservation. |
Left: Samantha Houck ('20) spent her time in the field and identifying insects. She is now at the Eurofins Central Laboratory working as an assistant aquatic scientist. Right: Angela Holmes ('20) spent her time studying the aquatic-terrestrial ecosystem link and was awarded a SURF for her work. She is now a ranger at the Claytor Lake State Park. Both presented their work at conferences.
|
McKenzie Harpine ('20) fine-tuned the method for measuring total suspended and volatile solids. She is now working on her degree in physical therapy. She presented her work at the Student Engagement Form.
|
Anastasiia Beliaeva ('20) spent her time studying food webs at our sites. She is now doctoral student at the University of Miami, FL studying Drosophila neurology.
Sydney Fisher ('20) spent her time sorting through insects and assisting with designing quiz questions on the scientific writing process. She is now a student at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Nick Murff ('20) spent his time in the field and identifying insects. He is now an aquatic ecological monitoring crew member at the Southwest Conservation Corps in Taos, NM.
Madison Paterniti ('20) spent her time coding qualitative data and writing a manuscript (now a co-author) on course collaborations through the lens of a CURE. She is now a tech consultant for Ernst and Young, an accounting and consulting firm.
Susan Trammell ('20) spent her time determining the health of our stream sites using the Virginia Stream Condition Index. She is now in the Physician Assistant Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Celeste Chorniak ('18) spent her time relating water chemistry to aquatic hyphomycete diversity in the Purgatory Creek watershed. She presented her work at a local conference. She is now at the Virginia Department of Health working as an environmental specialist.
Sydney Fisher ('20) spent her time sorting through insects and assisting with designing quiz questions on the scientific writing process. She is now a student at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Nick Murff ('20) spent his time in the field and identifying insects. He is now an aquatic ecological monitoring crew member at the Southwest Conservation Corps in Taos, NM.
Madison Paterniti ('20) spent her time coding qualitative data and writing a manuscript (now a co-author) on course collaborations through the lens of a CURE. She is now a tech consultant for Ernst and Young, an accounting and consulting firm.
Susan Trammell ('20) spent her time determining the health of our stream sites using the Virginia Stream Condition Index. She is now in the Physician Assistant Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Celeste Chorniak ('18) spent her time relating water chemistry to aquatic hyphomycete diversity in the Purgatory Creek watershed. She presented her work at a local conference. She is now at the Virginia Department of Health working as an environmental specialist.