Yale University.
Calendar. Directories.

Gaylord Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral Fellows and Postdoctoral Associates

July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2015

Giovanna Carpi, PhD

Sponsor: Maria Diuk-Wasser, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health

Research: Linking vertebrate diversity with tick-borne pathogen species and genome-wide diversity.

August 1, 2013 to July 31, 2015

Jesse Berman, PhD

Sponsor:  Michelle Bell, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Reseach to examine how drought in the United States affects levels of airborne particles and thereby impacts the risk of mortality and illness for respiratory diseases.

 

July 1, 2012 - June 30, 2014

Susanna Messinger, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  David Vasseur, Assistant Professor, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research:  Understanding the mechinisms governing the distribution and abundance of the more than 8. million species that inhabit earth.

 

September 1, 2012 - August 31, 2014 Arthur Middleton, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  David Skelly, Professor of Ecology and Associate Dean of Research, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research:  Linking prey behavior to population and ecosystem-level pattern:  What drives variation in the strength of risk effects among temperate ungulates?

 

August 1, 2012 - July 31, 2014 Bridget Nugent, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Suzanne Alonzo, Assistant Professor, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research:  Understanding the proximate mechanisms that give rise to variation within and across species and thereby provide a sbstrate for selection and diversification that is critical to understanding the origins of biodiversity in wild species that may help to explain phenotypic variation in other organisms through comparative studies.

 

September 1, 2012 - August 31, 2014 Matthew Ogburn, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Michael Donoghue, Sterling Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research:  Community assembly, niche evolution, and the future of alpine plant communities.

 

August 25, 2011 - August 24, 2013 Isabelle Kruta, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Derek Briggs, G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology & Geophyics; Director, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Research:  Role of ammonites in the Mesozoic food web.

 

September 1, 2011 - August 31, 2013 Matthew Niemiller, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Thomas Near, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research: Crypic diversity and speciation in cave organisms:  delimiting species and evolutionary history in the southern cavefist (Typhlichthys subterraneus).

 

October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2013 Jay Zarnetske, Ph.D.

Sponsors: James Saiers and Peter Raymond, Professors at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Watershed hydrology, aquatic ecology, ecosystem informatics, hydrogeology, stable isotope biogeochemistry and global water resource issues.

 

September 1, 2011 - August 31, 2013 Adrian Ghilardi, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Robert Bailis, Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Research:  Charcoal-driven degradation in secondary forests:  Conserving biodiversity while maintaining production levels using opportuniti4es under REDD+.

 

August 15, 2010 - June 30, 2012

Daniel Rosauer, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, working with  Craig Moritz, principally on spatial modeling related to the phylogeography and conservation of lizards in northern Australia.

Sponsor:  Walter Jetz, Associate Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research:  Biodiversity informatics, macroevolution and conservation science.

 

May 17, 2010 - May 16, 2012 Nina Lehr, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Jeffrey Townsend, Associate Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research:  The evolution of gene expression underlying sexual development in fungi.

 

August 16, 2010 - August 15, 2011 Valerie Fuchs, Ph.D. Water Resources Engineer, MWH, Sacremento, CA

Sponsor:  Julie Zimmerman, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering

Research:  Optimizing ecosystem benefits through water systems infrastructure location.

 

July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2011

Matthew Walsh, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate,Post Lab, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Sponsor:  David Post, Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research:  The link between environmental heterogeneity and evolutionary change in coastal lake ecosystems.

 

August 1, 2009 - July 31, 2011 Gloria-Soria, Andrea, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate,Buss Lab, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Sponsor:  Leo Buss, Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research:  Characterization of the allelic variation on the allorecognition complex of Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus.

 

July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2011

Christopher Clark, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Associate, Prum Lab, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Sponsor:  Rick Prum, William Coe Robinson Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB), Chair of EEB; Curator of Vertebrate Zoology, Peabody Museum of Natural History; Professor at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research:  The mechanics and diversity of feather-generated sounds in birds.

 

September 1, 2009 - August 31, 2011- March 31, 2012

Nicholas Longrich, Ph.D.

YIBS Postdoctoral Associate, Yale Department of Geology & Geophysics

Sponsor:  Jacques Gauthier, Professor in the Department of Geology & Geophysics

Research:

Dinosaur diversity trends in the late Cretaceous of Western North America:  Understanding the influence of global climate change and sea levels.

 

August 1, 2008 -
July 31, 2010

Christopher Gilbert, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Hunter College SUNY, Department of Anthropology

Sponsors:  Andrew Hill, Clayton Stephenson Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology; Curator and Head of Anthropology Division, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, and Eric Sargis, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Research:  Paleoenvironments and the biodiversity, biogeography and phylogenetic history of African cercopithecoid monkeys.
 
October 1, 2008 -
September 30, 2009

Michael Dodd, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Washington

Sponsor:  William Mitch, Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Research: The influence of solar irradiation-generated halogen radicals on processing of marine dissolved organic matter: implications for oceanic photic zone depth and organic carbon bioavailability.
 
October 1, 2007 - September 30, 2009

Austin Hendy, Ph.D.

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Sponsor:  Derek E.G. Briggs, Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Geology & Geophysics
Research:  Dr. Hendy's doctoral research has sought to investigate consequences of variations in large-scale environmental transitions (e.g. tectonic, climatic and sea level change) on the structure and diversity of past marine ecosystems.  Detecting such patterns in the fossil record, and accurately determining the processes responsible for them, is not only significant to evolutionary biology, but also of potential importance to the wider community.  Fundamental to the correct interpretation of paleobiological patterns is the quality of taxonomic information derived from the fossil record.  Evolutionary biologists should be concerned about how faithfully the fossil record represents the original biodiversity, including the nature of species and genera identified by paleontologists, and how fossil preservation (taphonomy) influences taxonomic procedures.
 
September 1, 2008 -
August 31, 2010

Matthew Brandley, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Sydney, School of Biological Sciences

Sponsor:  Tom Near, Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Developmental Processes of morphological diversity and their evolutionary response to climate change.

 

October 1, 2007 - August 31, 2010

Katy L.Prudic, Ph.D.

Research Scientist, Department of Zoology,

Oregon State University

Sponsor: Antonia Monteiro, Assistant Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research: Butterfly wing patterns are wonderfully diverse.  How and why did this group of insects acquire such a spectacular array of designs?  What is the utility of such designs?  A common wing pattern in butterflies have these eyespots by examining their signal efficacy in the field and the laboratory.  Much is know about how these eyespots are produced on the developing wings; however, very little is known regarding why butterflies have eyespots and how they function in nature.  Understanding the signal function of eyespots will give us a deeper understanding of wing coloration, signaling and biodiversity in butterflies.  Dr. Prudic will test two hypotheses explaining the function of border eyespots in butterflies: 1) eyespots function as an anti-predator defense, or 2) eyespots function in butterfly mate recognition and choice.
 

September 2006 - August 2008:

David Zinniker, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Mark Pagani, Associate Professor of Geology & Geophysics
Research:  Research interests lie at the broad intersection of the earth and life sciences, and have included work in organic geochemistry, micropaleontology, sedimentary geology, basin analysis, and petroleum systems.  A growing focus of his research is molecular organic proxies that address past  and present plant, algal, and microbial physiology and ecology; chemical and physical oceanography/limnology; hydrology; and climate.
 

January 2007 - December 2008:

Dror Hawlena

Academic Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians -

The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science at

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Sponsors:Oswald Schmitz, Oastler Professor of Population & Community Ecology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,  School of Forestry & Environmental Studies; Professor,  Ecology/Evolutionary Biology
Research:  The way disease agents and predators interact to alter the behavior of the species of host/prey that they share.
 

September 2006 - August 2008:

Barry Alto, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor,

University of Florida - Entomology Laboratory

Sponsor: Paul Turner, Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Biostatistics and the ecology and evolution of arthropod-borne RNA viruses.
 

September 2005 - August 2007:

Tracy Langkilde, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Pennsylvania State University

Sponsor: Professor David Skelly, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Incorporating evolutionary theory into biodiversity conservation: how rapidly and effectively can native communities evolve to minimize the impact of invasive species?
 

September 2005 - July 2006;
July 2007 - August 2008:

Margaret Evans, Ph.D.Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Museum National D’Histiore Naturelle, Paris, France.

Sponsors: Michael Donoghue, G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Stephen Stearns, Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Research in basic and applied plant evolutionary ecology, particularly in the fields of life history evolution, demography and population modeling.
 

June 2005 - May 2007:

Helen Nguyen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

 

Sponsor: Professor Menachem Elimelech, Environmental Engineering
Research:  Adsorption of genetic materials to soil minerals:  implications for horizontal gene transfer in the environment.
 

July 2004 - June 2006:

Craig Layman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Marine Science Program
Department of Biological Sciences
Florida International University

Sponsor: Professor David Post, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  To address (1) does ecosystem size affect food chain length in Caribbean estuaries, and if so (2) which measure(s) of ecosystem size (e.g. water volume of estuaries, catchment surface area, amount of tidal flow, or “resource “shed” – the total area from which an ecosystem derives resources) is most useful in accounting for differences in FCL.
 

 

August 2004 - July 2006:

Gregory Dietl, Ph.D.
Director of Collections at the Paleontological Research Institute
Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

 

Sponsor: Professor Derek Briggs, Department of Geology & Geophysics
Research:  Circumstances under which evolution occurs with particular interest in arms races between species in evolution.
 

October 2003 - September 2005:

Stephen Meyers, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Department of Geoscience

at

University of Wisconsin, Madison


Sponsor: Professor Mark Pagani, Geology & Geophysics
Research:  Quantifying Holocene climate response to the North Atlantic oscillation; the origin and stability of centennial-millennial scale cyclicity in quaternary.
 

August 2003 - July 2005:

Benjamin Twining, Ph.D.
University Affiliate
University of South Carolina

Sponsor: Professor Gaboury Benoit, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Research:  Use of a combination of synchrotron-based x-ray fluorescence microscopy, AAS/and/or ICP-MS, and voltammetric techniques to study the factors controlling the accumulation of metals by estuarine biota.
 

August 2003 - July 2005:

Amy Russell, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Arizona
Arizona Research Laboratory
Division of Biotechnology

 

Sponsor: Professor Anne Yoder, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Evolutionary history and biogeography of chameleons in a megadiversity hotspot.
 

October 2002 - September 2004:

Susanna Remold, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY

 

Sponsor: Professor Paul Turner, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Environmental heterogeneity and the evolutions of genetic architecture in viruses; career consequences of expertise with mammalian pathogens.
 

January 2003 - December 2004:

Klaus Meiners, Ph.D.

Sea Ice Ecologist
Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center


Sponsor: Professor John Wettlaufer, Geology & Geophysics
Research:  The ecology of frozen oceans -  controls on primary production in sympagic communities
 

August 2002 - July 2004:

Jenney Hall, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Professor Karl K. Turekian, Sterling Professor of Geology & Geophysics
Research:  Paleoceanographic and climate change reconstruction over various time scales.
 

July 2001- June 2003:

Jeremy Redman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering at
CA State University at Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, California 90840

Sponsor: Menachem Elimelech, Roberto C. Goizueta Prof of Chemical Engineering; Chairman, Chemical Engineering & Director of the Environmental Engineering Program; Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Research:  Bacterial Transport in Aquatic Systems; Interpreting Microbial Deposition Patterns
 

July 2001- June 2003:
Luciano Beheregaray, Ph.D.

Professor,

Flinders University


Sponsor: Dr. Gisella Caccone, Director, ECOSAVE Conservation Genetics Laboratory; Lecturer, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Evolution and Conservation of Giant Galápagos Tortoises; Patterns of Diversification in Amazonian Fishes
 

September 2000 - August 2002:

Campbell Webb, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
Arnold Arboretum at
Harvard University and

Smithsonian Center for Tropical Forest Science

 

Sponsors: Mark Ashton, Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology, Director of School Forests; and Michael Donoghue, G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research:  Comparative Phylogenetic Structure of Rain Forest Tree Communities

July 2000 - June 2002:

Claudio Ciofi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Animal Biology & Genetics
University of Florence
Via Romana 17, 50125
Florence, Italy

 

Sponsors: Dr. Gisella Caccone, ECOSAVE Conservation Genetics Laboratory and Lecturer, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; and Jeffrey Powell, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Research: Developed a number of research projects on the genetics and ecology of island reptiles, and established long-term collaboration with both US and foreign Institutions aimed at the management and conservation of endangered species.

July 1999 - June 2001:

Ofer Ovadia, Ph.D.
Lecturer in Ecology and Evolution
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Israel
 
Sponsor: Oswald Schmitz, Oastler Professor of Population & Community Ecology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,  School of Forestry & Environmental Studies; Professor,  Ecology/Evolutionary Biology
Research: Testing the effect of state dependent decision making of individual herbivores on food web dynamics.
 
July 1999 - June 2001:
Douglas Gollin, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Williams College
Economics Department
Williamstown, MA 01267
Sponsor: Professor Robert Evenson, Economic Growth Center
Research: Examined the impact of international agricultural research on the sustainable production of crops; studied management of materials in agricultural gene banks.
 

 

July 1997 - June 1999:
Joseph Kiesecker, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Professor David Skelly, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Research: Disease Ecology – investigating the influence of fungal pathogens on the distribution of larval amphibians and dynamics of their communities.
 

 


YIBS Postdoctoral Associates

 

July 1, 2010 - June 30, 2012 Federico Spada, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Sabatino Sofia, Professor, Astronomy

Research:  Solar Structural Variability and Its Influence on Earth Climate

 

May 1, 2010 - April 30, 2012 Berat Haznedaroglu, Ph.D.

Sponsor:  Jordan Peccia, Assistant Professor, Environmental Engineering

Research: Microalgae lipd analysis and bioinformatics

 

March 2010 - February 2011

Li-Qing, Jiang, Ph.D.

Oceanographer/Physical Scientist

Earth Resources Technology, Inc.

Sponsor:  Peter Raymond, Associate Professor in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: The impact of seasonal hypoxia on carbon dioxide in large estuarine systems – a case study of the Long Island Sound.

 

August 10, 2009 - August 9, 2010

Larese-Casanova, Philip, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor,

Northeastern University in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Sponsor:  Ruth Blake, Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics

Research:  Improving bioremediation of groundwater contamination using

δ 18O stable Isotope signatures

July 20, 2009 - July 19, 2011 Wilson, Henry, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Brandon Research Centre

Sponsor:  James Saiers, Professor of Hydrology and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research:  Determining the role played by hydrological events in mediating dissolved organic matter (DOM) dynamics and related in-stream processes

 

March 16, 2009 -
March 15, 2011

Chad Vecitis, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering, Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciencs

Sponsor:  Menachem Elimelech, Roberto C. Goizueta Prof of Chem Engr; Chairman, Chemical Engineering & Director of the Environmental Engineering Program; Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Research:  anti-microbial activity of single-walled carbon nanotubes, with investigations into membrane stress mediated toxicity
 
August 1, 2008 -
July 31, 2010

Alexander Jih-Pai Lin, Ph.D. Professor
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy at the
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology
Chinese Academy of Science


Sponsor:  Derek Briggs, William Beinecke Professor of Geology & Geophysics
Research:  The uniqueness of Cambrian paleoecology and closure of the Cambrian taphonomic window

August 2002 -
July 2004

Linda Puth, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist , Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Yale University

Sponsor:  Professor David Skelly
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Research:  Putting the parts together:  A holistic treatment of invasion

 

   
YALE INSTITUTE FOR BIOSPHERIC STUDIES
Oswald Schmitz, Director
Rose Rita Riccitelli, Assistant Director
LaToya Sealy, Sr. Administrative Assistant
Environmental Science Center, Room 132
21 Sachem St., P.O. Box 208105
New Haven, CT 06520-8105
Phone: (203) 432-9856 · Fax: (203) 432-9927