Tabitha Olsen (Butler lab) had her work featured in the U.S. Geological Survey’s Notes from the Field series!
Check out “What’s on a sparrow’s dinner menu” to learn more about sparrows and the importance of bird banding.”
Spotlight: Oluwaseun Ajileye
Oluwaseun Ajileye (Light lab) has published the first publication from his dissertation research!
Ajileye, O.D.*, G.G. Verocai, and J.E. Light. A review of filarial nematodes parasitizing tick vectors: unraveling global patterns in species diversity, host associations, and interactions with tick-borne pathogens. Parasites & Vectors 18: 50 https://doi.org/10.1186/
See also: https://link.springer.com/
Congratulations Oluwaseun!
Spotlight: Lawing Lab
Congrats to EEB scientists Michelle Lawing, Maria Hurtado, Leila Siciliano-Martina and the rest of the Lawing lab for their paleontological work. Their research makes it possible to reconstruct ancient ecosystems by analyzing the teeth of over 50,000 carnivorous animal communities from across the world. “The whole point of our research is to use the fossil record to understand what we see today,” Lawing said. “How has the environment changed, and in turn, how have these communities of animals changed? We are looking for specific traits, such as what a species eats, to identify why populations have declined and communities have changed. We’re modeling the framework for conservation management.” [Photo courtesy of TheBatt.com]
Spotlight: Ruby Mustill
Ruby Mustill was awarded the Hagler Institute HEEP Fellowship for 2025. Ruby Mustill, second-year Ph.D. student, and her PI, Courtney Fitzpatrick, will collaborate with Hagler Fellow Susan Alberts. The area of study will be focused on life history theory and the evolution of adolescence as a life stage in primates. To read more about Susan Alberts and the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, please visit https://hias.tamu.edu/fellow/dr-susan-c-alberts/.
Spotlight: Sheila Kitchen
Dr. Sheila Kitchen joined the EEB program Fall 2024. She is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University at Galveston in the Department of Marine Biology. As a trained molecular ecologist, she integrates field, laboratory and computational tools to address fundamental questions surrounding interspecies interactions and their persistence under climate change. Her goal is to transform these results into applied solutions for conservation. Her lab’s research is primarily focused on cnidarian (corals, sea anemones and jellyfish) – algal symbiosis and innate immunity of invertebrates. She is an active member of the Caribbean Coral Restoration Genetics Working Group as part of the Coral Restoration Consortium.
