We are excited to welcome the new graduate cohort to the Biology Department! In total, we have thirteen new faces joining us. If you see any of them around, please introduce yourself and get to know one another.
William Albers
Hello! My name is William Albers, and I grew up in a beach town called Oxnard, California before moving to the SF Bay Area to get my Bachelor’s in Genetics and Plant Biology at UC Berkeley. From there, I moved to San Diego to work as a Research Assistant for two years in the Law Lab at the Salk Institute. My research pertained to the Harnessing Plants Initiative, a goal-oriented project concerned with combating climate change by engineering root systems that sequester more carbon. I love researching plants and I can’t wait to be a part of the Biology Department at UW. In my free time, I love solving crossword puzzles, tasting new beers and ciders, and finding new music. I’m looking forward to settling into UW and meeting everyone in person!
Vaibhav Chhaya
Vaibhav got his BS-MS degree from IISER Pune (India), where he studied the morphology and biomechanics of bird bills in Dr. Anand Krishnan’s lab. As an undergraduate, he has also studied the ecology of birds and bats using acoustic recording techniques. For his Ph.D., he is interested in studying the interplay between form and function in organisms, particularly using museum collections. Besides his academic pursuits, he loves to play the guitar and is always on the lookout for jamming buddies (who are as mediocre as him). He is also interested in birdwatching, and is excited to explore the birdwatching spots in and around Seattle!
Annie Colgan
Annie is interested in understanding how we can keep ecosystems healthy in the face of change. At UW she will be working with plants, pollinators, and the network of interactions that link them. She is particularly interested in how biotic interactions mediate the impacts of global change and how winter climate change effects plants and insects. She is also passionate about equity in undergraduate science education and is excited to contribute to the biology education research going on at UW. Annie has a BA in biology from Middlebury College in Vermont. Before starting at UW, she worked on a bumblebee project with the USGS in Glacier National Park. She has done science (mostly plant ecology) in the Colorado Rockies, on Mount Washington in NH, and in the high arctic. Annie likes tea, well written metadata, and people powered transportation (bikes, skis, hiking boots etc.).
Elizabeth Duan
Hi! My name is Eizabeth Duan (she/her). I completed my undergrad at UC Irvine in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology while doing research with the Allison Lab. I worked as the Allison Lab manager during my gap year, mentoring undergrads and researching the role of microbial communities in the carbon cycle. Moving forward, I’m interested in studying microbial community dynamics and quantifying microbial interactions. I’m also excited to further my teaching, mentoring, and science communication abilities. As a lifelong dehydrated Californian, I’m excited to finally feel moisturized in Seattle!
Anthony Garcia
Anthony completed his undergraduate degree in plant biology at UW and is excited to now be joining the Department of Biology as a graduate student. He is fascinated by the inner workings of plants and aims to continue studying the molecular mechanisms of dynamic responses from diverse plant species. As an undergraduate and research tech in Dr. Adam Steinbrenner’s lab, he investigated immune receptors from beans that mediate defensive responses to herbivory by caterpillars. In the coming years, Anthony hopes to contribute to finding sustainable solutions to protect crops from the variety of stressors that burden global agriculture and communicate the wonders of plants to broader communities. Outside of the lab, he also enjoys visiting bookstores, running, and hiking, and he can’t wait to learn more about the amazing plants of this world!
Melissa Leon Norena
Melissa is interested in how the natural world of insects and neurobiology interplay. She recently completed her B.S in Biology at Baylor University while working with species of mosquitoes in an arthropod sensory Biology Lab. She plans to join the Riffell Lab, where she can continue exploring insect and neuroethology-related questions while dabbling in neuroscience, ecology, and entomology! Although she grew up in the wild west that is Central Texas, she was born in Colombia and is exceedingly excited to be around the color green. When she is not thinking about how to survive without much sunlight, she enjoys running, rock-climbing, and wishing she owned a dog and/or cat.
Grace Leuchtenberger
Hi! I’m Grace Leuchtenberger, and I’m from the frigid town of Boston, Massachusetts. I’m primarily interested in interactions between marine invertebrates and their abiotic environments, hence I will be joining the Carrington lab. In 2021, I graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota (weird for studying marine life, I know) and have spent the past few summers at UW’s Friday Harbor Labs looking at how mussels and urchins physiologically respond to changes in temperature, pH, and flow. When I’m not dissecting mussels and refusing to eat them, I am a general life enthusiast and love volleyball, guitar, singing, movies, trying new things, cooking, eating end of summer tomatoes, and figuring out how to DIY something for my apartment while standing directly in the middle of Lowe’s.
Isiah Newbins
I am joining Greg Wilson Mantilla’s lab where I hope to study the evolution and extinction of Cretaceous and Paleocene mammals. I’m interested in investigating multifaceted complex questions like how were mammals able to become amazingly diverse while coexisting dinosaurs, what was their ecology like, how did it help to shape their morphology, and can that teach anything about their phylogeny and systematics. I like testing how modern biological principles can be used to better understand extinction and question what does this all means in the context of the evolution and diversification of extant mammals? I just moved to Washington from Colorado. I received my B.A. in biology with my focus towards zoology and evolution, from Metropolitan State University of Denver. During undergrad I studied mating selection behaviors in Convict Cichlid fish (Amatitlania nigrofasciata), while holding volunteer and intern positions in paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Other than that, I like hikes, climbing, and long walks on the beach.
Abhishek Raghunathan
I’m Abhishek Raghunathan. I originally hail from the scorching hot South Indian state of Chennai, so the cooler weather in Seattle is definitely a pleasant change :). My early life (up to 6th grade) was actually spent in the U.S., where my dad worked as a faculty member in Chemical Engineering before deciding to move back to India. Getting to explore different cultures was definitely an awesome part of childhood. My passion for Biology really began evolving in high school, and I did my Bachelors and Masters at the Indian Insitute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram, which is the capital city of the state of Kerala. Kerala (often referred to locally as “God’s own Country”) is known for its fantastic scenery and continuous downpours, so the lighter drizzles of Seattle are certainly welcome. My thesis work centered around the specific elimination of damaged mitochondria in cells through a process known as mitophagy. I’m fascinated by how cells seamlessly integrate environmental inputs and respond at relevant time scales to produce coordinated and meaningful responses. Outside the lab, I love sports and play both basketball and badminton. As for a favorite NBA team, I’m pretty fickle-minded and tend to go wherever LeBron goes, but it’ll be a hard sell to convince me that Jordan isn’t the best ever from a purely aesthetic standpoint (we could debate about the numbers for ages)! Even though I might not look the part (cries silently), I also love a good workout. I’m looking forward to learning a lot and having a great time during my Ph.D.!
Four individuals are not on this list, but please find them around the department (Anna Brant – 2nd floor; Maggie Fuqua – 3rd floor; Heonsu Kim – 3rd floor; Rachel Potter – 4th floor)!
