This year our department welcomes a new graduate cohort consisting of 11 brilliantly wonderful scientist! If you see them around, make sure to introduce yourself!
Andrea Bernal Rivera
Hi! I’m Andrea, a Colombian biologist who loves forests, mountains and bats. After obtaining my B.S. in Biology from Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, I began working as a Research Scholar at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City. I enjoy conducting research that integrates physiology, ecology, and evolution to better understand the diversity and astounding uniqueness of bats. I also worked on ecosystem services projects, helping to establish new protected areas, and as a mammalogist in Colombia, jobs that I particularly enjoyed because of the field component, which is full of opportunities for discovering new locations, organisms and possibilities to work with the community of the region. In my free time, I like to watch movies, eat ice cream, hike, go to concerts and play volleyball. I’m happy to be part of the Biology department at UW and I’m looking forward to meeting you all in person.
Amanada Rokicky
Amanda received her Honors Bachelor of Science degree as a Lester B. Pearson International Scholar from the University of Toronto where she double majored in Genome Biology and in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and also minored in Contemporary Asian Studies. Throughout her education, she has had the opportunity to conduct research in genetics/genomics at the University of Toronto, ecology at the Koffler Scientific Reserve, and paleobotany at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She completed her Honors Thesis in the Chang Lab on the molecular evolution and genomics of the visual gene rhodopsin in Elasmobranchs and Actinopterygii. Even though Amanda is interested in all aspects of biology, she is especially intrigued by research on aging and plans to join Dr. Yan Wang’s lab to study aging through the lens of genetics/genomics, behavior, and neurobiology. In her free time, Amanda never sits still and can be found playing softball, soccer, and basketball, hiking and climbing, figure skating, or fencing. She also loves to read and is always happy to discuss a new novel over coffee. Amanda is extremely excited to move to Seattle and meet her new UW community!
Allison Li
I am looking forward to joining the Bagheri Lab to learn more about building and using computational tools to model biological responses, especially in cancer evolution. For undergrad, I also went to UW (go dawgs!) where I studied computer science and biochemistry and did some research at Fred Hutch under the Bedford lab. My research involved creating bioinformatics tools and pipelines to look at viral evolution in Norovirus and SARS-CoV-2. Beyond school, I like to draw, paint, and explore new brunch spots in Seattle.
Emmet Stephenson
Hello! My name is Emmet Stephenson (he/him) and I just completed my undergraduate degree in Global Disease Biology at UC Davis. I will miss that little cow town, but believe it or not I am so excited for the gloomy weather of Seattle! At UCD, I worked in the Dawson lab studying the parasite Giardia. I loved research so much I decided to pivot from pre-med to the wonderful world of academia, and honestly this fits my nerd levels much better. I nerd out about all things microbiology, and am particularly interested in parasites that must navigate the extremely complex environment of an animal host. Giardia in particular is mysterious, ancient, and weird, all attributes that make it interesting to study! I plan on sticking with Giardia research for the time being and would love to learn more about how it interacts with its environment by picking up on signals from the human gut where it resides, or perhaps from other Giardia cells. In my free time I love hiking (especially in the rain!), meeting new people, going to museums, and playing dungeons and dragons. I can’t wait to be a part of UW and work with cool people on cool projects!
Laura Quinche
Hi! I got my undergrad degree in Colombia, and I am excited to start my PhD at UW. As an undergrad and in my later work as a researcher, I studied the feeding morphology and biomechanics related to nectarivory in bats. I am especially interested in answering questions about the ecological and functional performance of animals, and particularly interested in adaptative traits and mechanisms related to the feeding process in nectar-feeding bats and hummingbirds. I am very excited to work in Ecophysics and Sharlene’s labs. When I am not tracking animal tongues in videos, I enjoy watching movies and TV series, dancing and listening to 80’s music, hiking, and being in nature.
Maddy Scott
Tillamook (left) is a medium-hair tabby cat. She did not graduate and holds no degrees. She will not be joining a lab and will be conducting no research. In her free time, she enjoys looking at birds and licking her own tummy.
Madeline Scott (right) graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2021, where she studied Mathematics and Natural Science. She will be joining the Bagheri lab, where she hopes to use computational modeling techniques to interrogate biological information processing mechanisms. Maddy is currently fascinated with lichens and the origins and mechanisms of their weird symbiosis. In her free time, she enjoys playing board games, gardening, and reading with Tilly.
Meg Vanderberg
I was raised in London but moved to Seattle 7 years ago. I will be joining the Summers lab up at FHL, and I have spent the last few summers there studying fish biomechanics. I am interested in armored fish, their morphology and how it influences the fluid dynamics of the fish. Previously I was studying the baleen (filter) of rorquals during my undergrad at UW, specifically looking at the morphology of the filter and the pore size between 5 species of whale.
I love climbing, hiking, skiing, diving and just generally anything outdoors. Most of my days off are spent camping and backpacking, and I much prefer sleeping outside. I’m super excited to meet everyone!
Stephanie Y Zhu
Hi! My name is Stephanie Zhu (she/her). I grew up in Suzhou, China, and I moved to Seattle for college. I graduated from the UW in 2021 with Psychology and Neuroscience majors and a Marine Biology minor. My undergrad research focused on memory and decision-making, which involved recording rats’ brain activity as they navigated mazes and training monkeys to play touchscreen games. I am interested in the neural and biological mechanisms underlying natural animal behaviors. As a grad student, I am excited to study life, aging, and death in bumblebees and octopuses. Outside of the lab, I enjoy hiking, exploring tidepools in search of nudibranchs, baking, and crocheting.
Three cohort members are not on this list, but please find them in their respective floors and around the department: Maria Garcia – 4th floor, Brenlee Shipps – 2nd floor, Chansie Yang – 5th floor
