Graduate students are a cornerstone of our department, and celebrating their accomplishments is a joyful must. They have all made a mark in the history of science and in the people they have mentored, taught, and befriended. From a current graduate student’s perspective, seeing those who have finished the PhD marathon gives both existential panic and a glimmer of hope.
Below is a list of students who graduated between Fall 2024 and Spring 2026, and their corresponding thesis title. We encourage you to look them up and follow their scientific impact!
Sujay Balebail – ’24: “Hearing and acoustic communication in fishes: Tales from a vocal champion”
Fiona Boardman – ’24 “Oyster aquaculture shapes intertidal communities: from foundation species to higher trophic levels”
Hayden Davis – ’24: “Exploration of the patterns and processes driving lineage diversification”
Alex Lowe – ’24: “Plant community and climatic responses to Miocene environmental change in the Pacific Northwest(USA): paleoecological tools and applications”
Jazzmine Waugh – ’24: “Data-driven stories stemming from public participation in science”
Katie Holt – ’25: “Penguins in the Coal Mine: Unraveling Sentinels Species Responses to Human-Cause Stressors”
Wesley Hull – ’25: “Antagonistic ecosystem engineering influences habitat mosaics: The role of borrowing shrimp in shaping estuary foundation species”
Natalia Guayazan Palacios – ’25: “From the cell surface to the field: receptor-mediated herbivore induced defenses in legume crops”
Christine Nolan – ’25: “Uncovering the mechanism and seasonal regulation of flowering in a marine angiosperm, Zostera marina”
David Cuban – ’25: “Investigating the convergent evolution of nectar-feeding birds through the lens of biomechanics”
Amanda Hewes – ’25: “Evolutionary ecology of interactions between plants and nectar-feeding birds across scales”
David Villalobos-Chaves – ’25: “From the ground to the skies: Ecomorphological predictors of diet and trophic diversification in small Neotropical mammals”
Job Veloso – ’25: “Echoes in the Chambers: Exploring the Ecology and Evolution of Mesophotic Zone Scavengers in Chambered Cephalopods”
Elena Stiles – ’25: Try Everything: Coupling phytolith and isotope records to reconstruct South American landscapes and vegetation during warm intervals of the Cenozoic”
Nate Grassi – ’25: “Host and Habitat: Ecological Context Shapes Evolution of a Mobile Gene”
Hannah McConnell – ’25: “Reconstructing the evolution of gene function for a master regulator of flowering: LEAFY in the fern Ceratopteris richardii”
Roberto Carlos Segura – ’25: “Asymmetry of centrosomes in Drosophila neural stem cells requires protein phosphatase 4”
Kendall Murie – ’25: “Flow as a Mediator of Ecosystem Engineering: Hydrodynamics Shape Chemical Modification by Kelp and Mussel Beds”
Cassandra Maranas – ’25: “Variety is the spice of life: Engineering tools for visualizing transcriptional heterogeneity and its effect on cell differentiation in Arabidopsis”
Leigh West – ’26: “Linking climate impacts on animal movement, community dynamics, and human-wildlife coexistence”
Benjamin Downing – ’26: “Turning the Tap: The TPX corepressor family in plant development and immunity”
Julia Smith – ’26: “The behavioral and energetic responses of montane grasshoppers to climate change and the effects of competition in introductory college STEM classrooms”
Erik Johansson – ’26: “Individual Behavioral Variation in a Highly-Mobile Marine Predator: Plasticity, Experience, and Fitness Outcomes”
Sophia Jannetty – ’26: “Spatiotemporal modeling reveals cellular reguatory dynamics driving tissue and organ development”
Andrew Kim Hempton – ’26: “FLOWERING PROMOTING FACTOR 1 (FPF1) family genes control shade-induced development in Arabidopsis thaliana”
Jack Litle – ’26: “Traits, behavior, and physiological plasticity mediate thermal stress in intertidal mollusks”
