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BGSA Officers

Co-Presidents

Steven  Mayer

Steven Mayer is a third-year PhD in the Burch lab studying the evolutionary mechanisms behind speciation. Utilizing bacteriophage, Steven studies these viruses under population bottlenecking and manipulating their environment. When not in the lab he enjoys the outdoors, baking, and spending quality time with friends.

swmayer@ad.unc.edu

 

 

Lorrie He

Lorrie is a fourth-year PhD student in the Kingsolver and Willett labs studying thermal adaptation in the tobacco hornworm. She is also broadly interested in developmental physiology and climate change. Outside of lab, she enjoys talking about her favorite K-pop band, looking for new brands of specialty coffee to try, and petting any and all dogs that she encounters.

lorrie.he@unc.edu

 

Secretary

Issi Burger 

Issi is a 3rd year PhD student in the Riddell lab. She uses a combination of mechanistic and correlative niche models to determine the effects of physiological variation on climate vulnerability in woodland salamanders. In her free time, Issi enjoys spending time with her husband and pets, reading, hiking, and baking.

iburger@unc.edu

 

 

Treasurer

Anuraag Mukherjee

Anuraag is a 2nd year EEOB student in Servedio lab. He uses a theoretical framework to address questions in evolution, especially surrounding sexual selection and mate choice. In his free time, he plays chess and is an avid soccer fan. Recently he is also exploring American football.
anuraagm@unc.edu

 

Faculty Representative

Stephanie Peak A picture of Stephanie standing on a rocky outcrop, with forests and mountains extending below her to the horizon.

Stephanie is a fourth-year PhD student in the Willett and Castillo labs. Stephanie is interested in studying coral tolerance to environmental stressors at the physiological level, specifically dysbiosis of the coral-dinoflagellate mutualism with ocean warming. In her free time, she enjoys SCUBA diving, cooking, and painting..

speak@unc.edu

 

GPSG Representatives

 

Karl Hill

Karl is..

 

First Year Representative

Susana Cadavid Palacio

Susana is BGSA’s first year-representative. I’m in Senay Yitbarek’s lab, or we call our lab “The Hoi Polloi lab” (https://hoipolloi.io/) My research focuses on understanding population dynamics in hots-pathogen and high-order interactions. Outside of academia, I like spending time with my dogs and going for long walks in the forest and trails, cooking, embroidering and painting.

 

Web Master

Ivara Goulden

Ivara is a third-year PhD student in the Hurlbert lab studying avian macroecology and how bird populations are responding to urbanization. In their free time, they enjoy wrassling with their dog Marimo, running, knitting ambitiously, and looking at cool bugs.

ijbg@unc.edu

 

Social Coordinator

Nicolas Frasson      

Nico is a 4th year PhD student from France in Dr. Keith Sockman’s lab and BGSA social coordinator. I am broadly interested in physiological tradeoffs between migration behavior and reproductive strategies / survival in Lincoln’s Sparrows, a tiny passerine bird breeding in the high-elevation Colorado mountains. Outside research, I love pretty much all sports (basketball, tennis, ski, rugby, wakeboard), hiking in national parks, traveling, and socializing around great wine/cheese.

nfrasson@unc.edu

 

SSC Liaison

Tab Henry   

Tab Henry, Safe Spaces Committee Liaison, 2nd year PhD student in the Burmeister lab. I investigate the neural and behavioral differences in spatial cognition between juvenile and adult poison frogs (Dendrobates auratus), aiming to understand how factors like sexual maturity impact the development of navigation. Outside of research, I enjoy gardening, trying out new crafts, and spending time with my many pets!

tabhenry@unc.edu