Postdoc Archives - Byers Lab https://jebyers.ecology.uga.edu/tag/postdoc/ Marine Ecology Lab Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:08:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://jebyers.ecology.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/jlogo-1-100x100.png Postdoc Archives - Byers Lab https://jebyers.ecology.uga.edu/tag/postdoc/ 32 32 Postdoctoral Associates https://jebyers.ecology.uga.edu/emily-richardso/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=emily-richardso Wed, 01 Dec 2021 20:35:30 +0000 https://jebyers.ecology.uga.edu/?p=3189 Postdoctoral Associates Emily Richardson Emily Richardson explores the role of life history traits in governing species distribution in the ocean.

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Emily Richardson

Emily Richardson explores the role of life history traits in governing species distribution in the ocean.

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]]> Past Students https://jebyers.ecology.uga.edu/past-students/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=past-students Wed, 28 Feb 2018 19:40:55 +0000 http://jebyers.ecology.uga.edu/?p=2178 Former Associates

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Former Associates

Undergraduates (Not a complete list)

Undergraduate Students

Aleyna Loughran-Pierce

Aleyna helped at Sapelo on projects involving snails and crabs in summer 2025.

Katie Hollister

Katie researched on Sapelo Island in Summer 2024 on invasive fiddler crabs.

Camy Teichman

Camy Teichman helped on several lab projects related to oyster physiology and disease ecology.

Sarah Cutts with oyster tank

Jordan Cutts

Sarah was interested in socio-ecological interactions and science communication. Her work focused on conducting DNA extractions and qPCR to assess disease dynamics in oysters and assisting with spatial analyses to understand how land use change influences oyster reefs using tools in ArcGIS.

Elianna Fox

Elianna Fox

Elianna was pursuing a career in Marine Biology. Since growing up in Hawai’i, she always was fascinated with marine life. She worked on several disease-oriented projects in shrimp and oysters.

Henry Traynor portrait

Henry Traynor

Henry was interested in theoretical ecology and ichthyology. He is currently working on modelling invasive species populations.

Sarah Pina

Sarah Piña

Sarah worked on projects involving water access on the southeastern coast and oyster parasites. 

Blake Bayer in marine ecology lab

Blake Bayer

Blake worked in the lab for a year investigating effects of parasites on oyster filtration.

image of Will in scuba gear

Will Ellis

Will worked in the lab for several years on various projects. Most recently, his work addressed the joint effects of climate change and parasitism on host consumption.

image of Kate Moore

Kate Moore

Kate joined the lab as a third year ecology major. She was interested in aquatic ecosystems, conducting fieldwork on Sapelo Island.

image of Kimani Smith

Kimani Smith

Kimani’s work centered on the question of what maintains a species’ range. She used PCR and DNA sequencing to analyze the genetic variation between populations of the invasive crab, Petrolisthes armatus, along the coast of GA and SC.

image of student Carter Watson

Carter Watson

Carter examined parasite effects on behavior, especially the impact of infection on host movement.

image of Jordan at beach

Jordan McNally

Jordan was a Biology student that joined the Byers Lab in Spring 2021. She studied shrimp black gill disease and its implications on shrimp survival.

image of Kailah Massey

Kailah Massey

Kailah began working on a summer REU on parasite ecology and continued diving deeper into the project which examined ecosystem effects of parasites and parasite diversity

image of Kaitlyn Lowe

Kaitlyn Lowe

Kaitlyn was a Biology major interested in attending medical school and becoming a physician. She worked on a Meta-Analysis about how aquatic host-parasite systems change at different temperatures.

image of undergraduate in lab

Hannah Hall

Hannah was a Biology and Ecology major with a passion for understanding climate change and its impact on coastal ecosystems. She studied the relationship between invasion and hypoxia.

image of Olivia Hair

Olivia Hair

Olivia was a senior, biology major with a passion for understanding ecological issues in marine environments. She worked on a project that studies black gill disease in shrimp.

image of Ben Frick at ecology building

Ben Frick

Ben’s research focused on the physiology and behavior of sessile species with a focus on how these species adapt. His interests within this realm are broad, ranging from Loggerhead sea turtle epibionts to Jorō spiders, carnivorous plants, and everything in between.

image of Elizabeth Esser in field

Elizabeth Esser

Elizabeth was an Ecology and Genetics double major. She used oceanic modeling of larval dispersal to investigate the correlation of larval dispersal distances and genetic metrics.  She was a Udall Scholar.

image of Murphy Belknap

Murphy Belknap

Murphy was interested in community and ecosystem ecology with a particular focus on climate change and its ecosystem effects. He worked with GIS spatial tools to quantify coastal infrastructure.

image of Alannah Dodd with donkey

Alannah Dodd

Alannah was interested in wildlife conservation particularly in marine systems. She had a summer 2021 CURO award to work on shrimp black gill disease and tube worm regeneration. She also worked on a literature review of invasive species and anoxia. Additionally , she helped on a GIS project quantifying coastal infrastructure and a remote sensing project to detect marine plastics. 

image of Taylor English at stream

Taylor English

Taylor worked on projects that address the division of labor in parasites.

Katie Maddox

Katie Maddox

Katie worked with the lab starting in September 2014. As a CURO fellow, Katie studied the impacts of an invasive alga on blue crab foraging behavior.

image of Sydney Bourget

Sydney Bourget

She was an Ecology student who worked with the lab starting September 2014. As a CURO fellow, she studied the effects of physical factors on infaunal species on oyster reefs.

image of Kat Clancy

Kat Clancy

Kat was an Ecology and Marine Science major who is working in the lab.  Kat is studying and studied respiration rates of the marsh periwinkle, Littorina irrorata. www.rebeccaatkins.com

Clarissa Keisling

Clarissa, was an Ecology student, who started wowrking with us in Summer 2016 on a project studying oyster larval dynamics. As a CURO fellow, she studied the distribution of microplastics across an estuary and led a publication in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

image of Emma Dickinson

Emma Dickinson

Emma was an Ecology and Music double major. She studied coastal ecosystems and community interactions.

image of Benjamin Edelman

Benjamin Edelman

Benjamin was a Biology Major with a Marine Science emphasis. He helped help map the biodiversity of oyster reefs across an estuary and conducted a Senior Honor thesis on the invasive freshwater clam, Corbicula fluminea.

image of Adam Greer

Adam Greer

Adam was a Genetics and Chinese double major, who worked with the lab measuring oyster larval dynamics. He started with the lab in Fall 2016.

Diane Klement

Diane was an Art and Ecology student working on a project studying the impacts of an invasive alga on marsh grass health. She started with the lab in Fall 2016. In 2019 she earned national recognition as a Udall Scholar.

image of Kelly Mayes

Kelly Mayes

She was an Ecology and journalism student who helped with a project studying the impact of snail grazing on marsh grass health.  She started with the lab in Fall 2016. In summer 2019 she was awarded a AAAS Mass Media Science Fellowship.

www.rebeccaatkins.com

image of Katie O’Shields

Katie O’Shields

Katie was an Ecology major interested in communicating science to broad audiences. She worked in the lab studying the diets and grazing patterns of the marsh periwinkle.

image of Hend Rasheed

Hend Rasheed

Hend was a Genetics major.  She worked on a project studying how temperature changes affect grazing in the Marsh Periwinkle, Littoraria irrorata.

www.rebeccaatkins.com

image of Claire Sammons

Claire Sammons

Claire was an Ecology student, who helped in the lab starting Spring 2017. She worked on a project studying the interactions between marsh grass and mangroves.

image of Jackson Sanville

Jackson Sanville

Jackson worked with us studying biodiversity on oyster reefs.

image of Camille Womack

Camille Womack

Camille helped our lab study oyster reef biodiversity on an estuarine scale. She also worked on a project on the coast on shrimp disease.

Graduate Students

Daniel Harris (Ph.D., 2025), ecosystem engineers in coastal systems, especially oysters. Scientist with The Nature Conservancy.

Megan Tomamichel  (Ph.D., 2024), disease ecology, especially black gill disease in shrimp. Postdoctoral Fellow, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences with Dr. Jeff Shields.

Julie Blaze (M.S., 2024).

Kristen Zemaitis (M.S., 2023), Environmental Educator, Cumberland Is., GA.

Jeff Beauvais (Ph.D., 2023), 2023 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. Staff Scientist, Georgia 100 Mile.

Camilla Nivison (no degree, 2022-2023), community ecology and range expansion.

Darren Fraser (no degree, 2018-2020), community ecology and wildlife biology. Studied at Wormsloe Historic Site. High school teacher, FL. 

Rachel Smith (Ph.D., 2019), NatureNet Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Virginia with Dr. Max Castorani.

Alex Lee (no degree, 2016-2019), community ecology and parasitology. Studied in the IDEAS (disease ecology) program. Research Scientist with California Environmental Resource Division. 

Linsey Haram (Ph.D., 2018), Assistant Professor, Coastal and Ocean Studies Program, Williams College, Mystic, CT.

Alyssa Gehman (Ph.D., 2016), NSF postdoctoral Fellow, at Univ. of British Columbia with Dr. Chris Harley.

Carolyn Keogh (Ph.D., 2016), Lecturer and Undergraduate Coordinator at the Odum School of Ecology, Univ. of Georgia.

Jennafer Malek (Ph.D., 2015), 2016 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. Communications and Policy Specialist, NOAA Marine Debris Program and Research Fellow, Marine Mammal Commission.

Virginia Schutte (Ph.D., 2014), Science Communication Coordinator, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON).

William McDowell (Ph.D., 2014), Assistant Professor, Merrimack College.

Wan-Jean Lee (Ph.D., 2012), 2012 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow.  Research Scientist with the National Climate Change Secretariat, Singapore.

Irit Altman (Ph.D., 2009), Asst. Research Scientist at Boston University.

Laura Page (M.S., 2009), Middle school science teacher, Watertown, MA.

April Blakeslee (Ph.D., 2007), Asst. Professor, Dept of Biology, East Carolina University.

Aaren Freeman (Ph.D., 2007), Assoc. Professor, Dept of Biology, Adelphi University, NY.

Blaine Griffen (Ph.D., 2007), Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Biology, Brigham Young University.

John Meyer (M.S.,2005), 2006 NOAA John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. Director of Science Communications, College of the Environment, Univ. of Washington.

Post-docs

Emily Richardson (2025), Data analyst.

Shelby Ziegler (2024), Assistant Professor, Dept of Biology, Villanova University, PA.

Emlyn Resetarits (2022), Assistant Professor, Dept of Biology, Barnard College, NY.

Paula Pappalardo (2015), Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Institute

Jayna Devore (2013), Research scientist at the University of Sydney with Dr. Richard Shine.

Safra Altman (2012), Army Corp of Engineers, Vicksburg, MS

Heidi Weiskel (2011), Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW)

Lauren Pintor (2010), Assoc. Professor, School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University.

Visiting Scholars

Sara Rodriguez (visiting postdoc, 2020), from Universidad Austral, Valdivia, Chile, with funding from the Chilean Science Foundation. 

Enjian Chen (visiting Ph.D. student, 2017-2018), from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, with funding from the Chinese Scholarship Council

Mel Bishop (visiting colleague, 2013), from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Jeff Wright (visiting colleague, 2012), from Australian Maritime College,  Launceston , Australia 

Craig Sherman (visiting colleague, 2011), from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia 

Paul Gribben (visiting colleague, 2009), from University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

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