Janay completed a B.Sc. Honours in Genetics and a Certificate in Biological Research at the University of Alberta. As an undergraduate she used a candidate gene approach to investigate the genetic basis of boldness in a free ranging population of grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) under the supervision of Dr. Coltman. Her honours thesis project sought to predict the susceptibility of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) to chronic wasting disease through sequencing of the prion protein gene, PRNP, under the supervision of Dr. Coltman and Dr. McKenzie. Janay is also passionate about bridging the gap between arts and science, and co-founded the asokan project with her colleague, Alexandra Nordstrom (MA Art History Concordia), which aims to create culturally relevant arts and science programming for Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan. For her PhD research she will be using the Trinidadian guppy system (Poecilia reticulate) to study how predation stress influences behavioural plasticity through epigenetics. Janay is part of the NEO-STRI program. 

MK obtained her BScH in Biological Sciences at Queen’s University and is a 2015 Schulich Leader Scholar. During her undergraduate studies, she studied evolution at both the behavioural (Dr. Adam Chippindale, Queen’s University) and genetic levels (Dr. Vicki Friesen, Queen’s University) to investigate speciation events. Her honours thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Steve Lougheed, investigated the population genomics of chorus frogs (Pseudacris maculata and P. triseriata) to help inform conservation practices. MK is an avid activist, and, in partnership with a non-for-profit NGO, has advocated to bring activism into academic spaces across the country. Her master’s thesis examines the micro-spatial distribution of Darwin’s finches on Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. She is a proud member of the NEO program, and is studying under the co-supervision of Dr. Andrew Hendry.

Victoria earned her B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, minoring in Science and Math Education (CalTeach). As an undergraduate, she worked with Dr. Jamie Cate (UC Berkeley) using CRISPR-Cas9 to: genetically engineer yeast for specialized fatty-acid production, and reduce wheat and rice’s susceptibility to bacterial and fungal pathogens. Her honors thesis under Dr. Claire Kremen (UC Berkeley) studied how passerine and near-passerine birds in California’s Central Coast are impacted by agricultural land use change; this was achieved by linking haematological metrics and aerial imagery via mixed-effects modeling. Victoria is also passionate about STEM outreach. With the CalTeach program she designed culturally-relevant science curriculum and taught over 200 hours in K-12 classrooms in the East Bay. For her Ph.D. she is interested in exploring coral’s molecular responses to climate change. Victoria is part of the NEO-STRI Program and is being co-advised by Dr. David Kline (STRI).

Ananda completed her BA in Biological Sciences at Federal University of Maranhão – Brazil (UFMA). As an undergraduate she worked on the systematics and phylogenetics of Arcas Swainson (Lycaenidae) and evolutionary aspects of male secondary sexual organs, under the supervision of Dr. Robert Robbins (National Museum of Natural History – Smithsonian Institution) and Dr. Gisele Garcia Azevedo (UFMA). She completed her M.Sc. at the Museum of Zoology – University of São Paulo/Brazil (MZUSP), working on the systematics and phylogenetics the Atlides Section (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae, Theclinae, Eumaeini), under the orientation of Dr. Marcelo Duarte (MZUSP) and Dr. Robert Robbins (Smithsonian Institution). For her Ph.D. research, Ananda is interested in patterns of biodiversity and mechanisms that drive these patterns. She will focus especially on the process of hybridization, working with Heliconius butterflies of the Brazilian Amazon. Ananda is a member of the NEO program and is co-advised by Dr. Owen McMillan (STRI).

Mathilde earned her BSc in Biological Sciences and a Magistère in Biology from Paris-Sud University (France). As an undergraduate, she worked on the mechanisms of genomic plasticity in the archea Thermococcus kodakarensis (supervised by Dr. Jacques Oberto, UPsud) and on the evolution of reproduction strategies in the ant Cataglyphis cursor (supervised by Dr. Thibaud Monnin, Pierre and Marie Curie University). She completed her MSc in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution (BEE) at Paris-Saclay University (France) after a one-year exchange at the University of Calgary. During her MSc, she worked on invasive species at the Roscoff Marine Station (France), studying trophic characteristics of native and invasive sympatric ascidian species of the genus Ciona (co-supervised by Dr. Christophe Lejeusne and Dr. Thierry Comtet), as well as connectivity patterns and population dynamics in the invasive kelp Undaria pinnatifida (supervised by Frédérique Viard). For her Ph.D, she is using genomic tools and resurrection ecology experiments to investigate the adaptation of a northern calanoid copepod (Leptodiaptomus minutus) to climate and historical acidification. Mathilde is based at the Université du Québec à Montréal and is co-supervised by Alison Derry. She is a member of the EcoLac training program.

Charles received his B.Sc. in environmental sciences from the University of Notre Dame. During his undergraduate, he worked on aquatic environmental DNA, speciation genomics of apple maggot flies, and spider web DNA. He then participated in the MEME Erasmus Mundus Masters Programme in Evolutionary Biology where he earned M.Sc. degrees from the University of Groningen, University of Montpellier, and Uppsala University. In his masters, he worked on the genetics of starvation tolerance in European seabass, population estimation of giant pandas using genetic mark recapture, and taxonomic assignment of metabarcoding data. Charles is broadly interested in the application of genetic tools towards answering questions and solving problems in ecology, evolution, and conservation. He also advocates for greater diversity and science outreach whenever possible. Charles was awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship to support his Ph.D. on the discovery, study, and protection of biodiversity via metagenomics.

Åsa received her B.Sc. with Honours from the University of Glasgow in 2017. As an undergraduate, she conducted a project on population genetics in Atlantic salmon. After graduating, she worked as a technician at the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. During her time at UT, she worked on a meta-analysis on asymmetric premating isolation for Prof. Daniel Bolnick, conducted phonotaxis experiments on Túngara frogs for Prof. Michael J. Ryan and did ancient DNA work for Prof. Deborah Bolnick.

Wing majored in B.Sc Biology with a Specialization in Ecology at Concordia University. He is interested in developing new tools and frameworks to assist his peers in their ecological research and education. Currently volunteering at the Barrett lab, Wing is assisting with an experimental evolution project involving transplants of threespine stickleback into several Alaskan lakes. His current personal project consists of porting the Java based ecological modeling software Populus into an easily accessible web app for students without access to a compatible computer due to COVID-19 restrictions on computer lab access. App demo: wingzhg.shinyapps.io/populur.  Wing’s website.

Tim conducted his Ph.D. in the Barrett lab, investigating adaptation in natural populations of Heliconius butterflies and Anolis lizards. Tim is currently an NSF postdoctoral fellow in Jeff Good’s lab at University of Montana, investigating landscape genomics in snowshoe hares.

Sara conducted her Ph.D. in the Barrett and Rogers (University of Calgary) labs, investigating the ecological consequences of genetically-based thermal traits in fishes. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow with Michael Sorenson (University of Boston) and Tim Sackton (Harvard University), where she is working on the comparative genomics of avian brood parasitism. 

Juntao completed both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Agronomy at China Agricultural University. During his undergraduate and M.Sc., he worked on developing DNA barcoding techniques to identify invasive insect species, and explored molecular mechanisms, particularly heat shock protein expression, underlying the distinct range expansion patterns of two invasive fruit fly species. Juntao conducted his Ph.D. thesis in the Barrett lab, studying epigenetic responses to environmental change in wide range of animal taxa. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University, focusing on developing models to explore the relationship between DNA methylation, chronological age, and biological age in animals.

Dieta investigated ecological speciation in threespine stickleback during her Ph.D. in the Barrett lab. She is currently a data scientist at iSpot.tv.

Ari investigated epigenetic responses to stress in Anolis sagrei during his Ph.D. He is currently doing market research for Hotspex.

Sara was a visiting M.Sc. student in the lab. Her project focused on migration-selection balance in populations of threespine stickleback inhabiting bar-built estuaries in California. She is currently conducting her Ph.D. at the University of Stockholm.

Bushra was a visiting Ph.D. student from Pakistan. Her project involved DNA barcoding for identification of Pakistan’s marine and freshwater fish species.

Antoine was a postdoctoral fellow in the Barrett lab, investigating eco-evolutionary dynamics in threespine stickleback. He is currently a research professional in genomic studies at the McGill Genome Center.

Juliette is completing her B.Sc in Biology at McGill University. For her Honours research project in BIOL 479, she worked with Charles Xu to investigate how the microbiome inhabiting skin piercings and how it changes over time after a disturbance event. She is using earlobe piercings as her study model to compare the microbiome of pierced and non-pierced skin from participants over time.

Savannah is majoring in Biology at McGill University. She works in the lab as a research assistant performing sea anemone care and propagation. She is currently assisting Victoria Glynn in preparing a publication on the biogeography of Pocillopora corals and their dinoflagellates across the Indo-Pacific. For her Independent Research Project (BIOL 466), she studied the symbiotic relationship between the sea anemone Exaiptasia pallida and dinoflagellates. Her work involved determining the critical salinity point for our sea anemones and assessing their regenerative ability when exposed to induced asexual reproduction.

Frida-Cecilia is majoring in Quantitative Biology at McGill University. For her Independent Research Project (BIOL 466), she worked with PhD student Victoria Glynn, and the undergraduate researcher Savannah Bissegger, studying the effects of water salinity and asexual reproduction in the emerging model system for corals, the sea anemone Exaiptasia pallida.

As an undergraduate, Avery worked closely with Charles in summer 2019 in order to help plan the “Microbiome of Human Piercings” project. Participants are currently being collected from a Tattoo Lounge in Montreal and we hope to begin bacterial sequencing of samples soon! Avery is currently completing a double major in the departments of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto, as well as working in the lab of Dr. Aneil Agrawal in the EEB department.

Emily is a U2 Biology student at McGill. She volunteered with Ananda in 2019 and helped with standardized photography and digitization of the wings of Heliconius butterflies, and with finding patterns in wing colouration using R. Since her time in the Barrett lab she has worked on independent research in the von Sperber lab studying changes in phosphorus concentration in plants with varying altitude, bedrock type, and time in the growing season. Emily is currently studying in New Zealand for a semester, and hopes to continue to study human impacts on biodiversity in the future.

Nicole worked as a volunteer in Dr. Barrett’s lab during her undergrad, assisting Charles Xu with extracting environmental DNA from samples collected at the Large Experimental Array of Ponds (LEAP) to study community and evolutionary rescue. While working in the lab, she was able to practice DNA extractions, get comfortable with doing standard lab protocols such as PCR and gel electrophoresis. Nicole currently works for a non-profit, teaching and promoting science and robotics in schools in Kahnawake, and is planning to return to academia to complete a masters in evolutionary biology in the next few years.

Rachel is a U2 biology student who worked on the DNA extractions from the 2017 Large Experimental Array of Ponds experiment, which used environmental DNA samples to study evolutionary and community rescue. Since leaving the Barrett lab, she has been working at the McGill Farmers’ Market and studying in Panama for a field study semester. She aspires to study the intersection of how ecosystems and human societies are adapting to climate change in the future.

In 2018, Michael was an undergraduate volunteer in the lab. He performed eDNA extractions from water samples collected at the Large Experimental Array of Ponds (LEAP) located at the Gault Nature Reserve to study the adaptability of the aquatic communities to acidity. Since then, Michael has also worked as an intern at INRS Armand-Frappier for Dr. Éric Déziel, studying the effects of multiple species and strains from the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) on the growth of plants and the virulence of variant strains having lost a chromosome in a Galleria model. He is currently working towards his undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Immunology here at McGill.

Lauren worked in the Barrett lab in the spring and summer of 2018 assessing the effect of charged membrane filters in the collection of environmental DNA (eDNA) from natural water samples. In addition, Lauren helped extract eDNA from samples collected at the Large Experimental Array of Ponds (LEAP) facility in the summer of 2017 testing the effect of acidity on lake communities. She also participated in fieldwork for the LEAP 2018 experiment. Currently, Lauren teaches high school science to students with learning difficulties and continuously strive to make science exciting and accessible for all.

In summer 2018, Scarlett worked on measuring the surface area of leaves by using the Lamina program under the supervision of Tim Thurman and Charles Xu. These leaves were collected from experimental islands in the Bahamas and served as an indicator of herbivory. Scarlett is currently finishing her degrees in computer science and biology.

In the summer of 2017, Kiran assisted Charles Xu to develop an updated protocol for extracting DNA of spiders and their prey from spider webs. Kiran also worked with Charles as the director of videography for the STEMM Diversity @ McGill student initiative at the Redpath Museum. He has recently been accepted to the University of Manitoba to pursue an MSc in Arctic Oceanography and will start in the summer of 2020.

Samantha worked in the Barrett Lab while completing her DEC in Health Science at Vanier College. She entered the BioGenius Competition in 2017 under the mentorship of Charles Xu. Her project was titled, “DNA extractions on spider webs vs DNA extractions from spider tissues; the next steps in conservation”. She is now in her final year at McGill University in Honours Life Sciences with a specialization in Animal Biology. She is currently conducting research in the Bordignon Lab on the Macdonald Campus. Her current project tests the efficiency of microinjection and electroporation in the delivery of CRISPR Cas9 and gene editing in porcine embryos. After graduation, she wishes to study veterinary medicine.

Natalie is in her last semester at McGill with a B.Sc. in Environmental Biology. As an undergrad, she completed a research project in Dr. Jaqueline Bede’s Plant-Insect Interaction Lab, exploring how pine essential oil could act as a synergist, preventing the glutathione S-transferase detoxification mechanism in the cabbage looper caterpillar, Trichoplusia ni.

Jaren is an undergraduate student at McGill University pursuing a B.Sc. in Microbiology & Immunology. He’s a recipient of the Light S.U.R.A. and will be researching in the Barrett Lab during the Spring and Summer of 2021. He is currently assisting the research of Graduate Student Alan Garcia on the genetic basis of color morph pigmentation of ball pythons, specifically on DNA extractions, quality control, quantification, and normalization.

Laura is fascinated by the trillions of microbes; including bacteria, archaea, viruses, and fungi, that grow on and inside living organisms, forming their microbiome. Her PhD research revolves around marine microbiomes and how they – in tandem with their animal hosts – can survive and adapt to both natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Her research leverages the seasonal upwelling in the Tropical Eastern Pacific and transisthmian sister fish species pairs in Panama’s coral reefs to investigate host-microbiome responses to changing environments across seasonal and evolutionary time scales. She is part of the NEO-STRI program and is co-supervised by Dr. Matthieu Leray at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).

Laura completed her BA in Biology at Middlebury College (Vermont, USA). As an undergraduate, she was involved in various research projects including an investigation of cultural and geographic variation in personal care product (PCP) use worldwide with Dr. Kathryn Crawford (Middlebury College), and a study of the drivers behind seasonal shifts in aggression in a native electric teleost fish (Gymnotus omarorum) during an internship with Dr. Laura Quintana (IIBCE, Uruguay). She is passionate about science education and outreach, especially the use of art as a medium for science communication.

Lucas received his BSc from the Honours Integrated Science program at McMaster University, where he concentrated in Biology. As an undergraduate, he had the opportunity to work with Dr. Chad Harvey, Dr. Jim Quinn, and Dr. Sigal Balshine, researching various aspects of ecology and evolution. For his undergraduate thesis, Lucas worked with Dr. Sigal Balshine and Dr. Ben Bolker, using phylogenetic analysis to explore the evolution of reproductive accessory glands across fishes. For his Master’s thesis (co-supervised by Dr. Graham Bell), he will be using the stickleback system to investigate the predictability of evolution, through a large-scale transplant experiment in Alaska.

Eric completed his honours BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Trent University in 2022. Throughout his undergraduate degree, Eric was actively involved in various research projects focused on the population genetics of North American Ungulates as well as app development for science education. Eric received three NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRAs) to work under Dr. Aaron Shafer (Trent University). For his undergraduate thesis, Eric investigated the genomic health of three demographically divergent ungulates: white-tailed deer, mountain goats, and caribou. He was also the co-president of the Undergraduate Chemistry Society at Trent University. In September 2022, Eric started his PhD studies with the Barrett lab at McGill University. His work focuses on the epigenetic modifications experienced by three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) when the species is naturally subjected to changes in salinity. He is currently funded by an NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship (CGS).

Akhil completed a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a B.A. in French at the University of Rochester in 2022. As an undergraduate, Akhil conducted research with Dr. Jennifer Brisson (University of Rochester) on the evolution of polymorphic and polyphenic traits–such as color and wing morph–in aphids. He also conducted research with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, testing the ability of eDNA technologies to detect the presence of rare and endangered bumblebee species. For his Ph.D. Akhil is co-supervised by Dr. Rowan Barrett and Dr. Jesse Shapiro. Using the LEAP mesocosm as a model, Akhil is interested in researching the adaptation of aquatic communities and individual species to a plurality of anthropogenic stressors and their synergistic effects. He is also interested in looking at the predictability of evolution within the context of this system.

Maxime is an undergraduate student at McGill University majoring in Biology and minoring in Environment. In summer 2022 he worked with M.Sc. student Emma Derrick (co-supervised by Dr. Barrett) at the Large Experimental Array of Ponds (LEAP) lab as a Gault Research Award recipient. There, he looked at how biotic and abiotic factors affect the evolution of the bacteria in response to varying levels of glyphosate exposure. For his Honors project, he is working with Ph.D. student Victoria Glynn in the analysis of data she collected from coral reefs in Panama. They will try to resolve what microbiome composition and dynamics confers the most thermal resilience to coral hosts, and how environmental heterogeneity affects this resilience.

Linda is a fourth-year undergrad at McGill University majoring in Biology and minoring in Computer Science. For her honours thesis, Linda is working with Lucas Eckert to investigate rapid morphological changes in the three-spined stickleback in response to environmental change. She aspires to a career in education and to teach biology at the secondary school level.

Johanna is a fourth-year undergrad at McGill University majoring in Psychology with minors in Biology and Natural History. For an independent research project, Johanna is working with Lucas Eckert to investigate temporal morphometric changes in three-spine sticklebacks in experimental lakes in Alaska. She aims to continue in this field of biology and pursue graduate school.

Marcus completed his BSc in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of California Los Angeles. As an undergraduate, he worked with Dr. Tina Treude, Dr. David Jacobs, and Dr. Jeana Drake studying ocean geochemical cycles of nitrogen, coastal lagoon geomorphology, and stony coral biomineralization proteomics. Afterwards, Marcus worked with Dr. Sergey Nuzhdin at the University of Southern California, researching giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) genetics and aquaculture. For his Master’s thesis (co-advised by Dr. Nagissa Mahmoudi), Marcus is interested in examining the genetics and microbial associations of local seaweed species under changing environments.

Alina is an undergraduate student at McGill University entering her third year in the Joint
Honours Computer Science and Biology program. Alina recently attended a biology course held at McGill’s Bellairs Research institute in Holetown, Barbados. There, she pursued her interests in tropical biology by exploring size frequency distributions of coral species as a measure of coral reef health. Alina was also awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering experience in collaboration with the Biofluids and Global Health Lab, lead by Dr. Caroline Wagner, pursuing research in infectious disease modeling and containment strategies. Continuing to explore her research interests, Alina will work with Ph. D student Victoria Glynn on her research in conducting heat stress experiments with sea anemones.

Andrew Kemp graduated from his Bachelor of Science in Honours Biology at McGill University in spring of 2024. He is broadly interested in evolutionary ecology, recently finishing his Honours Thesis with PhD student Lucas Eckert on morphological adaptations of stickleback along the benthic-limnetic axis in response to their environment, both in situ and in common garden. He has also done work on at-risk plants, peat soil, and biochar applications. His experiences have fostered his passion for researching climate change’s impacts on the environment and communities. The summer following his undergrad, he will be doing research using machine learning models trained on climatic datasets to help predict vulnerabilities and mitigate the effects of climate change in the Caribbean. He plans to pursue his interests through graduate studies.

Eva is an undergraduate student at McGill University, entering her final year in the Honours Biology program. She works as a volunteer in Dr. Barrett’s lab, assisting MK Hickox with extracting DNA from stickleback samples collected in California to study the processes of natural selection within and across populations. While working in the lab, she practiced various molecular techniques, such as DNA extractions, quantifications, or Speevac

Exploring a variety of systems and research questions, Tim pursued his BSc and MSc in Biochemistry at Goethe University, Germany. His projects led him to work on locomotion in C. elegans using optogenetic tools (Gottschalk lab, Goethe University), the piRNA pathway in the D. melanogaster germline (Kai lab, Osaka University), the transport mechanism of a bacterial membrane protein (Geertsma lab, Goethe University & Hummer lab, MPI Biophysics), and structural mass spectrometry to study membrane protein folding (Reading lab, King’s College London).

Tim’s exposure to diverse lines of research led to his broader interest in understanding the mechanisms and functions of epigenetics across length and time scales by bridging biochemistry and evolutionary biology. Tim is co-supervised by Dr Rowan Barrett and by Dr Nicole Francis at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), with whom he works on the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic regulators in the Polycomb Group. In collaboration with Dr Simon Reader, Tim is exploring epigenetic responses to predation stress in Trinidadian guppies. Besides his research projects, Tim is passionate to make science more sustainable, accessible and affordable.