Fall 2022
The Karubian lab wrapped up 2022 on a high note, with students Katie Rompf and Kat Perkins successfully defending their MS theses. Here is an overview of what lab members have been up to! Therese Lamperty moved from the University of Washington in Seattle to Tulane where she started a fellowship with the American Association of University Women to focus on finishing up a project with Jordan that they began during her PhD. The project involves investigating potential genetic consequences for trees that might follow the loss of primates and...
read moreSpring 2022
The Karubian Lab had an active Spring 2022! We were all glad to celebrate Mardi Gras in person again! Sarah Khalil and John Jones both defended outstanding PhD theses on fairywrens, and we wish them the best as they move onto the next steps in their careers. Graduating seniors Ellie Casement and Sloan Livaccari defended their honors theses and won departmental honors for their work. And, Megan Narasimhan joined the team as the Program Manager for the Ecuador Scholars Program, and has had a tremendous impact—welcome aboard Megan! We are all...
read moreFall 2021
The cooler weather is here and everyone in the lab has been busy! The semester got off to a great start but then Hurricane Ida came through and disrupted our flow a bit. Nevertheless, we all bounced back and are keeping busy with our classes, research, and teaching. This semester we welcomed some new undergraduates to the lab including: Mary Elizabeth Barrow, Jack Cohn, Olivia Davison, Sloan Livaccari, and Maggie Millar. We also welcomed Master students Galen Dolkas, Chengkai (Kai) Guo, Vishal Narayan, and Thalia Williamson! Tanner Mazanec,...
read moreSpring 2021
As the weather warms, we come to the end of an academic year unlike any other. While the meetings remained virtual, the promise of a return to normalcy as more and more people get vaccinated kept spirits bright. We are happy to see each other again in person and enjoy the beautiful scenery that a New Orleans spring brings. We also have so much to celebrate! Congratulations to our fresh PhD candidates Annelise Blanchette and Mike Ellis for successfully defending their prospectus’ and to Caroline Camus, Erin Sheehy, and Melanie Smith for...
read moreFall 2020
The fall semester welcomed students back to campus to teach and learn virtually and in-person! We welcomed M.S. students Peyton Fralick, Tanner Mazanec, and Ace Spitzer. Undergraduate student Cecilia Hammond has joined the lab, Sarah Uher has moved from lab tech to researcher, and students Ellie Casement, Caroline Camus, Melanie Smith and Erin Sheehy are all making great progress on their honors theses. As we navigated a whirlwind of a spring semester and summer, the returning PhD students have been productive. John Jones had a busy summer...
read moreSpring 2020
Spring has sprung. The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding new leaves and the Karubian lab has been adapting to the unfolding coronavirus pandemic. We have been meeting virtually for the past several weeks and doing our best to keep motivated as we revise our plans to adjust to a summer without field research. The beautiful weather has been a huge help as we maintain social distancing through this challenging time, and the migratory birds and centuries-old oaks serve as much-needed reminders that ‘this too shall pass’. First things...
read moreFall 2019
Welcome back to school everyone! This semester we welcomed Ph.D. student Luke Anderson. Luke is joining us from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied brown-headed cowbird courtship under the advisement of Dr. Marc Schmidt. He will now focus his research on manakins in the family Pipridae in Ecuador. Kyu Min Hu and Caitlin McCormick, who both completed their undergraduate studies Tulane last year, have returned to further their education as M.S. students in our lab. We also welcomed Zhiyu (Wendy) Deng as M.S. students in the lab. We...
read moreSpring 2019
Spring has come and gone, and the heat is here to stay in New Orleans. All members of the lab have been busy and productive this semester! First things first – congratulations to newly minted Ph.D. Candidates John Jones and Sarah Khalil for successfully defending their PhD thesis prospectus’ and to Lauren Hitt, Kyu Min Huh, and Shayna Ross for successfully defending their undergraduate Honors Theses! Good job everyone! The plus one master’s students have been equally successful in finishing up their programs and preparing to graduate....
read moreFall 2018
The cold weather has arrived in New Orleans and to stay warm all members of the lab have been keeping busy! This semester we welcomed Ph.D. students Annelise Blanchette and Mike Ellis to the lab! Annelise comes to us from John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH, where she earned her M.S. in biology. She will be working on mockingbirds here in New Orleans, with a focus on how environmental lead may impact behavior. She is happy to escape the cold winters of the north! Mike has come back to the states from Ecuador where he works as the...
read moreSpring 2018
Spring has sprung, and the lab has some exciting news – two of our Ph.D. candidates, Erik Enbody and Brock Geary, are about to fledge! Erik Enbody is preparing to defend his dissertation in March 2018 and, following his defense, he will begin a postdoctoral research position in Dr. Leif Andersson’s lab at Uppsala University in Sweden. Since the last update, Erik coauthored a meta-analysis on extra pair paternity rates across Malurus fairywrens that was recently published in Molecular Ecology (Brouwer et al. 2017), submitted a...
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