Jessica Li, BSc (Honours)

Email:
jessli@zoology.ubc.ca

Alex Coverley, BA, MA

Email: coverley@zoology.ubc.ca

Lauren Gill, BSc (Honours)

Email:
lauren.gill@ubc.ca

Emily Black

Email:
black.emily.nicole@gmail.com

Katie Marshall

Associate Professor, UBC (2023 - )
Assistant Professor, UBC (2018 - 2023)
Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma (2016 - 2018)

NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC (2015 - 2016)
Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC (2013 - 2016)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Wilfrid Laurier University (2013)
PhD, University of Western Ontario (2007 - 2013)
BSc. (Hons), Acadia University (2003 - 2007


I fill in forms, and play with data any chance I get.

Karin van der Burg
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD, Cornell (2020)
MSc, Leiden University (2013)
BSc, Leiden University (2010)

As PhD student, I worked in the lab of Dr. Reed on variation in seasonal plasticity in Junonia coenia butterflies. I showed that wing color plasticity evolved through regulatory variation in three genes.

Current research:

Overall, I’m interested in studying how insects cope with seasonal changes. I study how seasonality has evolved in tropical vs temperature dung beetles, as well as evolution of winter survival mechanisms in the eastern spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana. 

Jarrett Blair
PhD Candidate
BSc (Honours), University of Guelph (2018)

As an undergrad, I worked with Dr. Robert Hanner and Dr. Steven Crookes on a project that used environmental DNA (eDNA) to predict habitat occupancy of Jefferson salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum). For my thesis, I assessed the viability of using sedimentary eDNA sampling protocols to detect Jefferson salamander populations. I also developed a novel approach for predicting Jefferson salamander habitat occupancy using a cumulative probability matrix.

Current research:

In general, I am interested in using machine learning and computer vision models to solve biological problems. For my Masters, I am working with the National Ecological Observatory Network Invertebrate Bycatch Project (NEONIB) to develop machine learning models that can identify invertebrates from pitfall trap images. I hope to be able to use this data to find spatiotemporal patterns in invertebrate morphology and predict how invertebrate community structure might change in response to climate change.

Jessica Li
PhD Candidate (co-supervised by Bill Milsom)
BSc (Honours), University of British Columbia (2020)

Metabolic scaling describes the relationship between metabolic rate and body size, but body size can change for many different reasons. I’m interested in asking how different forms of mass fluctuation affects metabolic scaling and looking at the underlying respiratory physiology. My Master’s research is currently focused on thirteen-lined ground squirrels, and asks how mass-specific metabolic rate changes throughout parturition, development from juvenile to adult life stages, and large, seasonal changes in mass in adults.

Alex Coverley
PhD Student
BA, MA

Is in charge of chasing dung beetles, measuring their metabolic rates, and modelling the results.

Lauren Gill
MSc student
BSc (Honours), University of British Columbia (2021)

I am interested in investigating the mechanisms of freeze tolerance in the bay mussel, Mytilus trossulus. Specifically I am to determine how the 70 kDa heat shock protein plays a role in mussel freeze tolerance during repeated freeze-thaw cycles, which happen during the winter months in the intertidal zone.

Emily Black
MSc student
BSc (Honours), University of British Columbia (2022)

I am interested in how climate affects the phenology of invertebrates, and how citizen science can be used as a tool to gather large-scale data and predict ecological trends. Currently I am using iNaturalist citizen science records of the fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) to determine if there is phenological evidence for an incipient speciation occurring between the red and black colour morphs of this species. I hope to discover if certain populations of H. cunea exhibit different phenology and why, quantify other large-scale life history and phenology patterns, and combine this existing research to determine if speciation is occurring.

Nathaniel Moyes
MSc student

I am interested in how expression of proteins capable of manipulating ice growth differ across large and small geographical distances. For my Masters, I am looking at different populations of the eastern spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana, and their ability to survive the extreme sub-zero temperatures using a powerful anti-freeze protein. I am also investigating the diversity of ice binding proteins in invertebrate animals along Vancouver's coast, using populations from high and low tidal zones.