Lab Alumnae/i

Graduate Alumnae/i

At JASM '14 in Portland, Oregon, with current students, alumni, and academic grandchildren at Virginia Tech

At JASM ’14 in Portland, Oregon, with current students, alumni, and academic grandchildren at Virginia Tech

  • Keith Fritschie, Ph.D. 2023, works as a Watershed Planner for the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Water Investment Division, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
  • Andrew Vacca, Ph.D. 2020, works at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Atlanta, GA.
  • Jessica Trout-Haney, Ph.D. 2017, is back as a postdoc – see Current Lab Members page. Follow Jess on Twitter @JVTHaney
  • Sam Fey, Ph.D. 2014, currently an Associate Professor at Reed College. Follow Sam on Twitter @sbfey.
  • Cayelan Carey, Cornell Ph.D. 2012, is currently  Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech (honorary graduate alumna). Follow Cayelan on Twitter @CareyLab.
  • Lizzie Wolkovich, Ph.D. 2009, is currently an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia.
  • Julia Butzler, Ph.D. 2008, has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the State of Vermont, and the United State Geological Survey.
  • Bryan Brown, Ph.D. 2004, currently an Associate Professor at Virginia Tech
  • Jay Lennon, Ph.D. 2004, currently a Professor at Indiana University. Follow Jay on Twitter @jaytlennon

Postdoctoral Alumnae

  • Jennifer Brentrup was a postdoctoral fellow with the Ecology, Evolution, Ecosystems and Society graduate program working on multiple projects in collaboration with Cottingham lab members, including the Gloeo and NASA projects. She then moved to the University of Vermont and is now a visiting assistant professor at St. Olaf College, but still engaged with the NASA team. Keep tabs on Jennie on Twitter @JBrentrup
  • Sam Fey, 2014-16, continued to participate in lab activities while a James S. MacDonnell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Studying Complex Systems, based at Yale University with David Vasseur.
  • Courtney Carignan, 2013-14, worked on the Children’s Center arsenic project before becoming a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard School of Public Health. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan.
  • Denise Bannon, 2011-12, worked on the Children’s Center arsenic project

Research Technicians

  • Elizabeth “Liz” Berendsen, University of St. Andrews ’22, worked on the EPSCoR and tick projects during summer-fall 2022.
  • Owen Krol, Colby-Sawyer ’17, managed the Gloeo project during summer-fall 2017.
  • Elizabeth “ET” Traver, Gloeo project manager 2009-12; currently a full-time technician and part-time graduate student at the University of Wyoming
  • Andrew Mertens, Gloeo project manager 2012-13; pursued graduate study at UC-Berkeley
  • Leah Webb, arsenic project assistant 2011-12
  • Chip Glaholt, lab set-up guru and cattle tank wrangler; earned an M.S. from Miami University of Ohio; currently a technician at Indiana University with Joe Shaw

Undergraduate Honors Students (and their topics)

  • Andrew Li ’20, reconstructed brook trout early life history using their otoliths (microscopic ear bones), then worked for the NIH for a year before enrolling in the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore in August 2021.
  • Aldo Arellano ’17, studied populations of Dolichospermum cyanobacteria in Lake Myvatn, Iceland, based on field work conducted as an REU intern with the Lake Myvatn LTREB project during summer 2016. Aldo is now a Gilliam Fellow and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Wisconsin after time as a research technician in the Chisholm lab at MIT. In his undergraduate days, he was also a Presidential Scholar who co-authored a paper on thermal performance curves in Chlamydomonas with Sam Fey and helped with field work for the Gloeotrichia project.
  • Kassie Amann ’16, studied heavy metal exposure during early infancy and associations with feeding pattern and is currently in Medical School at the University of Utah.
  • Annie Fagan ’15, effects of land use on dry forest streams in Costa Rica, in collaboration with Taylor lab graduate student Ramsa Chaves.  Learn more about the project at Annie’s blog; she is currently working in the aquaculture industry after many years working in environmental education in Maine.
  • Zach Wood ’15, ecology of Greenlandic kettle ponds, including nutrient limitation, damage to Nostoc colonies, and concentrations of cyanotoxins in the dominant invertebrate taxa; Zach received his Ph.D. at the University of Maine with Mike Kinnison and is currently a postdoctoral associate.
  • Jill Britton ’14, fisherman behavior in a Dominican Republic coral reef ecosystem; exploring the world at the moment!
  • Ellen Irwin ’14, benthic biomonitoring in Alaska; completed her M.S. studying a native bird species in New Zealand and is continuing to work on that project, now as Lead Ranger.
  • Kali Pruss ’14, Vibrio cholerae attachment behaviors; finished her Ph.D. in microbiology at Stanford in August 2020.
  • Jesse Rieb ’13, cyanobacterial distributions and toxicity in Lake Chaohu, China; earned his Ph.D. at McGill University with Elena Bennett
  • Danny O’Donnell ’11, response of Scenedesmus to phosphorus and zooplankton cues; earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State with Elena Litchman and is currently a postdoctoral associate at the University of California at Davis.
  • Joann Gruber ’10, associations between toenail arsenic and dietary components; finished her Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill, then worked for the US Food & Drug Administration before joining the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service.
  • Zach Mayer ’08, grazing on Gloeotrichia echinulata; works in consulting in Boston
  • Mayda Nathan ’08, arthropods on coastal sage scrub in San Diego; completed her Ph.D. with Dan Gruner at the University of Maryland in May 2020.
  • Kale Bongers ’07, historical evaluation of studies of the ecology of Vibrio cholerae; earned M.S. from McGill, pursuing an M.D./Ph.D. at the University of Iowa (finished the Ph.D. part in 2014!)
  • Cayelan Carey ’06, recruitment of Gloeotrichia echinulata; earned Ph.D. from Cornell and now an associate professor, see above.
  • Lakshmi Narayan ’06, distributions of red-backed salamanders relative to logging history; earned Ph.D. at UC-Berkeley and currently a data scientist with Premise Data in California.
  • Chelsea Wood ’06, community-level effects of parasitism; earned Ph.D. from Stanford, did postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado – Boulder and in the University of Michigan’s Society of Fellows, and now an assistant professor at the University of Washington.
  • Nell Campbell ’05, carbon isotopes in lakes during fall de-stratification; completed her Ph.D. at Colorado State and is currently working as a research assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire.
  • Todd Robinson ’03, competition for nitrogen between invasive and native plants; earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State.
  • Sabrina Hepburn ’01, lake early warning indicators; earned M.S. from the University of Michigan.
  • Ashley Brown ’00, Daphnia response to nutrient pulses; now an environmental lawyer in Alaska

Other Undergraduate Alumnae/i

  • Amina Zoklat ’23 worked as an E.E. Just Scholar during Summer 2020 analyzing biweekly data on water chemistry and plankton community structure from two ponds in Bangladesh. These data were collected as part of our long-ago Ecology of Cholera project.
  • Alex Conway ’20 was a Presidential Scholar with former postdoctoral researcher Jennie Brentrup, studying the effects of road salt on freshwater plankton communities. She also counted Gloeotrichia and helped out enormously with Andy’s quantitative social science work on harmful phytoplankton blooms in the media. Alex will enter Geisel Medical School in Fall 2021.
  • Mike Staiger, Colby ’22, put together a draft food web for Lake Sunapee while working as the Midge Eliassen Intern with the Lake Sunapee Protective Association during Summer 2019.
  • Phoebe Cunningham ’20, was a WISP intern with Andy Vacca
  • Alexandra Urquiza ’20, was a WISP intern with Andy Vacca
  • Alexa Wing ’20, Northern Studies intern at the Second College Grant with Keith Fritschie
  • Precious Kilimo ’18, helped Jess Trout-Haney with experiments on colonial Nostoc and their toxicity as a Sophomore Scholar, and came back as a Presidential Scholar as a junior to studying maternal – infant dynamics in dengue (!)
  • Lina Taenzer, Jacobs University (Germany) ’17 ended up doing her M.S. at Dartmouth with Wil Leavitt and is currently pursuing her PhD in chemical oceanography at Woods Hole.
  • Molly Winer, Brandeis University ’17
  • Rachel Wood, UVM ’16
  • Amelia Ritger ’15 did an independent study on how native fish respond to lionfish at Little Cayman Island and then studied lionfish in Curacao in a postgraduate project (read more at her blog, The Roar of the Lionfish). She is now a PhD student at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
  • Ellen Wu ’14
  • Emilia Hull ’14
  • Melanie Daulton ’12
  • Cristina Herren ’12
  • Suzanne Kelson ’12
  • Andrew Mertens ’12
  • Ryan Akrami ’11
  • Natalie Ruppertsberger, Bates ’11
  • Jennie Brentrup, Colby ’10
  • Alyeska Fiorillo, Bates ’10
  • Karl Grunseich ’09
  • Stacy Davis, Fairfield ’09
  • Yirin “Erin” Gu ’09
  • Kristina Conner ’08
  • Chad Gorbatkin ’08
  • Katie Theoharides ’04
  • Richard Trierweiler ’04
  • Bekka Stucker ’04
  • Maureen Coleman ’02
  • Scott McArt ’01
  • Liza Pfaff ’99

High School Interns

  • Liz Rightmire, Hanover HS ’20
  • Kennedy Lange, Hanover HS ’19
  • Patricia Jewell, Kearsage HS ’18
  • Shayna Levesque, Mascoma HS ’15, Colby Sawyer ’19
  • Ellen Irwin, Hanover HS ’10, Dartmouth ’14
  • Julie Wright, Rivendell HS ’00, Wellesley ’04