The E&E Graduate Program is happy to welcome five new Ph.D. students: Carlos Calzada, Katie Dixon, Natalia Ershova, Zach Miller, and Justin Rigby.
Carlos Calzada will join the program in July for the BSD Summer Research Program after receiving his B.S. In Biology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Carlos will spend the summer with Dr. Steve Pruett-Jones studying a local population of monk parakeets.
Justin Rigby will also join the program in July, through the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program. Justin is graduating from University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Genetics and Plant Biology and will spend the summer in Dr. Joy Bergelson’s lab.
Katie Dixon will join the graduate program in September after completing her M.S. At Case Western Reserve University. Her M.S. research in theoretical ecology was supervised by E&E alum Dr. Karen Abbott. Katie is interested in Dr. Greg Dwyer’s lab and their work on the behavioral components of disease transmission.
Natalia Ershova will make the longest journey of our incoming students, joining us in September from Moscow where she completed her B.S. And M.S. at Moscow State University. The bulk of Natalia’s training has been in invertebrate zoology, but her interests lie in marine ecology and she is eager to join Drs. Cathy Pfister and Tim Wootton in the field.
Zach Miller will join the graduate program in September, coming to Chicago from Yale University where he received a B.S. In Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Zach is interested in theoretical ecology and is currently preoccupied with how community assembly determines the structure and stability of ecological networks. He is eager to join Dr. Stefano Allesina’s research group for lively discussions.