Catherine Hernandez, Ph.D.
Research description: Catherine Hernandez is generally interested in how environmental change will alter microbial interactions. Just like in macroorganisms, microorganismal physiology and fitness are impacted by abiotic factors, and their ecology and evolution will be shaped by global change. At Yale, Catherine will be particularly focused on how temperature impacts the interactions between environmental bacteria and the bacteriophage (phage) viruses that infect them. Catherine will be using observational and experimental evolution approaches to study geographic patterns of thermal responses, the relationship between viral host range and thermal performance, and how virus populations adapt to changing temperatures. These results will provide insight into how temperature can alter microbial community composition, trait evolution, and the structure of microbial networks. Given the important role of phages in structuring microbial communities, this work has implications for predictions of climate change impacts on microbially-mediated ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling.
Fellowship dates: September 2021 – August 2025
Armita Manafzadeh, Ph.D.
Research description: Armita is interested in the evolution and development of vertebrate animal form and function. She integrates approaches from biomechanics, paleontology, computer animation, and experimental biology to better understand how synovial joints (like hips and knees) work. At Yale, Armita will be exploring how her research can interface with ecology by studying ecomorphological diversification through a joint-focused lens.
Fellowship dates: July 2022 – June 2024
Heather LeClerc, Ph.D.
Research description: Heather’s research harnesses her background in both chemistry and chemical engineering to understand the fundamental chemical reactions that inhibit the wide-scale realization of green energy technologies. Due to the prevalence of lignin as a byproduct of ethanol and paper production, Heather will focus her efforts on determining limiting factors in lignin depolymerization and subsequent repolymerization into useful platform chemicals and even synthetic wood.
Fellowship dates: July 2023 – June 2025
Katlin Schroeder, Ph.D.
Research description: Katlin Schroeder studies the effects of extreme body size on the community ecology, diversity, and behavior of non-avian dinosaurs. Her research includes large data analysis of dinosaur body size diversity across spatial scales, the role of juvenile megatheropods in the structuring of dinosaur communities, the evolution of skull structure in tyrannosauroids, and the dietary ecology of tyrannosaurids through ontogeny.
Fellowship dates: August 2023 – July 2025
Maya LaGrange Rao, Ph.D.
Research description: Maya’s research focus lies at the intersection of geobiology and geochemistry; in particular, she is interested in understanding past marine conditions through bioturbation and chemical proxies recorded in sedimentary rocks. By comparing the trace fossil assemblages of ancient coastal rock units to present-day coastal sediments, Maya’s work at Yale will investigate the response of shoreline burrowing animals to changes in temperature.
Fellowship dates: September 2023 – August 2025
Craig Brinkerhoff, Ph.D.
Research description: Craig is a hydrologist and river scientist. He uses remote sensing, modeling, and hydro-geomorphic theory to improve understanding of global river basins and inform sustainable water resources management. At Yale, he is developing an integrated river corridor model for rivers, wetlands, floodplains, and headwater streams to elucidate their cumulative effects on downstream water quantity and quality.
Fellowship dates: July 2024 – June 2026
Eric Gulson-Castillo, Ph.D.
Research description: Eric studies the evolution of complex phenotypes in birds. For his PhD, he studied bird magnetoreception using comparative behavioral and neurosensory experimenets, and investigated macroecology of magnetoreception during migration using radar. At Yale, he will study the complexity of the syrinx, the sound-producing organ in birds, and how it evolves alongside neuroanatomy and the complexity of bird vocalizations.
Fellowship dates: September 2024 – August 2026
Tatiana Maeda, Ph.D.
Research description: Tatiana is a Brazilian ecologist interested in assessing the impacts of human activities on biodiversity and evaluating the effectiveness of conservation strategies in safeguarding it, using novel technologies such as bioacoustics in her research. At Yale, she will investigate how animal communities in the Southeast Amazon respond to key degradation drivers and how these changes may influence the ecyosystem’s capacity to resist and adapt to climate change.
Fellowship dates: October 2024 – October 2026
