I joined the Helmuth lab to integrate my research interests in marine ecology, climate change, and physiology. As an undergraduate at UC San Diego, I became excited about investigating the interactions between organisms and their environments. I majored in biology with an emphasis in ecology and gained my first taste of field work by assisting PhD student Pamela Yeh with her studies of two diverging populations of the dark-eyed junco.

After obtaining my Bachelor's degree, I traveled around the west coast, looking to broaden my knowledge of ecology and its applications. In California, I worked as a fisheries technician and found myself intrigued by the complexities inherent in studying and managing the marine ecosystem. As a lab technician for Dr. Elise Pendall at the University of Wyoming, I assisted with the reconstruction of late Holocene climate records using stable isotopes derived from peat. I became interested in climate change research and in the physical exchanges that take place between an organism and its environment.

As a graduate student, I look forward to directing my own investigations into climate change and its impacts on physiology in the rocky intertidal. For my thesis, I will be examining the impact of temperature on biotic interactions between the marine snails Nucella and their prey Mytilus. My research remains in the initial stages of development, but I anticipate looking at the role of body temperature in determining foraging behavior and in setting vertical distribution.