Work with thought leaders and academic experts from University of Alaska Fairbanks

Graduate Research Assistant / August, 2019 — August, 2022

I received my M.S. in fisheries as a graduate research assistant. I was the lead researcher on a 3-month long fish sampling project in Prudhoe Bay, AK during 2020 and 2021. This project used fyke nets to quantify and qualify the fish species within the nearshore Prudhoe Bay environment in order to determine how species composition and abundance were shifting in relation to climate change. For my thesis work, I was interested in determining how acclimation temperature affected organismal and molecular thermotolerance parameters in two fish species. I collected live fish samples and maintained them in a recirculating aquaculture system. I determined the CTmax temperatures for each sample before quantifying the HSP70 protein concentration in three tissue types using Western Blotting protocol. I then analyzed a full transcriptome dataset using Salmon to quantify the HSP70 mRNA transcript concentrations in two tissue types. All results were published in the journal Conservation Physiology.

Research Assistant / May, 2019 — August, 2019

I assisted in a variety of scientific projects occurring in Dr. Trent Sutton's lab. I participated in an Arctic cod eDNA project where we collected water samples from Prudhoe Bay, AK for eDNA analysis using custom primers I helped develop to detect the presence or absence of Arctic cod. I also assisted in a lamprey field sampling project where we spent 5 days using electrofishing to collect live adult and ammocoete samples in addition to collecting water samples for eDNA analysis. I filtered, collected, and extracted DNA from these water samples for future research. Finally, I assisted a graduate student in a capelin fecundity project.