Meet the 2023 Blandy REU Participants

REU Headshot
Sydney Sauls
 
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Home Institution: Howard University
 
Project Title: Good things take thyme: Effects of thymol on nodulation, growth, ant defense & herbivory in African Cowpea, Vigna unguiculata
Mentor: Mary McKenna
 
 
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Maddie Rapelyea
 
Hometown: Silver Spring, Maryland
Home Institution: Colby College
 
Project Title: Host plant and temperature mediated changes in Vanessa cardui and Dryocampa rubicunda wing morphology
Mentor: Rebecca Forkner
 
 
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Omar Morosse
 
Hometown: Nyack, New York
Home Institution: Kenyon College
 
Project Title: Trade-offs between frontline and backline defenses in a multiple host brood parasite system
Mentor: Daniel Hanley
 
 
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Caroline Mastria
 
Hometown: Sykesville, Maryland
Home Institution: Shippensburg University
 
Project Title: Game of spot the difference: The role of intra-clutch variation in the Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) on the rejection of cowbird-like eggs
Mentor: Juliana Villa
 
 
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Dimitri Gonzalez
 
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Home Institution: Wittenberg University
 
Project Title: The impact of predator identity on the anti-predator behavior of prey in an aquatic insect intraguild predation system
Mentor: Patrick Crumrine
 
 
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Nate Forgan
 
Hometown: Georgia, Vermont
Home Institution: Castleton University
 
Project Title: Assessing the visual averaging hypothesis and the influence of spatial fragmentation of polarized light on aquatic insects’ oviposition site selection
Mentor: Kyle Haynes
 
 
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Daniel Flores
 
Hometown: Radford, Virginia
Home Institution: University of Pikeville
 
Project Title: Rags or Riches: How supplementary nectar affects foraging patterns, division of labor, and colony health of Bombus impatiens
Mentor: Kelsey Schoenemann
 
 
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Camila Cohen Suárez
 
Hometown: Alexandria, Virginia
Home Institution: University of Virginia
 
Project Title: Effects of predator community composition and habitat connectivity on intraguild predation in aquatic insects
Mentor: Patrick Crumrine
 
 
 
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Kylie Bill
 
Hometown: Florham Park, New Jersey
Home Institution: American University
 
Project Title: The role of flower volatiles in maintaining reproductive isolation in the absence of pollinator shift and morphological differences
Mentor: David Carr
 
 
 
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Nia Ashby
 
Hometown: Ossipee, New Hampshire
Home Institution: Bowdoin College
 
Project Title: You’ve been bugged: Defense mechanisms against conopid fly parasitism by bumblebees (Bombus griseocolllis & Bombus impatiens)
Mentor: T’ai Roulston