Current Postdocs
Dr. Madilyn Gamble
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Alonzo, Palkovacs, and Garza labs at UCSC. My research questions focus on understanding the evolutionary origins, maintenance, and consequences of variation among individuals within a species. Specifically, I’m interested in variation between males and females and among alternative reproductive tactics. I address these questions using salmon and trout as a study system. Before beginning my postdoc, I earned my PhD with Ryan Calsbeek at Dartmouth College in the Graduate Program on Ecology, Evolution, Environment, and Society, and my MS with Dave Beauchamp at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fisheries Science.
Current Graduate Students
Doriane Weiler
I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a double major in Integrative Biology and Marine Science before joining the Alonzo Lab in Fall 2016. Growing up by the sea in San Diego, I was fascinated by unusual underwater critters and their behavior. I discovered my passion for reproductive biology while studying the mating behavior of mantis shrimp as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Roy Caldwell’s lab. My research will use mosquitofish (G. affinis) to explore the evolution of sexually antagonistic traits, as well as how sexual conflict impacts ecology, ) as a model system. You can read more about my work here.
Matthew Kustra
Before joining the Alonzo Lab in Fall 2018, I graduated from the University of Virginia in 2018 with a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Computer Science. My undergraduate research thesis in Robert Cox’s lab focused on how sperm morphology and sperm count vary with fine-scale changes in local density in a wild lizard population. My main research interests are in sperm competition and cryptic female choice. You can learn more about me here.
Louise Alissa de Morais
I am a biologist from Brazil, currently a fourth-year PhD student in the Alonzo Lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I am passionate about animal behavior, evolutionary biology, and arthropods. I am a “question-driven” person and my aim is investigate broad questions with multiple approaches, as fieldwork, the genetic basis of behavior, and mathematical modeling. For my PhD, I am focusing on the interplay between sexual selection and parental care. To read more about me, check out my website.
Megan Molinari
I joined the Alonzo lab in 2021, after graduating from the University of New Hampshire with degrees in Neuroscience and Behavior and Marine, Estuarine, and Freshwater Biology. My research interests are focused on the interplay of cognition and social behavior. I plan to investigate questions on the neuroscientific mechanisms behind behavior using observational studies in the field and phenotypic engineering.
Alumni
Dr. Sabrina Beyer
I was a graduate student in Dr. Suzanne Alonzo’s lab at the University of California Santa Cruz. I study the reproductive ecology of marine fishes with particular interest in the magnificent genus of Sebastes (rockfishes). My research goals are to better understand how differing reproductive strategies affect population dynamics under changing environmental conditions. I work in collaboration with the Early Life History and Groundfish Analysis teams at the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service in Santa Cruz, CA. You can learn more about me here.
Dr. Tina Barbasch
I am originally from Upstate New York and graduated with a BA in Biology from Cornell University. As an undergraduate I studied sperm allocation and male competition in the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum). After graduating in 2009 I joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in Morocco teaching environmental education and six months in Liberia teaching high school chemistry. I am currently a PhD student in the Buston Lab at Boston University and a visiting student in the Alonzo Lab at UCSC. My research uses theoretical and empirical approaches to study negotiations over parental care in the clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula), otherwise known as Nemo.