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Alumni

Since 1989, EEB has graduated more than 500 PhD and MS students with dual degrees with their home department. Control F will allow searching through all class years.

 

2024

 

Hazel Anderson, MS

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Phoebe Zarnetske
Thesis: Investigating the scale-dependent relationship of plant-frugivore biodiversity using big data in a biodiversity hotspot
 

Charlotte Anker, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jeff Conner
Dissertation: Measuring the effects of selection and pleiotropy on short stamen number in Arabidopsis thaliana
 

Isabela Lima Borges, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Sarah Fitzpatrick
Dissertation: The effects of dispersal, inbreeding, and mutualisms on the fitness of fragmented populations
 

Emily Conway, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Lars Brudvig
Dissertation: A study of plant community assembly dynamics in urban systems through the lens of restoration ecology
 

Kayla Davis, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Elise Zipkin
Dissertation: From data to dynamics: Data integration to estimate avian population and community dynamics
 

Austin Ferguson, PhD

Computer Science
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: An empirical analysis of historical contingency in evolution
 

Brianna Foster, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Marianna Szucs
Dissertation: Evolutionary and applied approaches for the management of invasive swallow-wort vines (Vincetoxicum spp.): biological control, ecosystem restoration and consequences for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus)
 

Veronica Frans, PhD

Fisheries & Wildlife
Advisor: Jianguo “Jack” Liu
Dissertation: Advancing ecological niche theory for global sustainability: A coupled human and natural systems perspective
 

Abby Grieb, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Ashley Shade
Dissertation: Understanding the microbiome of common bean plants (PHASEOLUS VULGARIS L.): Drought stress, microbiome transmissions and assembly, and outlooks for agricultural applications
 

Anthony Grigsby, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Eric Benbow
Thesis: Seasonal dynamics of decomposition Ecology
 

Sara Hugentobler, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Mariah Meek
Dissertation: Informing conservation actions: Genetic approaches to Chinook salmon management in the Sacramento River of California
 

Brandon Latorre, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Lars Brudvig
Dissertation: The effect of seed mix design on plant productive output in an experimental prairie system
 

Bruce Martin, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Marjorie Weber
Dissertation: New phylogenetic comparative approaches for studying variation in rates of continuous trout evolution
 

Olivia Spagnuolo, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Spatial ecology methods and applications to large carnivore conservation in Kenya
 

Daniel Turner, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Issacs
Dissertation: Time and terpenoids: Experimental and data-intensive investigations into temporal ecology and phytochemistry
 

Jenna Walters, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Dissertation: Effects of extreme heat on northern highbush blueberry pollen and the native pollinator osmia lignana
 

Nicole Watson, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Daniel Hayes
Dissertation: Answering key uncertainties to successful reintroduction of Arctic Grayling to Michigan streams
 

Katherine Wood, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Dissertation: Tree seedling mycorrhizal type and functional traits interact with light availability to mediate plant-soil feedbacks
 

Katherine Wynne, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Lauren Sullivan
Dissertation: The effect of seed dispersal and recruitment on tallgrass prairie community assembly
 

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2023

 

Elizeth Cinto Mejia, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Will Wetzel
Dissertation: The effect of the timing of extreme climatic events on plant communities
 

Marcella Domka, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kendra Cheruvelil
Dissertation: Comparing measures of water quality and waterfowl populations between natural lakes and reservoirs
 

Skye Fissette, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Li
Dissertation: The evolution and function of Sea Lamprey pheromone components
 

Beth Gerstner, PhD

Fisheries & Wildlife
Advisor: Phoebe Zarnetski
Dissertation: Towards improving biodiversity assessments for mammals and birds within the Neotropics
 

Jose Hernandez, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Beyond benchmarks suites: Engineering diagnostic tools to characterize selection schemes
 

Emily Liljestrand, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jim Bence
Dissertation: Evaluating the performance and applicability of state-space stock assessment models
 

Danielle Matuszak, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kendra Cheruvelil
Dissertation: Lake type and connectivity predict zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) presence
 

Mathew Moreno, PhD

Computer Science Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Engineering scalable digital models to study major transitions in evolution
 

Andrea Morrow, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Dissertation: Comparative analysis of investment in sensory brain tissue in diurnal, nocturnal, and cathemeral rodents
 

Kota Nakasato, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Carolyn Malmstrom
Non-thesis degree
 

Olivia Ruppert, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: John Robinson
Thesis: Use of eDNA metabarcoding to characterize diversity and occupancy of wetland herpetofauna in the GreatLakes region
 

Michael Ryskamp, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Carolyn Malmstrom
Dissertation: Wild virus impacts on fitness of Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) and the genetic architecture of disease expression
 

Olivia Utley, MS

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Thesis: Raptor foraging ecology and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes
 

Miranda Wade, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Mariah Meek
Dissertation: Of microplastics and milkweed: Using ‘omics to address biodiversity challenges in the Anthropocene
 

Nicole Wonderlin, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Peter White and Will Wetzel
Dissertation: Ecology of moth pollinators in urban environments
 

Ali Zahorec, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Doug Landis
Dissertation: Microarthropod-microbe interactions on soil carbon dynamics in bioenergy cropping systems
 

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2022

 

Acacia Ackles, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Elise Zipkin
Dissertation: Computations models to investigate connectivity in evolvable systems
 

Kevin Bird, PhD

Horticulture
Advisor: Patrick Edger
Dissertation: Subgenome dominance and genome evolution in allopolyploids
 

Melissa Brady, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Dissertation: Birds and berries: The costs and benefits of agricultural ecosystems
 

Ava Garrison, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jeff Conner
Dissertation: Adaptation to agriculture in a serious crop weed, Weedy Radish, (Raphanus raphanistrum
 

Zoe Hansen, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Ashley Shade
Dissertation: Characterization of the human gut resistome, microbiome, and metabolome during enteric infection
 

Catherine Henry, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Michael Walters
Dissertation: Pattern and process of regeneration and recruitment dynamics in managed northern hardwood forests
 

Lindsey Kemmerling, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Nick Haddad
Dissertation: Diversification of agricultural landscapes for biodiversity and ecosystem services
 

Viviana Ortiz Londono, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Martin Chilvers
Dissertation:Evolutionary genomic analysis of the charcoal rot fungus Macrophomina phaseolina for improved disease management under climate change
 

Kevin McCormick, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Agonistic behavior of spotted hyenas (Crocuta Crocuta): Effects on fitness and dominance
 

Rachel Osborn, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Anthony Cognato
Dissertation: Diversity of South American ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae: Xyleborini) and their fungal partners
 

Joseph Riedy, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Field and experimental studies find variation in levels of larval lake sturgeon predation is associate with behavior and environmental conditions
 

Elizabeth Stebbins, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jim Bence
Thesis: Modeling individual variability in growth and its importance: An application for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Lake Superior
 

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2021

 

Jaron Adkins, PhD

Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Jessica Miesel
Dissertation: Wildfire impacts on soil carbon pools and microbial communities in mixed-conifer forests of California
 

Jason Bundy, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Rich Lenski
Dissertation: Replaying life's virtual tape: Examining the role of history in experiments with digital organisms
 

Nikki (Cybil) Cavalieri, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Dissertation: Geographical variation in skull morphology of the bone cracking hyenas, Crocuta Crocuta and Hyaena Hyaena
 

Savvas Constantinou, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Jason Gallant
Dissertation: Developing reverse genetic tools in weakly electric fish: Investigating electric organ IN VIVO SCN4AA function through CRISPR knockouts and morpholino knockouts
 

Andrew Dennhardt, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Gary Roloff
Dissertation: Spatiotemporal dynamics of wild populations in human-dominated landscapes and aquascapes: Multiple scales and modes for inference
 

Jeffrey Doser, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Andrew Finley
Dissertation: Development and application of hierarchical models for monitoring avian soundscapes, populations, and communities
 

Clarice Esch, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Dissertation: Mature trees effects on seedling regeneration: Plant-soil feedbacks, their legacies, and restoration
 

Matt Farr, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor:  Elise Zipkin
Dissertation: Data integration in population and community ecology using hierarchical modeling
 

Darren Incorvaia, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Dissertation: Social modulation of individual decision-making in foraging bumblebees: Mechanisms and evolution
 

Heather Kitteredge, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Sarah Evans
Dissertation: Environmental drivers and evolutionary consequences of horizontal gene transfer in soil bacteria
 

Cory Kohn, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: James Smith
Dissertation: Digital evolution in experimental phylogenetics and evolution education
 

Lauren Koenig, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Tom Getty
Dissertation: Model behavior of non-model organisms: The use of non-model systems to evaluate adaptive behavior
 

Alex Lalejini, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Evolving phenotypically plastic digital organisms
 

Mauricio Locilla, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Jason Gallant
Dissertation: Genomic basis of electric signal variation in African weakly electric fish
 

James Robert Logan, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Sarah Evans
Dissertation: Dynamic deserts: The synergistic effects of fungi, sunlight, and non-rainfall moisture on plant litter decomposition in drylands
 

Anselmo Pontes, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: The evolutionary origins of cognition: Understanding the early evolution of biological control systems and general intelligence
 

Ravi Ranjan, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Christopher Klausmeier
Dissertation: Two is company, more is a crowd: Untangling the complexity of multi-species competition
 

Joseph Receveur, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Eric Benbow
Dissertation: Influence of aquatic microbes on mosquito oviposition behavior and life history
 

Connie Rojas, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Socioecological predictors of microbiome variation in wild populations of African mammals
 

Seth Smith, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor:  Kim Scribner
Dissertation: The genetic basis for fitness and ecomorphological variation in recovering populations of lake trout (Salvelinus Namaycush) in the Great Lakes
 

Zinan Wang, PhD

Entomology
Advisor:  Henry Chung
Dissertation: Mechanisms underlying desiccaion resistance in Drosophila species
 

Christopher Warneke, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Lars Brudvig
Dissertation: Plant population responses following reintroduction to human-modified landscapes
 

Scott Warner, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Frank Telewski
Dissertation: Tree rings and climate in the Great Lakes Region – past, present, and future
 

Alex Wright, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Elise Zipkin
Dissertation: Quantifying, monitoring, and managing biodiversity across multiple spatial scales  
 

Allison Young, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Dissertation: Comparative and experimental studies on the foraging and exploratory behavior of four honey bee species
 

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2020

 

Kyle Card, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: The effects of genetic background on the evolution of antibiotic resistance and its fitness costs
 

Michael Foisy, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Marjorie Weber
Thesis: Do latex and resin canals spur plant diversification? Re-examining a classic example of escape and radiate coevolution
 

Nkrumah Grant, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Deconstructing the correlated nature of ancient and emergent traits: An evolutionary investigation of metabolism, morphology, and mortality
 

Kayleigh Hauri, MS

Entomology
Advisor: William Wetzel
Thesis: Effects of plant chemical diversity on predator-prey interactions in an agroecosystem
 

Lily Johnson-Ulrich, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Intraspecific variation in behavioral flexibility in spotted hyenas
 

Erika LaPlante, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Marjorie Weber
Thesis: Genome-wide association study reveals genes associated with mite recruitment phenotypes in the domesticated grapevine (Vitis vinifera)
 

Courtney Larson, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Eric Benbow
Dissertation: Diverse allochthonous resource quality effects on headwater stream communities through insect-microbe interactions
 

Kenna Lehmann, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Communication and cooperation in silico and in nature
 

Robert Mobley, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Janette Boughman
Dissertation: Multimodal ecology of stickleback sensing
 

Tracy Montgomery, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Physiological mediation of social behavior in group-living carnivores
 

Toby Petrice, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: William Ravlin
Dissertation: Effects of temperature and photoperiod on host-parasitoid synchrony and evaluation of sampling methods for Oobius agrili: An introduced egg parasitoid of emerald ash borer
 

Gabriela Quinlan, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Dissertation: Influence of landscape composition, landscape diversity, and conservation management on bee health via a pollen nutrition mechanism
 

Alexandra Rafalski, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Scott Peacor
Dissertation: Contingency of predation risk-induced trait responses in a model fish-zooplankton community
 

Sean Sultaire, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Gary Roloff
Dissertation: Biodiversity responses to alternative green tree retentions practices in the Pacific Northwest: A regional forestry experiment
 

Laura Twardochleb, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Phoebe Zarnetske
Dissertation: Climate effects on freshwater ecological communities: From local species interactions to continental biodiversity patterns
 

Lydia Wassink, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Investigation into effects of environmental stressors on Lake Sturgeon physiology, behavior, and survival during early ontogeny
 

Nathaniel Yost, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Scott Winterstein
Thesis: A critical review of Michigan's spring waterfowl survey
 

Meredith Zettlemoyer, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jennifer Lau
Dissertation: Phenological and demographic plant responses to global change
 

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2019

 

Sara Ali (Herman), PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Doug Landis
Dissertation: Impact of predation risk on the behavior and physiology of insects in agricultural systems
 

Andrew Carlson, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Taylor
Dissertation: Michigan stream salmonid growth and survival in a changing climate: Predictions and implications for resilience-based management
 

Thomas Connor, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jianguo (Jack) Liu
Dissertation: Assessing species distributions and the effects of habitat fragmentation: The case of the giant panda
 

Emily Dolson, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: On the constructive power of ecology in open-ended evolving systems
 

Steven Gray, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Gary Roloff
Dissertation: Invasive species, spatial ecology, and human-wildlife conflict: Exploration of wildlife sciences in the present
 

Sarah Jones, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Androgen and serotonin concentrations in spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta): physiological predictors and relationships with the social environment
 

Zachary Laubach, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Developmental plasticity:  Early life environment, DNA methylation, and later life phenotype in spotted hyenas
 

Di Liang, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: G. Philip Robertson
Dissertation: Microbial sources of nitrous oxide emissions from diverse cropping systems
 

Christine McTavish, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Andrew Jarosz
Thesis: Spruce decline and Diaporthe: Incidence, taxonomy, virulence and tree susceptibility
 

Andrew Meyers, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Dissertation: The interacting influences of habitat context and predators on monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) oviposition and survival in agricultural landscapes
 

Bethany Moore (Johnson), PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Shin-Han Shiu
Dissertation: Specialized metabolism and stress response: Studies in predicting gene function and regulation
 

Zachary Noel, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Martin Chilvers
Dissertation: Effect of soybean seed treatments on oomycete evolution and diversity for improved seedling disease management
 

Genevieve Pang , PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jean Tsao
Dissertation: The effect of genetic and abiotic factors on the geographic variation in life cycle processes of Ixodes scapularis in the eastern United States
 

Klara Scharnagl, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Alan Prather
Dissertation: Biogeography of an obligate symbiont: Following established patterns or an exception to the rule?
 

Eli Strauss, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Social inequality and its dynamics in spotted hyenas
 

Patric Vaelli, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Heather Eisthen
Dissertation: Mechanisms of tetrodotoxin production and resistance in the poisonous rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa)


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2018

 

Carina Baskett, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Marjorie Weber and Douglas Schemske
Dissertation: Testing hypothesized latitudinal patterns in plant-insect interactions from tropical to north-temperate regions
 

Caitlyn Byron, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: David Lowry
Non-thesis degree
 

Anna Funk-Groves, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Lars Brudvig
Dissertation: Planting year conditions shape community assembly in restored prairie communities
 

Sara Garnett, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: Fitness effects of kinship depend on ecological context in the American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
 

Knute Gundersen, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Dissertation: Implications of habitat restoration for bumble bee population dynamics, foraging ecology, and epidemiology
 

Malcolm Itter, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Andrew Finley
Dissertation: The development and application of spatio-temporal methods to understand and predict broad-scale patterns of forest change
 

Joshua James, MS

Forestry
Advisor: Jessica Meisel
Thesis: Short and long-term effects of prescribed fire on soil properties in a Pinus resinosa forest in Northern Minnesota
 

Dustin Kinkaid, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Stephen Hamilton
Dissertation: Revealing the biogeochemistry and hydrodynamic exchange processes of flocculent sediments in shallow freshwater
 

Matthew Kolp, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Andrew Jarosz
Dissertation: Fungal community succession and interactions in chestnut blight cankers in Michigan and Indiana
 

Thomas LaBar, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Christoph Adami
Dissertation: The evolution of the complexity and robustness in small populations
 

Susan Magnoli, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jennifer Lau
Dissertation: The role of rapid adaptation in plant population establishment
 

Daniel ODonnell, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Elena Litchman
Dissertation: Sea change phytoplankton change too? Thermal adaptation of the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana: An evolutionary scenario
 

Shujun Ou, PhD

Horticulture
Advisor: Ning Jiang
Dissertation: Identification of LTR retrotransposons, evaluation of genome assembly, and modeling rice domestication
 

Abhijna Parigi, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Ashlee Rowe
Dissertation: Mechanisms of southern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus) muscle resistant to paralytic and lethal toxins in Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus) venom
 

Damian Popovic, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: David Lowry
Thesis: Evaluating the role of oceanic salt spray and herbivory on the evolution of locally adapted populations of the Seep Monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus)
 

Steven Roels, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Dissertation: Recovery of insectivorous bird ecology function in tropical forest restorations
 

Anne Scott, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Li
Dissertation: Characterization and disruption of sea lamprey sex pheromone communication
 

Nicholas Skaff, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kendra Cheruvelil
Dissertation: Blood in the water: Wetlands, wet spells, and drought regulate mosquito-borne disease transmission at multiple scales
 

Julie Turner, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Social development and its influence on adult traits in the spotted hyena
 

Paul Wilburn, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Elena Litchman
Dissertation: The taxonomic and functional microbial diversity in Lake Baikal and other north temperate lakes
 

Chad Zirbel, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Lars Brudvig
Dissertation: Interpreting variation in restoration outcomes: Functional traits shape community assembly and ecosystem functioning
 

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2017

 

Shairah Abdu Razak, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Mark Scriber
Dissertation: Biotic and abiotic factors influence formation and ontogenic dynamics of molecularly defined gastro-intestinal microbial communities in Lake Sturgeon and Channel Catfish
 

Tyler Bassett, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jennifer Lau
Dissertation: The role of biodiversity in prairie restoration tests of theory and implications for management
 

Alita Burmeiseter, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Coevolutionary implications of envelope-mediated resistance to phage
 

Rosangela Canino-Koning, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor:  Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Evolution and evolvability in changing environments
 

Leslie Cieplechowicz, MS

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Richard Snider
Thesis: Asian Wild Horse (Equus ferus) care manual
 

Andrew Crosby, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Porter
Dissertation: Conserving avian biodiversity on managed forest landscapes: The importance of pattern and scale
 

Micaleila Desotelle, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Stephen Hamilton
Dissertation: The impacts of algal subsidies from a run-of-river reservoir on downstream food webs and nutrient availability, and the implications of a diluted bitumen spill on the Kalamazoo River
 

Garret Dettman, MS

Forestry
Advisor: David MacFarlane
Thesis: Evaluating inter- and intra-specific variation in leaf mass and area
 

Emily Dittmar, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Douglas Schemske
Dissertation: Local adaptation and fitness trade-offs
 

Julia Greenberg, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Developmental flexibility in spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta): The role of maternal and anthropogenic effects
 

Patrick Hanly, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: The maintenance and generation of freshwater diversity from the local to the global scale
 

Wendy Johnson, PhD

Teacher Education
Advisors: Charles Anderson and Robert Pennock
Dissertation: Supporting three-dimensional science learning: The role of curiosity-driven classroom discourse
 

Nora Lewin, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Mechanisms mediating life history traits in the spotted hyena
 

Tracy Melvin (Swem), MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Gary Roloff
Thesis: Prescribed fire effects on Eastern Box Turtles in Southwest Michigan
 

Jorden Schossau, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Christoph Adami
Dissertation: Evolution of decision-making systems
 

Megan Shave, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Dissertation: Evaluating the conservation and agricultural applications of orchard nest boxes 
 

Allison Sussman, MS

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Elise Zipkin
Thesis: Assessing waterbird hotspots for conservation and management in the Great Lakes
 

Anya Vostinar (Johnson) , PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Suicide, signals, and symbionts: Evolving cooperation in agent-based systems
 

Justin Waraniak, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Barcoding, metabarcoding, and experimental analyses of community dynamics and environmental conditions affecting predation of larval lake sturgeon in the Black River, Michigan
 

Sarah Beth Wegener, MS

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Heather Eisthen
Thesis: Transmissibility and localization of tetrodotoxin in the rough-skinned newt Taricha granulosa
 

Kileigh Welshofer (Browning), MS

Forestry
Advisor: Phoebe Zarnetske
Thesis: Examining exotic plant success in a warmer world
 

Sean Williams, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Dissertation: Behavioral ecology of Amazonian mixed-species flocks
 

Jing Zhou, MS

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Richard Snider
Thesis: Captive welfare design of Red Pandas (Ailurus fulgens)
 

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2016

 

Erica Bruger, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Christopher Waters
Dissertation: Quorum sensing and the stabilization of cooperative behavior in Vibrio bacteria
 

Andrea Dechner, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Brian Maurer
Dissertation: Ecology of a carnivore community in an agricultural landscape in the northeast of Brazil
 

Rachael Eaton, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Dissertation: Avian use of cultivated orchards: Influences of diet, scale, and sociality on foraging
 

Carol Fergus, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Patricia Soranno
Dissertation: Using a landscape limnology framework to examine spatial patterns and processes that influence lake nutrients and productivity at macroscales
 

Ellen Holste, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Dissertation: The role of mycorrhizal fungi and soil nutrients in tropical reforestation
 

Lindsay Hunt, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Thesis: Effects of pasture dairy farming on grassland bird species in southwest Michigan
 

Cara Kreig, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: The form and function of competitive traits in female house wrens (Troglodytes aedon)
 

Michael Kuczynski, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: Individual and ecological sources of variation in sexual signals and mate choice
 

Rohan Maddamsetti, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Population genomics of Escherichia coli in nature and the laboratory
 

Lucas Michelotti, MS

Forestry
Advisor: Jessica Miesel
Non-thesis degree
 

Elizabeth Miller, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Christopher Klausmeier
Dissertation: Community composition and coexistence: The effects of temporal variation and environmental forcing on community trait distributions and diversity
 

Jakob Nalley, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Elena Litchman
Dissertation: Optimizing the productivity and sustainability of algae biofuel systems: Investigating the benefits of algal diversity and utilizing brewery wastewater for cultivation
 

Sifa Ephraim Ngasala, PhD

Earth and Environmental Sciences
Advisor: Michael Gottfried
Dissertation: The biogeography of lungfishes with a description of new fossil taxa from East Africa
 

Alejandro Rojas Flechas, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Martin Chilvers
Dissertation: Diversity of oomycetes associated with soybean seedling diseases
 

Marissa Schuh, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Thesis: Influence of switchgrass ecotype, cultivar, and planted stand diversity on herbivores, natural enemy communities, and biological control in bioenergy cropping systems
 

Tomomi Suwa, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jennifer Lau
Dissertation: The role of resource mutualism in plant response and adaptation to abiotic environments
 

Nick Testa, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Alexander Shingleton
Dissertation: The development and molecular-genetic mechanisms of sexual size and shape dimorphism in Drosophila melanogaster
 

Jie Wang, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Martin Chilvers
Dissertation: Molecular diagnostics, epidemiology, and population genetics of the soybean sudden death syndrome pathogen, Fusarium virguliforme

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2015

 

Isis Arsnoe (Kuczaj), PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jean Tsao
Dissertation: Variation in blacklegged tick Ixodes scapularis questing behavior has implications for human Lyme disease risk in the eastern United States
 

Briana Brady, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Julie Wade
Thesis: Characterization of co-expression of scamp 1, BDNf and ERÉ» in the juvenile zebra finch telencephalic vocal motor pathway
 

Tyler Buchinger, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Li
Dissertation: Evolution of sea lamprey mating pheromones
 

Jessica Caton, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jennifer Owen
Thesis: Migratory behavior of captive Blue-Winged Teals (Anas discors)
 

Kari Dammerman, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting adult reproductive biology and early life stage development of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens)
 

Angela De Palma-Dow, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kendra Cheruvelil
Thesis: The relative roles of dispersal and establishment for shaping aquatic macrophyte diversity and community structure among the inland lakes of Isle Royale National Park
 

Lisette Delgado Aquije, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Impact of pathogenic Escherichia coli and Salmonella on the intestinal microbiota of white-tailed deer and cattle sharing an agroecosystem
 

Hope Draheim, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Landscape genetics of black bears (Ursus americanus) in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan, USA
 

Danielle Fegan, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Lars Brudvig
Non-thesis degree
 

David Green , PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Anthropogenic disturbance, ecological change, and wildlife conservation at the edge of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem
 

Joshua Haslun, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Nathaniel Ostrom
Dissertation: Identification of local adaptation in Porites astreoides inhabiting the Florida reef tract: Biotic stress, a disregarded force of change affecting coral reefs
 

Briana Hauff Salas, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Margaret (Peggy) Ostrom
Dissertation: The response of symbiotic zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium spp.) diversity and gene expression to stress in geographically distinct reefs
 

Kane Keller, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jennifer Lau
Dissertation: Context-dependent effects of mutualisms on communities
 

Melissa Kjelvik, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: The ecological consequences of foraging boldness in juvenile bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus)
 

Raffica La Rosa, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jeffrey Conner
Dissertation: Floral evolution in milkweeds: Evidence for selection past and present
 

Emily May, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Thesis: Wild bee community responses to farm management practices, wildflower restorations, and landscape composition
 

Masoud Mirmomeni, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Christoph Adami
Dissertation: Evolution of cooperation in the light of information theory
 

Randy Olson, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Christoph Adami
Dissertation: Elucidating the evolutionary origins of collective animal behavior
 

Anuraag Pakanati, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Structure and evolutionary dynamics in fitness landscapes
 

Claire Patterson Moore, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Andrew Jarosz
Non-thesis degree
 

Ben Roller, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Thomas Schmidt
Dissertation: Life histories of bacteria: Genomic foundations and ecological implications
 

Elizabeth Schultheis, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jennifer Lau 
Dissertation: The role of biotic interactions in biological invasions
 

Christine Sprunger, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Sieglinde Snapp
Dissertation: Root production and soil carbon accumulation in annual, perennial and diverse cropping systems
 

Elizabeth Stelzner, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Carolyn Malmstrom 
Non-thesis degree
 

Caroline Turner, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Experimental evolution and ecological consequences: New niches and changing stoichiometry
 

Erin Walaszczyk, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Li
Dissertation: Pheromone modulation of locomotor rhythmicity in adult female sea lamprey
 

Emily Weigel, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Janette Boughman
Dissertation: The effects of social experience on sexual selection in Threespine Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
 

Jeff White, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Orlando Sarnelle
Dissertation: Trait and environmental variation mediate the interaction between a harmful phytoplanker and an invasive grazer
 

Michael Wiser, PhD

Integrative Biology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: An analysis of fitness in long-term asexual evolution experiments
 

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2014

 

Nicholas Ballew, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Fitness tradeoffs can contribute to the maintenance of variation in personality traits in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)
 

Andrea Bowling, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Porter
Dissertation: Landscape-level effects of weather and land cover on wild turkey abundance, productivity, and regional harvest potential
 

Sudarshan Chari, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Ian Dworkin
Dissertation: Understanding the role of standing genetic variation in functional genetics and compensatory evolution
 

Michael DeNieu, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Ian Dworkin
Dissertation: Using experimental evolution in Drosophila melanogaster to test predictions about the adaptation of prey to a novel predator
 

Austin Dreyer, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Alexander Shingleton
Dissertation: The causes and effects of genital hypoallometry in Drosophila
 

Paige Howell, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Genetic and phenotypic variation in the American marten (Martes americana) in the upper peninsula of Michigan
 

Marta Jarzyna, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Porter
Dissertation: Macroecology of breeding birds of New York state: Influences of climate change, landscape matrix, and spatial scale
 

Colin Kremer, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Christopher Klausmeier
Dissertation: Coexistence in temporally variable environments: Eco-evolutionary perspectives
 

David Minor, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Thesis: The effects of tree size, nutrient availability, competition, and masting synchrony on fruit production in tropical and temperate forests
 

Robert Morrison, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Zsofia Szendrei
Dissertation: Investigation of the tritrophic interactions of the asparagus miner (Ophiomyia simplex Loew; Diptera: Agromyzidae) and the influence of temperature on its population dynamics
 

Kristen Nolting, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Nathan Swenson
Thesis: The role of phylogeny and niche differentiation in structuring species co-occurrence in the New Zealand Pittosporum (Pittospraceae)
 

Sam Rossman, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Margaret (Peggy) Ostrom
Dissertation: The foraging ecology of bottlenose dolphins: Insights into temporal, demographic, and individual variation
 

Anne Royer, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jeffrey Conner
Dissertation: Mating system and the evolution of stamen morphology in the Brassicaceae
 

Nathan Snow, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Porter
Dissertation: Hotspots, underreporting, and dynamic space-time influences of wildlife-vehicle collisions
 

John Willis, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Michael Walters
Dissertation: Substrate effects on seedling dynamics in managed northern hardwood forests
 

Luis Zaman, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Host-symbiont coevolution in digital and microbial systems
 

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2013

 

Carlos Anderson, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Barry Williams
Dissertation: Mechanisms of adaptation and speciation: An experimental study in artificial life
 

Brett Blaauw, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Dissertation: Composition, size, and effectiveness of native plant conservation plantings for supporting beneficial insects
 

Katy Califf, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: A genetic approach to understanding the evolutionary ecology of two hyena species
 

Brendan Carson, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Thesis: The biological control of spotted knapweed and conservation of associated pollinator communities
 

Mike Grillo, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Douglas Schemske
Dissertation: Mechanisms of adaptation in Oryza and Arabidopsis
 

Goeffrey Horst, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Orlando Sarnelle
Dissertation: Eco-physiology of the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa across nutrient gradients
 

Nikhil Jaikumar, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Sieglinde Snapp
Dissertation: Perennial cereal crops for the cold temperate zone: Agronomy, physiology, sink regulation and disease resistance
 

Anna Kirk Blanton, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Dissertation: Varying strategies of managed pollinator investment to optimize highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) crop pollination and yield
 

Mitchell Lettow, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Thesis: Oak savanna restoration: Effects of variable methods on habitat, flowering forbs and pollinator communities
 

Matthew Lundquist, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Michael Kaufman
Thesis: The effect of nitrogen on the larval growth of the invasive mosquito Aedes japonicus japonicus (Theobald)
 

Abby Lynch, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Taylor
Dissertation: Designing a decision-support tool for harvest management of Great Lakes lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeafornis) in a changing climate
 

Andrea Maguire, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Thesis: Depletion of non-structural carbohydrate reserves in temperate tree seedlings under stress
 

Robert McCann, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Edward Walker
Dissertation: Determinants of malaria vector habitat use, spatial distribution, and community composition with a focus on environmental factors and insecticide-treated bed nets
 

Melissa McDonald, PhD

Psychology
Advisor: Carlos Navarrete
Dissertation: Motivations for mate choice discrimination in an intergroup dating context
 

Emily Norton Henry, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kendra Cheruvelil
Dissertation: From turtle populations to property values: The effects of lakeshore residential development and the invasive zebra mussel
 

Alycia Reynolds (Lackey), PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Janette Boughman
Dissertation: Speciation in stickleback fish: Interactions between sexual selection and ecology can make or break species
 

Lurii Shcherbak, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Philip Robertson
Dissertation: Production and movement of N2O in the full soil profile
 

Joshua Springer, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Andrew Jarosz
Dissertation: Influence of mycoviruses on the population structure of the chestnut blight pathogen, Cryphonectria parasitica and recovery of American chestnuts, Castanea dentata
 

Eli Swanson, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Evolution and development of body size in the spotted hyena
 

Mark Tran, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Hill
Dissertation: The use of olfactory foraging cues by intertidal hermit crabs
 

Nathaniel Walton, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Matthew Grieshop
Dissertation: The role of natural enemies in pest management of codling moth (Cydia pomonella) in organic apple orchards in Michigan
 

J. Megan Woltz, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Dissertation: Relationships between landscape structure, coccinellid activity density, and soybean aphid suppression in soybean
 

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2012

 

Jameel Al-Haddad, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Frank Telewski
Dissertation: Influence of syringyl to guaiacyl ratio and gravity on growth responses and physical properties in genetically altered poplars (Populus tremula x P. alba)
 

Kali Bird, MS

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Jay Lennon
Thesis: Generalist and specialist strategies of phosphorus acquisition by aquatic bacteria
 

David Bryson, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: The evolutionary potential of populations on complex fitness landscapes
 

Stephen Burr, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Deborah McCullough
Thesis: Evaluating emerald ash borer populations and the ash resources at three stages of infestation
 

Brian Connelly, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Philip McKinley
Dissertation: Ecological effects on the evolution of cooperative behaviors
 

Leslie Curren, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Competition and cooperation among males in a sex role-reversed mammal, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
 

Ben Dantzer, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Andrew McAdam
Dissertation: Adaptive endocrine and behavioral responses of free-living red squirrels to environmental variation
 

Andy Flies, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Ecology and immune function in the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta
 

Masanori Fujimoto, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Terence Marsh
Dissertation: Microbial succession on the lake sturgeon egg surface: Mechanisms shaping the microbial community assembly during succession and the effect of microbial successional processes on host life history traits
 

Chris Hamm, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Dissertation: Natural history and conservation genetics of the federally endangered Mitchell's Satyr butterfly, Neonympha mitchellii mitchellii
 

Lauren Kinsman-Costello, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Stephen Hamilton
Dissertation: Effects of water level fluctuations on phosphorus, iron, sulfur, and nitrogen cycling in shallow freshwater ecosystems
 

Amanda Lorenz, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Michael Kaufman
Thesis: The role of algae in the invasion ecology of the mosquito species Aedes japonicus japonicus (Diptera: Culicidae)
 

Jason Martina, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Stephen Hamilton
Dissertation: Invasive plant species impacts on carbon and nitrogen cycling in inland Michigan wetlands
 

Justin Meyer, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Coevolution of bacterial-phage interactions
 

Andrea Miehls, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisors: Andrew McAdam and Scott Peacor
Dissertation: Preventing predation: Evolution and adaptive plasticity in morphological defense of an invasive species
 

Clint Otto, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Gary Roloff
Dissertation: The impact of timber harvest on wildlife distribution patterns and population vital rates: Does structural retention ameliorate the negative effects of clearcutting?
 

Jeffrey Pierce, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Frank Telewski
Thesis: The effects of increased syringyl to guaiacyl lignin monomer ratios on xylem hydraulic properties in hybrid poplar (Polulus tremula x P. alba)
 

Laura Plank, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Carolyn Malmstrom
Thesis: Remote sensing to monitor monotypic weed patches in semi-arid grasslands
 

Emily Scott, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Davis Rothstein
Dissertation: Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) cycling in northern hardwood forests of Michigan, USA
 

Kathryn Shaw Yoshida, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Variation among spotted hyenas in three personality traits
 

Katherine Steensma, MS

Animal Science
Advisor: Santiago Utsumi
Thesis: Foraging behavior of dairy cattle in a pasture-based system with automated milking
 

Ryan Taylor, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Quantitative genetics, selection, mate choice and red squirrel behavior in a fluctuating environment
 

Bess Walker, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: The evolution of digital communities under limited resources
 

Zhonglei Wang, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: David MacFarlane
Dissertation: An integrative theory of bio-energetic growth, mortality and evolutionary optimization
 

Allison Wyatt (Rober), PhD

Zoology
Advisor: R. Jan Stevenson
Dissertation: Regulation of algal structure and function in northern boreal wetlands
 

Liu Yang, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Anthony Cognato
Thesis: Genetic structure of pinyon pine beetle (Isp confurus) during an outbreak
 

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2011

 

Anne Axel, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Brian Maurer
Dissertation: Lemur-environment relationships in altered and unaltered tropical dry forests in southern Madagascar
 

Benedicte Bachelot, MS

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Thesis: Tropical seedling rarity versus commonness: Advantage and disadvantage depends on effects of aboveground natural enemies and conspecific neighbors
 

Thomas Baribault, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Dissertation: Revisiting soil resource limitation: Resource predictors of tree growth and productivity change across ecological gradients
 

Sarah Benson-Amram, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Experimental investigations of cognitive abilities in a socially complex mammal, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
 

Aaron Berger, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Michael Jones
Dissertation: Models to aid in the selection of procedures used to manage Lake Erie walleye (Sander vitreus)
 

Grace Chen, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Douglas Schemske
Dissertation: Experimental studies of adaptation and speciation in two neotropical costus species
 

Megan Fritz, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: James Miller
Dissertation: Investigations of the African malaria mosquito (Anopheles gambiae s.l., diptera: Culicidae): Ovipositional behavior and toxicity of avermectins
 

Heather Goldsby, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: The evolution of division of labor in digital organisms
 

Emily Gorman, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Plant-mycorrhizal interactions and the relative abundance of limiting resources
 

Emily Johnston, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jennifer Owen
Thesis: Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection in two species of passerine birds, American robins and gray catbirds: An assessment of reservoir competence and disease
 

Sheridan Kelley, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Thesis: Ecomorphological associations of feeding habits of hypercarnivores
 

David Knoester, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Philip McKinley
Dissertation: Evolution of distributed behavior
 

Justin Lawrence, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kelly Millenbah
Thesis: The diversity, distribution, and conservation of a polymorphic frog (Oophaga pumilio) in Western Panama
 

Daniel Linden, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Gary Roloff
Dissertation: All that you can leave behind: Impacts of structure retention on avian ecology in managed forests of the Pacific Northwest
 

Jeanette Mcguire, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Comparative analysis of factors influencing male reproductive success in sympatric freshwater turtles
 

Emily Morrison, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Dissertation: Avian ecology and behavior in tropical forest restoration sites
 

Rosa Moscarella, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Dissertation: Dissecting the geographical expansion of Peromyscus leucopus in the northern Great Lakes: Insights from genetics, morphometrics and ecology
 

Todd Robinson, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Impacts of precipitation variability on plant communities
 

Matthew Rupp, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria and Eric Torng
Dissertation: Evolvability and evolution
 

Abbie Schrotenboer, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Carolyn Malmstrom
Dissertation: Prairie grasses for biofuels and ecological restoration: Modifications to native species and their place in human-altered landscapes
 

Adria VanLoan, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kelly Millenbah
Dissertation: The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and grassland conservation in Michigan
 

Anne Wiley, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Margaret (Peggy) Ostrom
Dissertation: Biogeochemical functions of wetlands in southwestern Michigan
 

Heidi Ziegenmeyer, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Mary Bremigan
Thesis: Effects of spring angling, habitat features, and guarding male attributes on largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) nest survival, and implication for fall young-of-year abundance
 

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2010

 

Matthew Aardema, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Mark Scriber
Thesis: The influence of female wing color variation on male mate choice in tiger swallowtail butterflies (Papilio Spp.)
 

Orlando Alvarez-Fuentes, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Alan Prather
Dissertation: The systematic of genus Amauropelta (pteridophyta: thelypterdaceae) in the Caribbean Islands
 

Joshua Booker, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kendra Cheruvelil
Thesis: The spatial distribution of daphnia resources in shallow lakes: is food quantity or quality for zooplankton determined by macrophytes?
 

Alexandra Castillo-Ruiz, PhD

Psychology
Advisor: Antonio Nunez
Dissertation: Circadian and environmental modulation of arousal and reward systems of a diurnal brain
 

Arthur Covert, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: The beneficial effects of deleterious mutations
 

Yen Thuy Duong, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Effects of spawning behavior and environmental factors on adult reproductive ecology and larval dispersal of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens)
 

Anna Fiedler, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Dissertation: Restoration of prairie fen plants, insects, and abiotic processes
 

Patrick Forsythe, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Exogenous correlates of migration , spawning, egg deposition and egg mortality in lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens)
 

Sherri Goings, PhD

Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Charles Ofria
Dissertation: Natural niching: applying ecological principles to evolutionary computation
 

Sarah Hamer, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisors: Graham Hickling and Jean Tsao
Dissertation: Interactions among invading ticks, wildlife, and zoonotic pathogens
 

Chenin Limback, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Deborah McCullough
Thesis: Tree vigor and its relation to emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) adult host preference and larval development on green and white ash trees
 

Sherry Martin, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Daniel Hayes
Dissertation: Land-use legacy effect: Combining spatial and temporal drivers in statistical and mechanistic models of lake water chemistry
 

Jarad Mellard, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Christopher Klausmeier
Dissertation: The vertical distribution of phytoplankton: observations, theory, experiments
 

Ryan Morgan, MS

Geology
Advisor: Robert Anstey
Thesis: Paleobiogeographic associations among Mississippian Bryozoansy
 

Aaron Smith, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Anthony Cognato
Dissertation: Phylogenetic revision of the North American Asidini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)
 

Jennifer Smith, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Evolutionary and ecological forces shaping patterns of cooperation among spotted hyenas
 

Jay Sobel, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Douglas Schemske
Dissertation: Speciation in the western North American wildflower genus Mimulus
 

Lauri Torgerson-White, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Thesis: Personality in Michigan's Peromyscus
 

John Townsend-Mehler, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Dissertation: Decision-making following shifts in reward distribution: A look at the foraging behavior of honeybees and bumblebees as they respond to shifts in resource availability
 

Jennifer White, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Monitoring elusive carnivores using noninvasive genetic techniques; case study of bobcats (Lynx rufus) in the northern lower peninsula, Michigan
 

Brook Wilke, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Sieglinde Snapp
Dissertation: Challenges of developing sustainable nitrogen sources in agriculture: Cover crops, nitrogen fixation and ecological principles
 

Kevin Wyatt, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: R. Jan Stevenson
Dissertation: Environmental controls on algal community structure and function in boreal wetlands
 

Sara Wyse, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Diane Ebert-May
Dissertation: Breaking the mold: Preparing graduate teaching assistants to teach as they are taught to teach
 

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2009

 

Alicia Bray, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: James Smith
Dissertation: AFLP, mtDNA, and microsatellite analysis of emerald ash borer population structure from Asia and North America
 

Stephanie Bussema, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Non-thesis degree
 

Jonathan Deroba, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: James Bence
Dissertation: How many are there and how many can we kill? Improving catch per effort indices of abundance and evaluating harvest control rules for lake whitefish in the Great Lakes
 

Jeffrey Evans, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Dissertation: Developing demographic models to inform selection of Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) biological control agents
 

Stephen LeDuc, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: David Rothstein
Dissertation: Soil nitrogen cycling and ectomycorrhizal community composition following disturbance in Michigan jack pine forests
 

Megan Matonis, MS

Forestry
Advisor: Michael Walters
Thesis: Multiple gap-stand and landscape-scale factors affect northern hardwood regeneration
 

Terri McElhinny, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Dissertation: Morphological variation in a durophagous carnivore, the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta
 

Mercedes Ramirez, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Thesis: Vision as a sensory modality in the honey bee dance language
 

Lance Jay Roberts, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Brian Maurer
Dissertation: Improving wildlife habitat model performance: Sensitivity to scale and detail of vegetation measurements
 

Jessica Schrader, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Laura Smale
Dissertation: Plasticity in the circadian system: Changing rhythms in reproducing female rodents
 

Amy Schueller, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Daniel Hayes
Dissertation: Interactions between demographic stochasticity and genetic integrity of lake sturgeon populations
 

Sarah Smith, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Anthony Cognato
Thesis: Revision of Camptocerus dejean (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) with notes on its biology
 

Sara Syswerda, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: G. Philip Robertson
Dissertation: Ecosystem services across a management intensity gradient in southwest Michigan
 

Andrew Tluczek, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Deborah McCullough
Thesis: Influence of host vigor on larval distribution, development and mortality of Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in North America
 

Nathaniel Walton, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Dissertation: Habitat management using native flowering perennials to increase beneficial insects in Michigan highbush blueberry
 

Shailendra Adhikary, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Donald Dickmann
Dissertation: The long-term effects of low-intensity fires in a mature red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) plantation
 

Elizabeth Ball, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Andrew McAdam
Thesis: Preferences and harvest intentions of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) hunters in Michigan: Insights into harvesting behaviors and their outcomes
 

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2008

 

Katie Button-Simons, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Scott Peacor
Thesis: Environmental dependence of non-consumptive effects in predator-prey interactions
 

Molly Conlin, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Merritt Turetsky
Thesis: Soil hydroclimate, vegetation, and substrate controls on carbon flux in an Alaskan fen
 

Adam Goble, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Thesis: Signature signals in the territorial vocalizations of red squirrels and their use in kin recognition
 

Gabriel Hamer, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Edward Walker
Dissertation: West Nile virus transmission ecology: Vector-host interactions
 

Anna Jacobsen, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Frank Ewers
Dissertation: Woody plant adaptations to water stress in arid shrub communities
 

Nicholas Johnson, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Li
Dissertation: In-stream behavioral responses of female sea lampreys to pheromone components
 

Sarah LeSage, MS

Zoology
Advisor: R. Jan Stevenson
Special project: Nitrogenous biochemical oxygen demand and dissolved oxygen in western Michigan streams
 

Eva Lewandowski, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Thesis: The effects of pokeweed display characteristics on frugivore identity and fruit removal
 

Rodrigo Mercader, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Climate change, species boundaries, and hybridization: how climate change may be leading to host use divergence in a native butterfly system
 

Sarah Neumann, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Dissertation: Plant-soil feedbacks in temperate and tropical forests
 

Kevin Pangle, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Scott Peacor
Dissertation: The role of non-consumptive effects in the net effect of an invasive predator in the Laurentian Great Lakes
 

Wiline Pangle, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Threat-sensitive behaviors and its ontogenetic development in top mammalian carnivores
 

Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski, PhD

Entomology
Advisors: Michael Kaufman and Edward Walker
Dissertation: Mosquito production and microbial diversity in container habitats
 

Susan Spaulding, MS

Forestry
Advisor: David Rothstein
Thesis: Does clearcut harvesting emulate the effects of natural disturbance on the development of stand structure in Pinus banksiana forests of northern lower Michigan
 

Kevin Theis, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Scent marking in a highly social mammalian species, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
 

Lindsey Walters, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: Mate quality and parental investment in the house wren
 

Kathryn Wharton Boes, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: Queen and worker influence on sex allocation patterns in the honeybee, Apis mellifera
 

Rachel Williams, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Alan Prather
Non-thesis degree
 

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2007

 

Lauren Bailey, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kelly Millenbah
Thesis: Brown-Headed Cowbird response to Kirtland's Warbler habitat management and Cowbird trapping in Michigan
 

Amy Burgin, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Scott Hamilton
Dissertation: Novel microbial pathways of nitrate removal from freshwater ecosystems
 

Heather Dawson, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Michael Jones
Dissertation: Recruitment variation in Great Lakes sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) populations and implications for integrated pest management
 

Tracy Grazia, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kelly Mittelbach
Thesis: Evaluating the ecological contributions of differing land ownership types in the context of a human-dominated landscape
 

Sarah Hodgson, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Non-thesis degree
 

Jason Kilgore, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Frank Telewski
Dissertation: Distribution and ecophysiology of the Ponderosae in the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona
 

Frances Knapczyk, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jeffrey Conner
Dissertation: The evolution of population differentiation of autogamous selfing ability in Collinsia verna
 

Joseph Kolowski, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Anthropogenic influences on the behavior of large carnivores in the northern Serengeti ecosystem
 

Andrew Kramer, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Orlando Sarnelle
Dissertation: Copepodology in Alpine Lakes: Limitations to recovery of Hesperodiaptomus shosone after exotic fish eradication
 

Katherine Lander, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Thesis: The effects of the parasitic plant Cuscuta gronovii on the mating system of its host plant Impatiens capensis
 

Brian Linton, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: James Bence
Dissertation: Model selection and data weighting methods in statistical catch-at-age analysis: Application to 1836 treaty water stock assessments
 

Wendy Mahaney, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Soil processes and plant species: Does the reintroduction of native grasses alter soil carbon and nitrogen cycling?
 

Nathan Miller, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Hill
Dissertation: Multiphase transport processes in sea turtle nesting beaches
 

Angela Roles, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Jeffrey Conner
Dissertation: Novel studies of spontaneous mutations: Measurements of fitness in the field and gene expression in the lab
 

Carrie Scheele Kissman, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Hall
Dissertation: The effects of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) on inland lake ecosystems
 

Jaime Tanner, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Behavioral and morphological development in a female-dominated species, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
 

Julianna Tuell, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Dissertation: Ecology and conservation of wild bees associated with highbush blueberry farms in Michigan
 

Seth Walk, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Whittham
Dissertation: Population genetic analyses of Salmonella enterica serovar enteritidis and Escherichia coli from biotic and abiotic sources

Heather Watts, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Social and ecological influences on survival and reproduction in the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta
 

Gabriel Yedid, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Exploring consequences of mass extinction and recovery in digital organisms
 

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2006

 

Gretchen Anderson, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Michael Jones
Thesis: Optimizing assessment of larval sea lampreys in the Great Lakes
 

Kristin Bott, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Genetic analyses of dispersal, harvest mortality, and recruitment for remnant populations of Lake Sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens, in open-water and riverine habitats of Lake Michigan
 

Scott Butterfield, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Carolyn Malmstrom
Dissertation: Enhancing rangeland sustainability with remote sensing and collaborative information exchange
 

Alejandro Costamagna, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Douglas Landis
Dissertation: Do varying natural enemy assemblages impact Aphis glycines population dynamics?
 

Meghan Duffy, PhD

Zoology
Advisors: Alan Tessier and Jeffrey Conner
Dissertation: Evolutionary and community ecology of parasitism in Daphnia
 

Erica Garcia, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Regional coexistence and local dominance in Chaoborus: Species sorting along a predation gradient
 

Merritt Gillilland, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: James Atkinson
Dissertation: Dispersal ecology and control of the invasive land snail Cepaea menoralis (L. 1758), from Ingham County, Michigan
 

Meera Iyer, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Dissertation: Root carbohydrate storage in temperate and tropical forest tree seedlings: Implications for species coexistence
 

Amy Lark, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Heather Eisthen
Non-thesis degree
 

Dusan Misevic, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Digital sex: Causes and consequences of recombination
 

William Paddock, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Frank Ewers
Thesis: Explaining patterns of mortality following severe drought in a chaparral shrub community
 

Brenda Pracheil, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Patrick Muzzall
Thesis: Parasites of juvenile bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus and young-of-the-year largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides from Three Lakes II and Gull Lake, Michigan
 

Heather Sahli, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Jeffrey Conner
Dissertation: Generalization in plant pollination systems and its effect on floral evolution within and among populations of wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum)
 

Bronwyn Williams, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Applications of genetic methods in furbearer management and ecology: Case studies of fishers, American martens and bobcats
 

Ann Winters, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Graham Hickling
Thesis: Rodenticide use and secondary poisoning risks to non-target wildlife in Central Mongolia
 

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2005

 

Amy Angert, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Douglas Schemske
Dissertation: The ecology and evolution of altitude range limits in monkey flowers
 

Kosha Baxi, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Heather Eisthen
Thesis: What does the vomeronasal system do? A critical analysis of the data
 

Doug Bruggeman, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Michael Jones
Dissertation: Development of landscape equivalency analysis
 

Sarah Emery, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Population and community approaches to understanding invasion in grasslands
 

A. Stuart Grandy, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: G. Philip Robertson
Dissertation: Ecosystem consequences of aggregation following soil disturbance
 

Cheng-Yu Lee, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Bryan Epperson
Dissertation: Space-time modeling and application to emerging infectious diseases
 

Kalina Manoylov, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: R. Jan Stevenson
Dissertation: Ecological and evolutionary strategies used by benthic diatoms to compete for nutrients
 

Laura Marx, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Michael Walters
Dissertation: Substrate limitations to Tsuga canadensis and Betula alleghaniensis seedling establishment
 

Laura McKinnon, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Female sociality in the common eider (Somateria mollissima)
 

Shawna Meyer, MS

Forestry
Advisor: David MacFarlane
Non-thesis degree
 

Anita Morzillo, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Jianguo (Jack) Liu
Dissertation: Integrating ecology and socio-economics for species restoration: Feasibility of a Louisiana black bear reintroduction in and around Big Thicket National Preserve, TX
 

Eva-Maria Muecke, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Determinants of age at dispersal & settlement patterns in the Belding's ground squirrel, Spermophilus beldingi
 

Margaret Murphy, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: John Giesy
Dissertation: Atrazine exposure and reproductive function of ranid frog species collected in Michigan
 

Genevieve Nesslage, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Brian Maurer
Dissertation: Spatial structure and invasion success of populations undergoing range expansion: Effects of dispersal strategy and landscape heterogeneity
 

Joshua Nixon, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Laura Smale
Dissertation: Anatomy and function of orexin-containing neurons in day- and night-active animals
 

Elizabeth Ostrowski, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Adaptation and specialization in biological and digital organisms
 

Charlotte Reemts, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Thesis: Temperate deciduous forest fragments: Edge effects, invasion by non-native plants, and long-term change in mature forest structure
 

Nancy Seefelt, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Hall
Dissertation: Foraging ecology, bioenergetics and predatory impact of breeding double-crested cormorant (Pholacrocorax auritus) in the Beaver Archipelago, Northern Lake Michigan
 

Rainy Shorey, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Phylogeographies of Snow, Ross's, Canada, and Cackling Geese: Defining spatial structure of biological diversity
 

Jennifer Skillen, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Brian Maurer
Dissertation: Landscape structure and the biological diversity of the North America avifauna
 

Robert Skillen, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Barbara Lundrigan
Thesis: Changes in the distribution of Michigan's flying squirrels
 

Richard Smith, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Agroecosystem diversity: Impacts on weed communities and crop yield
 

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2004

 

Cindy Adkins, MS

Anthropology
Advisor: Jodie O'Gorman
Thesis: Introduction of Zea Mays into southwestern Michigan: A microenvironmental study of plant/human relationships
 

Mara Bryan, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Li
Dissertation: Unusual sex steroids in lampreys
 

Kendra Cheruvelil, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Patricia Soranno
Dissertation: Examining lakes at multiple spatial scales: Predicting fish growth, macrophyte cover and lake physio-chemical variables
 

Jessica Cook, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Andrew Jarosz
Thesis: Effects of pollen limitation, resource limitation, and disease on the reproductive biology and growing season of Arisaema triphllum
 

Tara Darcy-Hall, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Linking gradients of predators and productivity to the composition and limitation of benthic algal communities
 

Leslie Dethlefsen, PhD

Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology
Advisor: Thomas Schmidt
Dissertation: Translational power differs between bacteria pursuing different ecological strategies
 

Stephanie Dloniak, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Socioendocrinology of spotted hyenas: Patterns of androgen and glucocorticoid excretion in a unique social system
 

Natalie Dubois, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: Opportunities for polygymy and reproductive investment decisions in house wrens
 

Erik Foster, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Edward Walker
Thesis: Ixodes scapularis and Borrelia burgdorferi in Southwest Michigan: Population ecology and verification of a geographic risk model
 

Kristen Genet, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Dissertation: Status and distribution of frogs and toads in southern Michigan: Population trends and the influence of habitat and landscape characteristics
 

Gregory Houseman, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Local and regional effects on plant diversity: The influence of species pools, colonizer traits and productivity
 

Sara Kaiser, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Thesis: Effect of proximity to forest edges on nestling growth and nest survival of wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) in Southwestern Michigan
 

Kathleen Kay, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Douglas Schemske
Dissertation: The evolution of floral characters and reproductive isolation in neotropical Costus (Costaceae)
 

Jessie Keith, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Alan Prather
Thesis: Monarda section Cheilyctis: Patterns of speciation, endemism and implications on conservation
 

Lesley Knoll, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Orlando Sarnelle
Thesis: Understanding zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) impacts on autotrophic and heterotrophic plankton in inland lake ecosystems
 

Ann Krause, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Taylor
Dissertation: The role of compartments in food-web structure and changes following biological invasions in southeast Lake Michigan
 

Ian Ramjohn, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Dissertation: The role of disturbed Caribbean dry forest fragments in the survival of native plant diversity
 

Nathan Siegert, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Deborah McCullough
Dissertation: Meteorological factors affecting the success of the gypsy moth fungal pathogen Entomophaga maimaiga (Zygomycetes: Entomophthorales) in Michigan
 

Michelle Smith, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Thesis: Edge effects on avian and mammalian nest predator relative abundance and species richness
 

Skip Van Bloem, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Dissertation: Multiple scale patterns in growth and structure of subtropical dry forests: soils, trees, and hurricanes
 

Sofia Wahaj, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Cooperative, competitive and kin relationships in the social lives of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta)
 

Cynthia Wei, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Dissertation: Investing in learning: Studies of learning flights in honeybees, Apil mellifera
 

Jeremy Wojdak, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Species interactions and the functioning of pond ecosystems
 

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2003

 

Zhanna Abramovsky, MS

Forestry
Advisor: David Rothstein
Thesis: Recovery of ecosystem processes after wildfire in Michigan jack pine forests
 

Meredith Bartron, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Assessment of historical and contemporary genetic diversity of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in the Lake Michigan basin
 

Julie Blanchong, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Dissertation: Genealogical relationships influence the probability of infection with bovine tuberculosis and microgeographic genetic structure in free-ranging white-tail deer
 

Katherine Coady, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: John Giesy
Dissertation: An investigation into the mechanism of action of atrazine and its effects on developing Rana clamitans and Xenopus leavis
 

Patrick DeHaan, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Demographic and life history characteristics of remnant lake sturgeon populations in the upper Great Lakes basin: Inferences based on genetic analyses
 

Norine Dobiesz, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: James Bence
Dissertation: An evaluation of the role of top piscivores in the fish community of the main basin of Lake Huron
 

Nathan Dorn, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Effects of omnivorous crayfish on fish populations and the structure of littoral communities
 

Khara Greiger, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Thesis: Spatial and temporal patterns of Pinus nigra spread in four Lake Michigan sand dune habitats
 

Joseph Harsh, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Non-thesis degree
 

Robert Hollister, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Patrick Webber
Dissertation: Response of tundra vegetation to temperature: Implications for forecasting vegetation change
 

Kristine Kern, MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Frank Ewers
Thesis: The effect of mechanical perturbation on the conductivity, mechanical strength, and above ground biomass of seven hybrid poplars
 

Laura Lazarus, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Deborah McCullough
Thesis: Suitability of four conifer species for female oviposition and larval development of the white-spotted pine sawyer, Monochamus scutellatus (Say) (Coleoptera: Ceryambycidae)
 

Megan Mahoney, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Laura Smale
Dissertation: Sex, surges, and circadian rhythms: The timing of reproductive events in a diurnal rodent
 

Erica McConnell, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Non-thesis degree
 

Charles McKeown, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Stuart Gage
Thesis: Quantifying the roles of competition and niche separation in native and exotic coccinellids, and their response to an exotic prey species
 

Anna Monfils, PhD

Plant Biology
Advisor: Alan Prather
Dissertation: Phenotypes and floral variation: A phylogenetic approach
 

Sharon Schapel, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Thomas Coon
Dissertation: Relationships between coastal wetland habitat and young of the year fish community characteristics, distribution, and growth
 

Michael Siefkes, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Li
Dissertation: Characterization of a male sea lamprey sex pheromone
 

Craig Stricker, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Dissertation: Natural lake level declines in a Great Lakes coastal marsh: Effects on hydrochemistry, resource availability, and invertebrates
 

Emily Szalai, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: James Bence
Dissertation: Uncertainty in alewife (Alosa psuedoharengus) and bloater (coregonus hoyi) population dynamics and its effects on salmonine stocking strategies in Lake Michigan
 

Stacy Umstatter, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: James Tiedje
Dissertation: Accelerated microbial degradation of carbofuran in soils
 

Russell Van Horn, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Behavioral and genetic consequences of dispersal in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
 

Corine Vriesendorp, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Dissertation: Maintenance of diversity in a neotropical seedling community
 

Yi-Kuang Wang, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: R. Jan Stevenson
Dissertation: Ecological assessment of human disturbance on stream ecosystems with algae
 

Stefanie Whitmire, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Stephen Hamilton
Dissertation: Biogeochemical functions of wetlands in southwestern Michigan
 

Lei Zheng, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: R. Jan Stevenson
Dissertation: Assessing wetlands and their restoration using algae
 

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2002

 

Puja Batra, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Dissertation: Foraging ecology of giant honey bees, Apis dorsata, in an Indian Forest
 

Anne Engh, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: The causes and consequences of social rank in the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta
 

Merritt Gillilland, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Thesis: Microhabitat analysis of bass tapeworm, Proteocephalus ambloplitis, infrapopulations in four species of centrarchids from Gull Lake, Michigan
 

Heather Hallen-Adams, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Gerald Adams
Dissertation: Studies in amatoxin-producing genera of fungi: Phylogenetics and toxin distribution
 

Brian Keas, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Dissertation: Influence of water level on coastal wet meadow snail communities
 

Jason Kilgore, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Frank Telewski
Thesis: A dendroecological analysis of a long-term reforestation experiment in Grayling, Michigan
 

Christopher Lepczyk, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Weiming Liu
Dissertation: Effects of human activities on birds across landscapes in the Midwest
 

Rodrigo Mercader, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Rufus Isaacs
Thesis: Phenophase dependent tolerance to foliar herbivory in grape vines, Vitis labrusca (L.) var. 'Niagara'
 

David Raikow, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Stephen Hamilton
Dissertation: How the feeding ecology of native and exotic mussels affects freshwater ecosystems
 

Laura Schreeg, MS

Forestry
Advisor: Richard Kobe
Thesis: Do differences in soil resource availability affect forest composition in northern lower Michigan? A field investigation of seedling growth, survival and morphology
 

Todd Wills, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Mary Bremigan
Thesis: Evaluation of habitat enhancement structures in four reservoirs of the Au Sable River, Michigan
 

Jeff Winston, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Hall
Non-thesis degree
 

Carrie Woodrum, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Frank Ewers
Thesis: Hydraulic, biomechanical and anatomical study of xylem from five tree species of Acer
 

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2001

 

Chris Blackwood, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: Elder Paul
Dissertation: Spatial organization in soil bacterial communities
 

Erin Boydston, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Socio-ecological determinants of space utilization patterns in the spotted hyena
 

Laura Broughton, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Linking plant communities to soil microbial communities and processes in old-fields
 

Andery Calkins, MS

Geology
Advisor: Michael Gottfried
Thesis: Paleoecology of Hawaiian sub-fossil geese: Stable isotope analysis
 

Vesna Gavrilovic, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: James Smith
Dissertation: Documenting the history of speciation in Rhagoletis zephyria (Diptera: Tephritidae) using molecular markers
 

Dina Grayson, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Thesis: The role of optic versus metabolic odometry in honey bee foraging energetics
 

Colleen Masterson, MS

Geology
Advisor: Nathaniel Ostrom
Thesis: A seasonal investigation of energy transfer and food web structure of the deepwater sculpin (Myoxocephalus thompsoni) in Grand Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan
 

Angela McMellen, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Catherine Lindell
Thesis: Nest-site selection and nesting ecology of the orange-billed nightingale-thrush (Catharus aurantiirostris) in southern Costa Rica
 

Robert Olendorf, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: Cooperation in red-winged blackbirds: Niceness, cheating, grudges in "dear enemy" relationships
 

Gabriel Ording, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Kim Scriber
Thesis: Island populations and trait comparisons of tiger swallowtail butterflies, P. canadensis, in the Great Lakes region
 

Kevin Page, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Kim Scribner
Thesis: Genetic diversity and interrelationships of wild and hatchery lake trout in the upper Great Lakes: Inferences for broodstock management and development of restoration strategies
 

Amanda Posto, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Alan Prather
Thesis: The reproductive biology and taxanomic origin of Michigan monkey-flower, Minulus glabratus var. michiganensis
 

Chris Steiner, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Seasonal succession and variable Daphnia dominance in fishless ponds: Ecological determinants and ecosystem consequences
 

Micaela Szykman Gunther, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Holekamp
Dissertation: Sexual behavior and male mate choice in the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta
 

Steven Vieira, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Beaver
Dissertation: The interaction of nest predation and brood parasitism: Factors and consequences of re-nesting in songbirds
 

Lorna Watt , MS

Plant Biology
Advisor: Douglas Schemske
Non-thesis degree
 

Alan Wilson, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Orlando Sarnelle
Thesis: Complex interactions between zebra mussels and their planktonic prey
 

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2000

 

Jeff Benefiel, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Non-thesis degree
 

Timothy Bergsma, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: G. Philip Robertson
Dissertation: The relationship between denitrification and nitrous oxide flux from soil
 

Brian Black, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Jeffrey Conner
Dissertation: The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in a natural wildflower population
 

Vaughn Cooper, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Consequences of ecological specialization in long-term evolving populations of Escherichia coli
 

Joseph Gathman, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Dissertation: Abiotic and biotic influences on aquatic invertebrate community in a Lake Huron coastal wetland
 

Mike Higgins, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Richard Merritt
Dissertation: Invertebrate trophic relationships in temporary woodland ponds in Michigan
 

Carl Kloock, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: Aggressive mimicry in the pirate spider, Minetus notius

 

Dylan Parry, PhD

Entomology
Advisors: Daniel Herms/Kim Scriber
Dissertation: Induced responses of poplars to defoliation and their effects on leaf-feeding Lepidoptera
 

Danny Rozen, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: The evolution of a balanced polymorphism in a long-term laboratory population of Escherichia coli
 

Gary Schott, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisors: Andrew Jarosz and James Hancock
Dissertation: The nature of infertility and response to inbreeding in blueberries
 

Kristin Sherfinski, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Thesis: The ecology of interdunal wetpannes and the potential effects of the introduced Austrian pine (Pinus nigra) on their hydrology and vegetation
 

Ed Siuda, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Heather Eisthen
Non-thesis degree
 

Kurt Stanley, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Dissertation: The structure, composition, and hydrology of wet meadow plant communities fringing Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron)
 

Aram Stump, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Kim Scriber
Thesis: Lack of cryptic reproductive isolation between Papilio canadensis and Papilio glaucus; and population genetics near their hybrid zone
 

David Tank, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Tao Sang
Thesis: Evolution and phylogenetic utility of low-copy nuclear genes: Examples from conifers and peonies
 

Timothy Tibbetts, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Frank Ewers
Dissertation: Ecology of Celastrus orbiculatus (oriental bittersweet)
 

Ray Valley, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Mary Bremigan
Thesis: The indirect effects of herbicide control of Eurasian watermilfoil on largemouth bass recruitment
 

Farida Vasi Attar, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Population growth, dynamics and evolution in Escherichia coli: Theoretical and experimental studies
 

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1999

 

Julie Blanchong, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Laura Smale
Thesis: Nocturnal and diurnal rhythms in the unstriped Nile grass rat, Arvicanthis niloticus
 

Anita Davelos Baines, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Andrew Jarosz
Dissertation: Double-stranded RNA mediated recovery of the American chestnut population: A demographic analysis
 

Jeff Dudycha, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Alan Tessier
Dissertation: The evolutionary ecology of senescence in Daphnia
 

John Genet, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Thesis: The diversity and abundance of termites (Isoptera) in a fragmented subtropical dry forest landscape
 

Loren Hayes, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Hill
Thesis: House mouse (Mus domesticus) habitat use and response to repeated harvests in the agricultural landscape
 

Theresa Lauber, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Hall
Thesis: Can the big bayou be saved? Water quality assessment and management recommendations for spring lake watershed, Ottawa and Muskegon counties, Michigan
 

Christy Lewis, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Hall
Thesis: Natural history, behavior and species composition of whirligig beetles (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae) in fish and fishless ponds
 

Melissa McCormick, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Spatial environmental variation: Within and among population effects in Danthonia spicata
 

Brian Noyle, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Patrick Webber
Thesis: The vegetation and a landsat assisted land cover map of the Barrow region, northern Alaska
 

Jessica Rettig, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Interactions in a stage-structured species: Impacts of adult bluegill on larval growth and survival
 

Jeff Taylor, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Hill
Thesis: Roost-site and habitat selection of the long-legged Myotis in a managed landscape on the east slopes of the Cascade range
 

Stacy Umstatter, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Beaver
Non-thesis degree
 

Don Uzarski, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Dissertation: Community metabolism in Michigan rivers: Effects of including hyporheic sediments in estimates of production/respiration (P/R) ratios
 

Jeff White, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Tao Sang
Dissertation: Rarity and the phylogeography of the large-flowered Piptolobi of Astragalus L. (Fabaceae)
 

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1998

 

Jeff Birdsley, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Getty
Dissertation: The evolution of ecological specialization in the tyrant flycatchers (Aves: tyrannidae)
 

Michel Cavigelli, PhD

Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
Advisor: G. Philip Robertson
Dissertation: Ecosystem consequences and spatial distribution of soil microbial community structure
 

Andrea Corbett, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Root responses to nutrient heterogeneity: A comparison of dominant and subordinate species from old-fields
 

PhilIP Gerrish, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Dynamics of mutation and selection in asexual populations
 

Piera Giroux, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Mark Scriber
Thesis: Testing the "cold pocket" hypothesis: Oviposition preference of the Canadian tiger swallowtail
 

Heather Govenor, MS

Entomology
Advisors: Daniel Herms and Mark Scriber
Thesis: Light, nutrient availability, and defoliation effects on resource acquisition, resource allocation, and herbivore resistance in paper birch and sugar maple
 

Christine Jarzomski, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Frank Ewers
Thesis: Liana distribution and host relationships in some temperate versus tropical forest sites
 

Heather Rowe, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Catherine Bristow
Thesis: Effects of habitat succession on population and reproduction of the Allegheny mound ant
 

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1997

 

Randy DeJong, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Patrick Muzzall
Thesis: Hemosporid parasite communities of waterfowl (Anatidae) from Kellogg Biological Station and Douglas Lake, Michigan
 

Alex Hernandez, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Patrick Muzzall
Thesis: Seasonal patterns in the biology of Eubothrium salvelini infecting brook trout and slimy sculpin from Sweetwater Creek, Michigan
 

Lissa Leege, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Dissertation: The ecological impact of Austrian pine (Pinus nigra) on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan: An introduced species becomes an invader
 

John Wallace, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Richard Merritt
Dissertation: Larval feeding ecology of Anopheles quadrimaculatus (Say) and An. Punctipennis (Say) in south central Michigan ponds
 

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1996

 

Valerie Brady, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Dissertation: Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) in a great lakes coastal marsh: Population dynamics and effects on the invertebrates
 

Elizabeth Capaldi Evans, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Dissertation: Acquisition of visual spatial memory on orientation and reorientation flights in the honey bee
 

M. Sean Clark, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Stuart Gage
Dissertation: An evaluation of domestic chickens and geese as biological control agents for insect pests and weeds
 

Beth Dankert, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Daniel Herms
Thesis: Effects of defoliation, drought, and fertilization on the expression of paper birch and sugar maple resistance to insect folivores
 

Jeff Dickinson, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Fred Dyer
Dissertation: How do bees compute the position of the sun? Alternative representations
 

Brian Dunphy, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Peter Murphy
Thesis: The multiple-stemmed growth form of trees in a subtropical dry forest
 

Cathy Flegel, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Harold Prince
Dissertation: Genetic heterogeneity and differentiation resulting from sichuan pheasant (Phasianus colchicus strauchi) introduction in southern Michigan
 

Bryan Foster, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Plant competition and diversity in relation to productivity in old-field plant communities
 

Kevin Geedey, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Alan Tessier
Dissertation: Seasonal clonal succession in Daphnia pulicaria populations
 

Casey Huckins, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Interpreting the functional relationships between morphology, feeding performance, diet and competitive ability in mollusciouvous sunfish
 

John Jenkins, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Guy Bush
Dissertation: Systematic studies of Rhagoletis and related genera (Diptera: Tephritidae)
 

Yining Luo, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Straney
Dissertation: A systematic and biogeographic study of the bat genus Rhinolophus (chiroptera: Rhinolophadae)
 

Emily Lyons, MS

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Andrew Jarosz
Thesis: Geographic distribution of Silene latifolia and its anther-smut pathogen Microbotrym Violaceum in the eastern United States
 

Paco Moore, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Steven Tonsor
Dissertation: Assessing the viability of the shifting balance process
 

Roger Strand, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Richard Merritt
Dissertation: Landscape alteration effects on lotic invertebrate ecology
 

Brad White, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Hill
Thesis: The ontogeny of brown adipose tissue in Microtus ochrogaster in various thermal and social environments
 

Timothy Work, MS

Entomology
Advisor: Deborah McCullough
Thesis: The impact of severe gypsy moth defoliation on native insects in two northern Michigan ecosystems
 

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1995

 

Paola Ferreri, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Taylor
Dissertation: Role of compensatory mechanisms in the population dynamics of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in the U.S. waters of Lake Superior
 

Stan Hokanson, PhD

Horticulture
Advisor: James Hancock
Dissertation: Risk assessment of transgenic plants: Evaluation of border rows as a containment strategy for transgenic pollen and a comparison of pollen dispersal patterns for native and transgenes
 

Karen Hokanson, PhD

Horticulture
Advisor: James Hancock
Dissertation: The consequences of polyploidy on inbreeding depression in Vaccinium (blueberry) species
 

Yue Ming, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Guy Bush
Dissertation: Characterization of the Ribosomal DNA of the genus Rhagoletis (diptera: Tephritidae)
 

Douglas Novinger, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Thomas Coon
Thesis: Behavioral, physiological and morphological similarity among populations of redside dace, a threatened species in Michigan
 

Alison Pearks Wilkerson, MS

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: Scott Winterstein
Thesis: The effect of habitat manipulation on avian populations and vegetation composition on conservation reserve program fields in Gratiot County, Michigan
 

Paul Turner, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Associations between bacteria and conjugative plasmids: Model systems for testing evolutionary theory
 

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1994

 

Michael Berney, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: George Bird
Dissertation: Studies on the population and community ecology of Heterodera corotae in Michigan
 

Russell Brown, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: William Taylor
Dissertation: Reproduction, early life history, and recruitment of rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordaz) in St. Martin Bay, Lake Huron
 

Lisa Huberty, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: Kay Gross
Dissertation: Dominance, diversity, and resource competition in old-field plant communities
 

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1993

 

Janice Bossart, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Mark Scriber
Dissertation: Differential selection and adaptation in different host environments: Genotypic and phenotypic variation in host use traits in the tiger swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus
 

William Bowerman, PhD

Fisheries and Wildlife
Advisor: John Giesy
Dissertation: Regulation of bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) productivity in the great lakes basin: An ecological and toxicological approach
 

Martha Case, PhD

Botany and Plant Pathology
Advisor: John Beaman
Dissertation: Genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships within and among five Cypripedium (Orchidaceae) species: Inference from allozyme electrophoresis
 

Shixi Hu, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Alan Tessier
Dissertation: Competition in a seasonal environment: Daphnia population dynamics and coexistence
 

Kelly Johnson, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Mark Scriber
Dissertation: Physiological adaptations associated with host specialization: Ecological implications
for generalist and specialist Saturniid silkmoths
 

Mark Olson, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Gary Mittelbach
Dissertation: Mixed competition/predation interactions in size-structured fish communities
 

Michael Travisano, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Richard Lenski
Dissertation: Adaptation and divergence in experimental populations of the bacterium Escherichia coli: The roles of environment, phylogeny and chance
 

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1992

 

Steven Fradkin, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Hall
Thesis: Induced interference and exploitative competition upon rotifer community structure
 

Michael Rondinelli, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Donald Hall 
Thesis: Predation by three dominant macroinvertebrates in a southcentral Michigan marsh
 

Peter Smith, MS

Zoology
Advisor: Susan Kalisz
Non-thesis degree
 

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1991

 

Matthew Ayres, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: Mark Scriber
Dissertation: Adaptation and constraint in Papilio canadensis: Geographic variation in nutritional physiology and temperature
 

Daniel Herms, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: William Mattson
Dissertation: Variation in resource allocation patterns of paper birch: Evidence of physiological trade-offs among growth, reproduction and defense
 

Dennis Mullen, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: Thomas Burton
Dissertation: Size related habitat use in a riffle dwelling fish: The longnose dace (Rhinicthys cataractae)
 

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1990

 

Richard Cowles, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: James Miller
Dissertation: Manipulating oviposition of Delia antiqua (Meigen): A stimulo-deterrent diversionary approach
 

Robert Lawrence, PhD

Entomology
Advisor: William Mattson
Dissertation: Phenological variation in the susceptibility of white spruce to the spruce budworm
 

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1989

 

Jonathan Brown, PhD

Zoology
Advisor: David Wilson
Dissertation: Specialization in Poecilochirus carabi, a phoretic mite
 

Mark McPeek, PhD

Zoology
Advisors: Donald Hall and Earl Werner
Dissertation: The determination of species composition in the Enallagma assemblages (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) of permanent lakes
 

Rose-Marie Muzika, PhD

Forestry
Advisor: Kurt Pregitzer
Dissertation: Carbon allocation and secondary metabolites in Abies grandis as influenced by nitrogen fertilization and seed source
 

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