What are Undergraduate Highlights?
The undergraduate program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is a thriving, inspiring hub housing passionate students who are engaged in many different applications and projects relating to their areas of curiosity and expertise. We want to highlight these innovative and developing projects and people coming out of our program, in order to support and encourage more direct engagement with the world through the lens of ecology and biology. Explore recent projects below, and help to share and support work you care about!

 

Abel HS

Seeds Are Cool! - Abel Campos

April 10, 2023

I am a senior double majoring in EBIO (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) and MCDB (Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology) graduating this spring. Since taking advanced placement biology my senior year of high school I have been enamored with the study of life on our planet. Particularly with understanding how the...

Barnham HS

The difference between gardening and science is note-taking - Joseph Barham

April 10, 2023

When I transferred to CU, I was somewhat aimless and worried: I knew I loved biology, but I was concerned about finding my niche, both in terms of finding work I would find meaningful but also in finding work that would be financially sound. I started off by sending a...

Balas HS

What’s got zebrafish in a Twist? - Louis Balas

April 10, 2023

One of the many wonders of biology is the immense biodiversity of the natural world. Anyone can walk outside right now and encounter all different forms of life: large arching trees, shiny armored bugs, furry four-legged creatures, soaring birds, and microscopic critters invisible to the naked eye. What encodes for...

TN

Bug Squashers to Insect Lovers? – Elizabeth Woolner

Dec. 7, 2020

Never in my life did I think I would want to save bugs. Although I’d usually put them outside (nervously), I always freaked when seeing an earwig and I ran away from bees. If you’d asked me freshman year what lab course I’d end up doing, I would have said...

TN

There’s more to prairie dogs than the plague - Pat Todd

Dec. 7, 2020

I was first exposed to the world of scientific research during high school in a course called Science Research Seminar. When I realized that I could combine creativity and innovation with the findings of other scientists to benefit human impacted ecosystems, I was hooked! Today, my goal is to educate...

TN

Tiny Plants in High Places - Micaela Seaver

Dec. 7, 2020

My love for plant community ecology began in the trees of the Hoh Rainforest of Washington State. Here, I was fortunate enough to conduct research on the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts that live in the canopy of big-leaf maple trees with Dr. Carrie Woods of the University of Puget Sound...

TN

Claire Mastrangelo

Dec. 7, 2020

As an undergraduate in EBIO, I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of research projects looking at everything from barn swallows to lichens to microbes. I currently work in Dr. Steve Schmidt's lab studying soil microbial communities from around the world. My main focus right now is...

TN

The cost of being a parent - Sage Madden

Dec. 7, 2020

During my junior at CU Boulder, I began the process of working on an honors thesis in the Safran lab. I knew I wanted to study parental care in Barn Swallows, and after a lot of reading, I landed on a research question: how do barn swallows alter their feeding...

TN

Flipping the Switchgrass on Herbivory - Kevin Headrick

Dec. 7, 2020

I’m a Senior majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics, graduating this spring. My research is on the genetic basis of herbivory resistance in Panicum virgatum, or switchgrass. Switchgrass is a biofuel candidate which grows over a large latitudinal gradient, from Mexico to Canada, and its several ecotypes can...

TN

Green and Salty - Chris Greidanus

Dec. 7, 2020

Studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has allowed me to explore my interest in microbiology through different classes and participating in research. With the help of Dr. Boswell Wing and graduate student Jennifer Reeve I am investigating how different cyanobacterial strains adapt to salinity. My research focuses on culturing two different...

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