#  2019 REU Participants, Mentors and Projects 

 



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##  2019 REU Participants, Mentors and Projects 

Sort   ![Woman in black top standing in front of a poster](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-01/ali_ayala_poster2019.jpg?itok=zw07mLdx) 

 

### **Alissandra Ayala**  
**University of Texas at Austin**

**Faculty mentor:** N. Michele Holbrook (OEB)  
**Project:** Temperate forests! How climate change affects growth and phenology



   ![Woman standing in front of a poster](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-01/aundrea_kroger_poster2019.jpg?itok=p6AtsH3z) 

 

### **Aundrea (Dree) Koger**  
**Western Washington University**

**Faculty mentor:** Benjamin de Bivort (OEB)  
**Project:** Playing it cool: An investigation of thermal preference in entomophthora muscae-infected Drosophila melanogaster



   ![Woman standing in front of a poster](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-01/nicole_marquez_poster2019.jpg?itok=llos-lNt) 

 

### **Nicole Márquez-Reyes**  
**University of Peurto Rico, Cayey**

**Faculty mentor:** Cassandra Extavour (OEB)  
**Project:** Evolution of ovariole number in insects



   ![Woman standing in front of a poster](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-01/macy_petrula_poster2019.jpg?itok=Zx1geAQw) 

 

### **Macy Petrula**  
**California State University, Sacramento**

**Faculty mentor:** Gonzalo Giribet (OEB)  
**Project:** Identifying marine snails and slugs from the Maldives with COI barcoding



   ![Woman standing in front of a poster](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-01/emma_riccardi_poster2019.jpg?itok=qcIP4tuA) 

 

### **Emma Riccardi**  
**Northeastern University**

**Faculty mentor:** Peter Girguis (OEB)  
**Project:** Impact of oxygen on an iron and sulfur oxidizing microbe



   ![Woman standing in front of a poster](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-01/alyssa_vanerelli_poster2019.jpg?itok=1c3uJq1s) 

 

###   
**Alyssa Vanerelli**  
**University of North Carolina at Asheville**

**Faculty mentor:** Hopi Hoekstra (OEB)  
**Project:** Finding evidence for arboreal adaptation in rodents through an unbiased computational analysis of museum records



   ![Woman standing in front of a poster](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-01/kierra_wilk_poster2019.jpg?itok=ZPtobABm) 

 

### **Kierra Wilk**  
**Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute**

**Faculty mentor:** David Johnston (EPS)  
**Project:** Isotopic and experimental insights on the mechanisms of pyrite oxidation