Juliana Jiranek is a third year in the Gibson lab. She studies how environmental context drives disease spread and evolution using a wildflower–fungus system in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. In her free time, she loves hiking with her dog, foraging for mushrooms, and playing ultimate frisbee.

​I am a 3rd year PhD student in the Güler lab, where our research focuses on understanding the neural circuits that regulate food intake and how these processes relate to obesity and type 2 diabetes. My work explores the effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on neural circuits and behavior.

Kira is a graduate student in the Lu Lab here at UVA.

I’m a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Cox lab, where I study the adaptive significance and genetic basis of sex-biased dispersal in brown anole lizards. I am just as excited to be catching lizards in the field as I am to be putting together a delicious charcuterie board for a department event!

Kenzie is a 2nd year graduate candidate in the Larson Lab studying  the natural neuroplasticity of Gambel’s White-Crowned Sparrows. She is passionate about communicating exciting scientific concepts across disciplines and education levels, whether through my art, writing, or community outreach

I am a 2nd year PhD Student in the Brodie Lab on the Ecology and Evolution side of the UVA Bio department. I am interested in investigating the drivers of group living, using a terrestrial isopod model, Porcellio laevis. I love being able to communicate research to a broader audience through graphic design and media.

Dr. Abigail “Abbey” Hayes is an entomologist and postdoctoral research associate working in the Bergland Lab. Their PhD work focused on wing polyphenic development in crickets. Abbey is also passionate about teaching, outreach and DEI.

I am a postdoc in the Galloway Lab, where I use the American Bellflower (Campanula americana) as a system to study the role of evolutionnary history in shaping adaptation and response to changing climates of rear-edge populations – relicts of those that persisted in glacial refugia and which often occur at the warmer distribution end of a species