I received my PhD in Dr. Trina McMahon's lab through the Environmental Chemistry and Technology program. My thesis was entitled "Ecophysiology of mercury-methylating microorganisms in freshwater ecosystems". More information about that work can be found on my Research page. I am currently staying on for a year as a postdoc to finish up and extend some of the research I did for my thesis.

I worked as a post-baccalaureate student and later as a contractor at the National Institute of Aging, studying the impact of exercise on the integration of adult-born neurons into existing circuits. I performed animal care, neurosurgical injections, and fluorescent microscopy, including on a two-photon microscope. This led to a number of publications, including one co-first author paper:

• Running reorganizes the circuitry of one-week-old adult-born hippocampal neurons
• Running rewires the neuronal network of adult-born dentate granule cells
• JNK1 controls adult hippocampal neurogenesis and imposes cell-autonomous control of anxiety behaviour from the neurogenic niche

I received my bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from the State University of New York at Geneseo, where I studied the myrosinase-glucosinolate secondary metabolite systems in Brassica rapa. I initiated a project to identify the function of a novel specific protein that would influence the function of the myrosinase protein through in vitro testing of the cloned protein.