
Alumni

Lauren Simonitis
PhD, TAMU 2021
Lauren employed high resolution CT scanning to quantify the morphology of the olfactory organ in various elasmobranch species.

Laura Jones
MS, 2024
Laura measured the magnetic field around a commercial magnetic shark deterrent and modeled the effective range of the device. She also tested the efficacy of a magnetic deterrent with wild sharks in the field.

Rachel Lapensee
BS, 2024
Rachel created animated maps in ArcGIS of the satellite track data gathered from tagged blacktip sharks to aid in visual analysis of the annual blacktip migration. She also assisted in outreach events and field work such as shark tagging
Isabella Urban
BS, 2024
Isabella extracted data from aerial drone footage to quantify the swimming kinematics of free swimming blacktip sharks in the wild.

Savannah Arvin
BS, 2024
Savannah analyzed 10 years worth of shark catch data to quantify the sex and size distribution of aggregating blacktip sharks in Southeast Florida.

Beth Bowers
PhD, Dec 2023
Beth studied the annual migration of blacktip sharks along the eastern seaboard of the United States. She employed conventional tagging, acoustic telemetry, and energetics modeling to examine how much energy is required for these long distance movements.

Genevieve Sylvester
BS, 2023

Celia Buzby
MS, 2022
Celia was a non-thesis MS student in the Marine Science and Oceanography program.

Caroline Sullivan
MS, 2022
Caroline tested how blacktip sharks respond to underwater sounds. She played sounds of various frequencies through an underwater speaker and used an aerial drone to film the response of the sharks. She was able to quantify the distance at which the sounds elicited a response by the sharks.
Ryan Stolee
MS, Dec 2021
Ryan studied the fine-scale behavior of blacktip sharks that overwinter in southeast Florida. He deployed pop-off data loggers on the sharks to record environmental data which he used to determine when sharks are found at various depths and temperatures.
Deborah Azevedo
BS, 2021
Mackenzie Smith
BS, 2021
Mackenzie analyzed blockcam footage to quantify the seasonal abundance, richness, and diversity of bait fish along the beach where blacktip sharks are known to inhabit.

Christine Bedore
PhD, 2014

Beth Bowers
PhD, 2023
Beth studied the annual migration of blacktip sharks along the eastern seaboard of the United States. She employed conventional tagging, acoustic telemetry, and energetics modeling to examine how much energy is required for these long distance movements.

Kyle Newton
PhD, 2017
Kyle tested whether elasmobranch fishes are truly magnetoreceptive and what mechanism they employ to detect magnetic fields. He combined comparative neuroanatomy with behavioral trials to determine how magnetic information is detected and processed. Kyle is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University.

Tricia Meredith
PhD, 2011

Laura Macesic
PhD, 2011
Laura studied locomotion in batoids. She described the pelvic fin musculature, and quantified how various batoid species use their pelvic fins for a novel form of locomotion - punting. This also entailed morphometric and material properties testing of pelvic skeletal elements. Laura is currently an assistant professor in the Biology Department at Wheaton College.

Michelle McComb
PhD, 2009
Biological Sciences
Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
561-297-2677 (office)
561-297-1040 (lab)
561-297-2749 (fax)