St. Kate’s students – Interested in research?
Current Students
Your name here
’23 – Biology major
Are you a St. Kate’s Biology major? Are you looking for research experience? Are you excited about ecology, a current environmental issue? freshwater ecosystems? or some other aspect of biology? This could be you!!
Present
Jaidan Ludescher
’22 – Biology Major
Supported by: USACE and St. Kates 3M, AMP 2022
In collaboration with St. Kates and Texas State University, Jaidan is exploring how intermittent flows in response to global warming and water extraction shape the ecology of algae in rivers in Texas.
Lab Alumni
Sydney Kennedy
’22 – Public Policy/Biology major
Supported by: St. Kate’s Summer Scholars & AMP, 2021
Assessed the water quality of Lake Como, MN. She characterized and quantified algae and cyanobacteria using the FlowCam 5000®, a particle analyzer. This work will help develop a case-study on harmful algal blooms for use in university classrooms.
Hope Cornelius
’21 – Biology major
Supported by: St. Kate’s APDC 2019 – 2020
To understand how algae respond to a warming, nutrient-rich world, Hope explored shifts in algal species composition, particularly with respect to nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria and diatoms.
Maggie Menso
’21 – Biology major
Supported by: St. Kate’s APDC 2020
To help grow her knowledge of the fundamentals of ecology, Maggie explored how temperature influenced the nitrogen and phosphorus content of nitrogen-fixing cynobacteria from streams in Iceland. Maggie added to our student guides on using RStudio and ggplot.
Teagan Tretter
’20 – Biology major
Supported by: St. Kates 3M 2019
Teagan worked with Lad Akins and Peter Hughes (REEF.org), the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, and a team of researchers on the impact of the invasive Lionfish on native fish populations and reef ecology on the Caribbean Island of Curaçao. Teagan hopes to continue to pursue monitoring and conservation of coral ecosystems.
Gabby Holm
’19 – Biology major
Supported by: St. Kates AMP, 3M, & APDC, 2017 – 2019
To understand how algae respond to a nutrient-rich world, Gabby worked to improve methods used to detect the toxin microcystin-LR from water samples collected from Icelandic streams of different temperatures and rich in Nostoc, a genus of cyanobacteria.
Muna Scekomar
’18 – Communications: Electronic Media major
Supported by: St. Kates AMP & APDC, 2017
Muna captured stories on women, climate, and the arctic to help communicate science to the world. She transformed interviews with St. Kate student collaborators into videos of their research stories, and built an online communication platform of these research experiences.
Anna Vaza
17’ – Masters in STEM Education
Supported by: St. Kates AMP, 2017
Anna worked as a support instructor for the weekend college Environmental Biology class. She researched the updates needed to align the course learning goals with the new education science standards.
Nicole Szyszka
17’ – Biology major
Supported by: St. Kate’s 3M, AMP, & APDC, 2016 – 2017
Nicole tested methods to detect polyphosphate bodies in the nuisance bloom-forming diatom Didymosphenia. Nicole is now a Frontline Program Coordinator at 3M.
Sarah Baker
15’ – Biology major
Supported by: St. Kate’s APDC 2014 – 2015.
Sarah explored the ecological role of nitrogen-fixing algae, especially cyanobacteria, from samples collected from Icelandic streams with different temperatures. Sarah currently works as a GIS Research Analyst for the MN Depart. of Natural Resources’ Div. of Forestry. She continues to pursue her interests in conservation biology, wildlife, and plants!
Esther Swanson
Biology major
Supported by: St. Kate’s AMP 2015
Esther worked on the taxonomic characteristics of Epithemia species (diatoms with endosymbiotic cyanobacteria capable of nitrogen fixation) collected from streams across a temperature gradient in Iceland.
Rebecca Wolfe
13’ – Biology Major
Supported by: St. Kate’s APDC 2012 – 2013
