GLOBES Fellows
The GLOBES program is pleased to announce the recipients of GLOBES fellowship awards. Here is to a great learning and research experience for these GLOBES pioneers.
Cohort I (Fall 2006)- Charles Adam Bee
- Andrew Deines
- Sarah Epstein
- Peter Levi
- Jessica Mikels-Carrasco
- Becky Miller
- Jill Mueller
- Gilbert Saint Jean
Cohort II (Fall 2007)
- Ashley Baldridge
- James Clancy
- Derrick Parker
- Sarah Roley
- Brandy St. Laurent
- Patrick Shirey
- Sheina Sim
Cohort III (Fall 2008)
- Thomas Buschman
- Craig Kinnear
- Clayton Sadler
Cohort I (Fall 2006)
Charles Adam Bee
Economics and Econometrics
Adam comes to the GLOBES program with a 2004 BA in Economics and a minor in Mathematics from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Adam’s research interests are rooted in microeconomic theory and financial econometrics and include topics like debt-for-nature swaps, the impact of global climate change on trade patterns, and Kyoto-style emission credit markets. He hopes to combine biological and economic models to create a more complete understanding of human ecology. One example might be to simply add biological variables to the standard economic growth model explaining variations in economic development. By following the feedback loops between the natural environment and the marketplace, Adam believes he and his GLOBES cohorts can better explain and predict events than by studying economic or biological factors alone.
On the rare occasion he is not engaged in deep intellectual reverie, Adam can be found off the back of a bike racing or diving for plastic on the ultimate frisbee field. > Read more about Adam's research
Andrew Deines
Biological Sciences
Andy received his BS in Environmental Science from Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash, in 2003. As an undergraduate he worked at the Institute of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry where he modeled species introductions resulting in a paper in the journal Risk Analysis. Since June 2004 he has been a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia working in the forestry sector and promoting food security and income generating activities, mainly implementing a grant for beekeeping from the British High Commission.
Andy's interests are primarily in Non-Indigenous Species and Ecological Risk Assessment. In Zambia he has become familiar with the implications of environmental issues in the developing world. He views Risk Assessment as a productive way to integrate research of the potential ecological impacts of development programs (or lack thereof) with the unique values of the stakeholders involved. He is hoping to pursue an assessment along these lines in Zambia as part of his dissertation.
Other interests include skiing and sailing, or any outdoor activity. He was recently SCUBA certified in Lake Malawi, which is like diving in the tank at the dentist's office, and is thoroughly hooked. > Read more on Andy's research
Sarah Epstein
Biological Sciences
Sarah recently earned bachelor degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology and Spanish at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass. As an undergraduate, she interned at Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC) in Natick, Mass., conducting several assays and ELISAs to identify various properties of extracellular matrix. She also completed a team-based senior research project on mutations of the mig-10 gene in the nematode C. elegans.
While Sarah has always been very interested in cell biology and genetics, she enrolled in several courses during her senior year that also piqued her interest in disease and its treatment. As a result, she would like to focus her PhD dissertation work on an as-yet unspecified area of infectious disease. She is excited and honored to be a pioneer GLOBES fellow at the University of Notre Dame beginning Fall semester 2006.
When not in the lab, Sarah enjoys singing, supporting her favorite Boston sports teams, and traveling the world to explore new cultures. > Read more about Sarah's research
Peter Levi
Biological Sciences
Peter received a BA in Biology in 2001 from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, along with minors in International Relations and Environmental Science. Instead of immediately entering graduate school, Peter pursued his passion for teaching and used this form of employment as a means to follow his other dream of traveling far and wide. Through a fortunate turn of events, his first position after graduation was to assist a group of students during a study abroad program in Southern Africa. Upon returning to the States, he began teaching experiential ecology education in several corners of the country, from San Diego to southern Maine to the Florida Keys. In a return towards ecological research, he accepted a position as a research associate at Miami University assisting with work on nutrient and sediment inputs to reservoirs in human-dominated landscapes. The past five years have provided Peter a great deal of insight into sustainability, aquatic ecology, and the increasingly important connections between social, cultural, and natural fields of study.
He now looks forward to his new adventure in graduate school at Notre Dame. Again, a series of fortunate events led him to Dr. Jennifer Tank’s stream ecology laboratory where he will pursue his degree as a GLOBES fellow. In brief, his research with Dr. Tank will focus on the periodic pulse of marine-derived nutrients from salmon on freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems in southern Alaska. “I am very excited about participating in the GLOBES program. The multidisciplinary approach allows me to continue to study the close relationships and interactions between people and the natural world,” Peter said. “I am confident that the coming five years will be very challenging and incredibly rewarding.” >Read more about Peter's research
Jessica Mikels-Carrasco
Biological Sciences
Jessica enters the GLOBES program with a BA in Anthropology from the University of Kansas (2000) and an MA in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma (2006). Her research interests have included a variety of topics, with her master’s thesis combining the field of anthropology with history of science to understand the effects of feminism on the science of human evolution, concentrating her research on the role of Sherwood Washburn and his students in shaping the modern day field of physical anthropology.
In addition to research into the history of science, Jessica has also spent the last two summers in Suriname on a feeding ecology project with a team of researchers from Kent State University and Saint Louis University. It was through work in the tropics, faced with issues of human/forest interactions that she became interested in understanding the concomitant effects of anthropogenic species removal, in particular, the removal of frugivores and primary seed dispersers on future forest dynamics.
For the summer of 2006 she began a research project with Jason McLachlan at Harvard Forest in Massachusetts. This project asks how trees spread across the environment post agricultural abandonment, and will utilize genetic markers to analyze the relatedness of the tree species sampled.
The GLOBES program will allow Jessica to combine her past experiences and training with her desire to dedicate herself to issues of conservation. >Read more about Jessica's research
Becky Miller
Biological Sciences
Becky received a BS in Zoology and recently completed a MS in Molecular Biology at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, studying the phylogeography, population genetics, and phylogenetics of whitefish (Prosopium) in western North America. She states that while she will forever love whitefish, she would like to focus her future work on environmental problems induced by humans. Humans have tremendous impacts on their environment, but the altered environments in turn will have severe impacts on humans. "I would like to explore these relationships, especially in the role of infectious diseases, and encourage societies to better care for their environments by illustrating these interactions," said Becky. "GLOBES is a great opportunity to explore this dilemma from multiple view points, and I look forward to working with other GLOBES participants. I'm grateful for this opportunity to be a pioneer in the GLOBES program and am excited to be at Notre Dame. It's going to be a difficult journey, but one with great potential in improving our world."
Outside of school and work, Becky enjoys practicing Aikido, reading, traveling, and spending time with her husband. > Read more about Becky's research
Jill Mueller
Biological Sciences
After receiving her BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Saint Louis University, Jill enters her first year in the GLOBES program with the Ecology, Evolution, and Environment cluster in the Department of Biological Sciences. Her primary interests are in conservation biology and global change, and she hopes to conduct research addressing the intersection of human practices and conservation. Jill is particularly interested in studying global environmental change brought on by human actions and how such changes affect ecosystem functions. For example, she would like to research ways to monitor changing climate patterns and their effects on different biological populations and human communities. In doing so, she hopes to generate information and principles useful in conservation and public policy formation. Jill believes approaching these topics holistically is the best way to understand them, and she is excited about the prospect of carrying out her research in the interdisciplinary setting offered by the GLOBES program.
Gilbert Saint Jean Jr.
Biological Sciences
Gilbert graduated from Florida International University (FIU) located in Miami, Florida, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. He is a first generation US national. His parents and the majority of his family are from Haiti. He lived in Haiti for a year (1991-1992) and has tried to keep in touch with his ancestral roots. His interest in the GLOBES program stems from the cross-disciplinary, multi-pronged approach of using natural sciences along with social sciences to solve some of the delicate and often times interrelated problems of the world. Gilbert looks forward to fulfilling the potential of the program. Most of his research work in molecular biology/genetics was done at FIU, and at the University of Notre Dame during the summer of 2005 as a Ronald McNair Post Baccalaureate Scholar. He also had the opportunity to be an adjunct professor and taught undergraduate biology lab courses this past semester at FIU. “Enough of tooting my own horn for the moment, let’s get to work,” said Gilbert of pursuing his PhD through the GLOBES program.