TARA STEWART MERRILL
Tara is an Assistant Research Faculty member in the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory, member of the Apalachicola Bay System Initiative, and has a courtesy appointment with co-directive status in the FSU Biology Department. She completed her PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and conducted a Life Sciences Research Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2008, Tara left a promising career in ballet and modern dance to pursue her interests in parasites and infectious diseases. To this day, she remains driven to uncover the hidden roles of parasites in ecosystems. |
GRACE WESTPHAL
Grace is working toward her Ph.D. in Biology (Ecology & Evolution) and is co-advised by Tara Stewart Merrill and Daniel Okamoto. She completed her undergraduate degree in Integrative Biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with a dual major in English. Her prior research focused on understanding the role of genes and the environment in shaping invertebrate immunological traits, and the extent to which infectious disease drives clonal selection in Daphnia. As a member of the Stewart Merrill RAD lab, Grace will be studying the effects of environmental stressors on invertebrate health and disease. |
DAVID DUBOSE
Dave is a technician at the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at San Diego State University and earned his Master’s degree in Integrative Biology at Oregon State University. His prior research has focused on investigating invertebrate community structure, habitat restoration, biocontrol of aquatic invasive plants, and invertebrate vector ecology. Prior to joining the Stewart Merrill Lab he worked for the United States Geological Survey as part of the Eagles-Smith Lab researching the role of mercury in aquatic food webs. He also supported the Dragonfly Mercury Project, a national community science program, using dragonflies as a sentinel species for mercury from the national parks. In his current position he will be researching the effects of parasites in the aquatic food webs of the Apalachicola Bay and assisting the Apalachicola Bay System Initiative with research on the role parasites play in the ecology of oysters. |