Congratulations to the following Integrated Biology (iBio) Graduate Program students on successfully defending their theses this summer!

Rosemary Lee, a PhD student, successfully defended her thesis on July 27, 2023! The title of Rosemary's thesis was "Unraveling the Mechanism of BIR: From Genes to Genome Instabilities." Rosemary's mentor was Anna Malkova, PhD, Roy J. Carver Professor of Biology.

Chelsea Higgins, a Master's student, successfully defended her thesis on July 14, 2023! The title of her thesis was "Insights into the Evolution of Parasite Resistance and Susceptibility in New Zealand Snails." Her mentors were Maurine Neiman, PhD, and John Logsdon, PhD. Best of luck to Chelsea as she pursues a PhD in Zoology at the University of British Columbia where she will continue studying host-parasite evolution in Professor Kayla King's group.

Rich Bowman, a PhD student, successfully defended their thesis on July 7, 2023! The title of Rich's thesis was "Investigation of meiotic double-strand break formation through epitope-tagged SPO-11 and the study of its novel regulator, and the recruitment of early repair proteins as function of age and sex of C. elegans." Rich's mentor was Sarit Smolikove, PhD, Professor of Biology.

John Atagozli, a Master's student, successfully defended his thesis on June 29, 2023! The title of his thesis was "Genomic and Fitness Consequences of Heat Stress-Induced Transposon Mobilization in Drosophila." His mentor was Josep Comeron, PhD, Professor of Biology. Best of luck to John as he pursues an MD at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

Alaine Hippee, a PhD student, successfully defended her thesis on June 23, 2023! The title of her thesis was "Host Plant Association and Evolution in a Genus of Specialist Fruit Flies." Her mentor was Andrew Forbes, PhD, Professor of Biology. Best of luck to Alaine as she will continue studying specialist insect evolution at the University of Kentucky, where she will be a University Research Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Catherine Linnen.