People

Principal Investigator

Nina Overgaard Therkildsen, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University
Email: nt246[at]cornell.edu

Faculty Fellow, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future
Member, Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics (3CPG)
Member, Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics

Postdocs

Ryan Franckowiak, PhD

Email: rpf55[at]cornell.edu

Pavel Dimens, PhD

Email: pd238[at]cornell.edu
Website: https://pdimens.github.io/

Pavel is interested in how fish movement over evolutionary time impacts and informs conservation genetics. His experience has been in highly migratory fishes in marine systems (sharks, tunas) and he has turned his attention to the anadromous American shad. Pavel is also invested in scientific graphic design, scientific communication, compassionate programming, and has developed several pieces of analytical software and software packages in the R, Python, and Julia languages.

Naoko P. Kurata, PhD

Email: nk628[at]cornell.edu

Naoko is interested in evolutionary and conservation genomics of aquatic organisms. Previously, she worked on population genomics of riverine cichlids in the lower Congo River to understand baseline diversification mechanisms important for conservation management. She is currently involved in the aquaculture feed metagenomics project to better understand global connections between wild fish harvests and farmed fish production and to integrate metagenomic tools into standards for sustainability certifications

Graduate Students

Carl St. John

Email: cas399[at]cornell.edu
Co-advisor: Pete McIntyre

Carl is interested in the evolutionary genetics of trait variation and applying this interest to aid conservation and management of polar and temperate fisheries. He has worked in the North Pacific, Bering Sea, Southeast Alaska, and Lake Baikal studying fisheries ranging from Sea Cucumbers to Oilfish. His PhD research centers around species delimitation and genetic mechanisms underlying spawning variation in New York's only endemic fish: the Summer Sucker.

Jaime Ortiz Pachar

Email: jdo53[at]cornell.edu

Jaime is interested in conservation genomics. Currently, he is working on developing tools to improve the accuracy of meta barcoding for species identification on eDNA and aquaculture feeds. He is very passionate about conservation of the natural environment and strongly believe that genetic tools can play a more prominent role to drive more sustainable policies around the world.

Azwad Iqbal

Email: ari22[at]cornell.edu

Azwad is interested in evolutionary genomics and conservation, with particular focus on invasive species and rapid evolution. His experience spans molecular ecology and vector neurogenetics, working in African savannas and with mosquitoes. His PhD research focuses on using population genomics to understand the rapid adaptation of invasive American shad to their new habitats on the Pacific coast of North America.

Liam Zarri

Email: ljz27 [at]cornell.edu
Website: zarriliam.wixsite.com
Main Advisor: Alex Flecker

Liam studies the impact of rapid evolution on ecological processes in applied systems. His professional experience spans coastal streams, large rivers, lakes, intertidal marine systems, and kelp forests. His PhD research at Cornell is focused on two projects: (1) parallel rapid genomic evolution of smallmouth bass in response to harvest, and (2) the evolutionary impact of dams.

Heath Cook

Email: hsc47 [at]cornell.edu
Main Advisor: Willy Bemis

Heath is interested in marine biomonitoring and developing methods to overcome the ever-present difficulties in sampling biodiversity on the continental shelf, particularly in regions of the world with reduced marine research infrastructure and budgets. He is currently investigating environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding in marine systems as a tool for the detection of continental shelf biodiversity.