People

Principal Investigator

Nina Overgaard Therkildsen, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Natural Resources, 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

Áki Jarl Láruson, PhD

Email: ajl446[at]cornell.edu
Website: akijarl.wordpress.com

Ryan Franckowiak, PhD

Email: rpf55[at]cornell.edu

Graduate Students

Nicolas Lou

Email: rl683[at]cornell.edu

Nicolas is broadly interested in the application of genomic tools in the conservation and management of biodiversity. Currently, he is working on the genomic basis of local adaption in Atlantic cod, as well as the molecular mechanisms underlying its rapid evolution in response to size-selective fishing and climate change. In addition, he is also developing practical molecular tools for the species and sex identification in non-model species, for the benefit of management agencies and the aquaculture industry.

Maria Akopyan

Email: ma2256[at]cornell.edu
Website: makopyan.com
Co-advisor: Kelly Zamudio

Maria is broadly interested in ecological and evolutionary genomics. Currently, she is working on characterizing the genomic architecture of local adaptation in Atlantic silversides, with a focus on describing structural variation between locally adapted populations and identifying genomic regions that underlie adaptive traits.

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.

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.

Isabel Kim

Email: ikk23 [at]cornell.edu
Main Advisor: Philipp Messer

Isabel is a rotating PhD student in the Department of Computational Biology. She has a background in gene drive research and is currently investigating population structure and connectivity of American shad. She is broadly interested in spatial population genetics and conservation genetics.