Meet The Team
Former Student Researchers
Larry Zheng
Larry is a junior majoring in biology with a concentration in marine biology and minoring in computer science and statistics. He is interested in biodiversity, conservation, and the environment. He investigated the interaction between hypoxia and the stress response through gene interaction analysis.
Nikki Shintaku
Nikki Shintaku received a Master of Environmental Management (21') from Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment with a concentration in Coastal Environmental Management and a certificate in Geospatial Analysis. Nikki's interests include marine mammal conservation, marine protected area management, conservation genetics/genomics, and marine ecology. Her work on the Bass team focused on investigating genome-wide genetic variation of inshore and offshore bottlenose dolphins using RAD sequencing to infer population structure.
Sam Townsend
​Sam Townsend received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and Economics from the University of Virginia in 2019 and her Master of Environmental Management degree and Certificate in Geospatial Analysis from Duke in 2021. While at Duke, she concentrated in Coastal Environmental Management. Her interests include marine mammals, marine and coastal conservation, coastal ecology, and coastal restoration. Sam focused on DNA extraction and building the RAD library for inshore and offshore dolphins to identify unique populations that might have different adaptations to hypoxic conditions. Currently, Sam is an Ecological Risk Assessor for a private consulting firm.
Elizabeth Bock
Elizabeth is a junior at Duke double majoring in Environmental Science and Biology with a minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies. In her time on the Bass team, she conducted research on the metabolic pathways of cetaceans when exposed to hypoxic conditions. In her free time, she can be found running, climbing, embroidering, or foraging for mushrooms.
.jpg)
Raksha Doddabele
During the Learning from Whales 2020-2021 cohort, Raksha wrote and defended a thesis on the coupled processes of hypoxia and cellular motility and learned about the scientific process, remote collaboration, and paper and poster writing. Her other experiences in marine biology during college included a bioinformatics internship at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and a turtle conservation project through DukeEngage Thailand. After graduating from Duke in 2021, Raksha entered a full-time role as a Product Specialist at Benchling, a data capture software platform made for scientists.
Katherine Krieger
Duke '24
Katherine is an undergraduate student at Duke University majoring in biology with a minor in English. She is a part of the whale organoid team, where she is working to create whale and human heart organoids to compare their responses to hypoxia. While currently based in Durham, she hopes to eventually extend her interests in the intersection between marine and human health science to a semester in Beaufort. In her free time, Katherine enjoys reading, playing tennis, and visiting Duke’s puppy lab.
Claire Huang
MEM '22
Claire is a graduate student at the Nicholas School studying Coastal Environmental Management. She is based at the Duke Marine Lab and is working with a team of students to examine different genetic variations and adaptations between coastal bottlenose dolphin populations. She majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology for her B.A. at Columbia University, and is interested in studying how marine wildlife respond and adapt to environmental stressors such as habitat loss and climate change. In her free time, Claire loves to draw, collect shells from the beach, and play board games!
Eva May
MEM '22
Eva is a Master’s student at the Nicholas School studying Coastal Environmental Management, with a focus on conservation of protected species that interact with fisheries. She is based at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, where she works with the dolphin genetics team studying effective population sizes of local offshore, shelf, and coastal bottlenose dolphins. She received her B.S. in Environmental Sciences from Duke, after which she worked in research labs and government settings. Outside of school, Eva spends her time cooking new vegan recipes, running along the waterfront, and trying to keep her houseplants alive and happy.
Samantha Schulteis
Duke '23
Sam is an undergraduate student at Duke University majoring in Environmental Science & Policy. She is spending the fall semester at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort and plans to return to Durham for the spring semester. At the Marine Lab, she is maintaining cell cultures and performing western blots to determine if stress dampens hypoxia in marine mammals. Aside from doing school work, Sam enjoys running, taking flying lessons at the Beaufort Airport, and watching the sunset.
Annie Zhang
Duke '24
Annie is an undergraduate student at Duke University attempting to double major in chemistry and global cultural studies through the program in literature. Currently based in Durham, she divides her time between a total organic synthesis lab and working on various biostatistics-related projects, including this one, in which she is creating matrices analyzing the co-expression of hypoxia-regulating genes across various species. She hopes to expand her knowledge of marine mammal research, both its methodology and current state. Outside of school, she enjoys reading stories and essays, writing, as well as spending time with her friends.
Noelle Fuchs
Duke '25
Noelle is an undergraduate student at Duke University. As a sophomore, her major is currently undecided but she is interested in pursuing something related to environmental science and policy with a concentration in economics. Currently based in Durham, she is apart of the Bottlenose dolphins genetics sub team contributing to data analysis. She is apart of the D1 rowing team at Duke and in her free time she enjoys scuba diving, snowboarding, hiking, and spending time with her friends.
Giselle Wang
Duke '23
Giselle is an undergraduate student at Duke University majoring in Environmental Science and Economics. She has a passion for marine mammals because of their unique intelligence and adorableness. During her short time at Duke Marine lab, she has been working on studying the ecological importance of ray pits in sandflat environments and the genetic evolution of cetacean vocal behavior. She worked with control region sequences of inshore/offshore bottlenose dolphins to identify their population structure in the past year. This year, she is working on cross-referencing hypoxia gene pathways for humans and hypoxia-related genes identified with our own data. In her free time, Giselle enjoys writing and producing music, imagining she is an android, and trying new things.
Natalie Kubicki
Duke '23
Natalie is an undergraduate student at Duke University majoring in biology with minors in chemistry and global health on the pre-medicine track. She is based in Durham and is studying deep-diving marine mammal responses to hypoxia from many levels including genetic, proteomic, and metabolic. She is especially interested in the intersection of marine mammal molecular pathways and human health. Outside of school, Natalie loves boating, going for long runs, playing soccer, and attempting to bake without recipes.
Ava Leaphart
Duke '25
Ava is an undergraduate student at Duke University majoring in Environmental Sciences. She is based in Durham and is a part of the Bottlenose Dolphins sub team working to identify the extent of speciation in Western North Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins populations, motivated by her interest in the evolutionary adaptive capabilities of marine life. Outside of school, Ava enjoys reading and collecting plants and art.
Jack Nowacek
Duke '25
Jack Nowacek is an second year undergraduate at Duke majoring in Biology and Statistics. He is part of the whale cell culture team working on chemically converting fibroblasts into stem cells and using those stem cells to create organoids which can be used to study the effects of hypoxia on cetacean cells. In his free time, he enjoys photography, baking, and SCUBA diving.
Magdalena Phillips
Duke '23
Magdalena is an undergraduate student majoring in biology with a concentration in marine science. In her two semesters at the Duke Marine Lab, she has worked on projects that span a variety of topics, including parasites' effects on mud snail behavior and the navigation of talitrid amphipods. She is currently working on the dolphin genetics team to analyze past admixture between several populations of bottlenose dolphins. In her free time, she loves to watch figure skating, make playlists, and wander around campus playing Pokemon Go.
Yumi Tsuyuki
Duke '24
Yumi is an undergraduate student at Duke University majoring in Biomedical Engineering. She is currently living on Duke campus and is working on the sub-component of evolutionary hypoxia gene analysis. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing violin, and destressing with Netflix.