People

Postdocs

Benjamin Deneu

I study the application of machine learning techniques in macroecology. I am particularly interested in the contribution of deep neural networks (deep-learning) applied to large volumes of biogeographical data. My main research has focused on the use of deep-learning in the context of species distribution modeling, exploring the advantages that these models can bring to the field. My current project involves the development of AI models linking micro and macroclimates to synthesize explanatory variables related to individuals’ thermal stress and thermal refugia.

Kat Schroeder

I study the effects of extreme body size on the community ecology, diversity and behavior of non-avian dinosaurs. My research includes large data analysis of dinosaur body size diversity across spatial scales, the role of juvenile megatheropods in the structuring of dinosaur communities, the evolution of skull structure in tyrannosauroids, and the dietary ecology of tyrannosaurids through ontogeny.

Zachary Miller

I am an ecologist using mathematical and computational tools to understand how biological diversity is maintained in ecosystems. My research has explored feedbacks between ecological communities and their environments, trade-offs that structure ecological competition, and the role of evolutionary history in shaping species interactions. In the Hull lab, I am investigating the effects of dormancy on marine population and community dynamics.

Graduate Students

Liz Brabson

I am broadly interested in roles of ocean circulation and marine biogeochemistry in modulating the global climate system.  Currently my research is focused on the relative roles of ventilation and temperature-dependent remineralization in the North Pacific on the marine carbon cycle during the warm Pliocene.  I am using both geochemical proxies for pH and remineralization, as well as data-model comparisons with earth system model simulations to examine these processes.

Maoli Vizcaíno

My dissertation research centers around how both environmental factors and anthropogenic change affect planktonic foram community composition and turnover, and the ways these environmental drivers of community change vary both spatially and temporally. My work is in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean regions, as I am interested in how regional perspectives fit into larger global-scale patterns of change. Though my background is in paleoceanography and micropaleontology, I am currently expanding my focus into modern ecology concepts and working with modern planktic foram assemblages.

Elly Goetz

I am a third year PhD student in the Hull lab studying the biology of benthic foraminifera. My core interests lie in the understudied aspects of foraminiferal life histories. I came into Yale with a background in their life cycles and associated nuclear and genomic dynamics (Goetz et al., 2022), and through my PhD research, I seek to better understand other difficult, unanswered questions about the mechanisms behind poorly understood foraminiferal biology, including dormancy, through microscopy, genetics, and comparative transcriptomics.

Wyatt Petryshen

I am broadly interested in wanting to understand the biotic and abiotic factors, micro and macroevolutionary processes, and system dynamics that control patterns of biodiversity through time. As our planet continues to face rapid environmental change, a holistic understanding of the controls on biodiversity is required if we hope to address today’s biodiversity crisis and maintain beneficial ecosystem services.

Undergraduate Students

Chas Bissell

Immanuel (Chas) Bissell is a rising senior in Pierson College. He is interested in how ecosystems adapt (or don’t) during periods of extreme warmth and how these periods drive large-scale evolutionary trends. In the Hull Lab, his research involves using ichthyoliths, tiny fossilized fish teeth and denticles, to understand how fish responded to the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, one of Earth’s more recent and sustained hyperthermals.

Karinne Tennenbaum

Karinne is an undergraduate researcher pursuing a BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology on the Biodiversity & the Environment track with aspirations to attend graduate school after Yale. She joined the lab during Fall 2022 as part of the First-Year Seminar: Collections of the Peabody Museum (EVST040). Working with Dr. Elizabeth Sibert, she is continuing her class project in investigating whether tooth morphology can contribute to microfossil teeth classification and support the timing of Cyclothone evolution.

Lab Alumni

Postdocs

Jennifer KasbohmNSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow2020-2024Staff ScientistCarnegie Science
Anieke Brombacher2023-2024
Elizabeth SibertYIBS Hutchinson Fellow2020-2023Assistant ScientistWoods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Catherine DavisYIBS Donnelly Fellow2019-2021Assistant ProfessorNorth Carolina State University
Charlotte O’BrienYIBS Donnelly Fellow2016-2018Postdoctoral AssociateUniversity College London
Leanne ElderHull Lab & ACS Postdoc2016-2017Science TechnicianNew Zealand Arthropod Collection at
Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research
Luke StrotzAustralian Endeavor Fellow2016ProfessorNorthwest University, China
Donald PenmanFlint Postdoctoral Fellow2015-2020Assistant ProfessorUtah State University
David EvansPostdoctoral Associate2015-2016Royal Society University Research FellowUniversity of Southampton
Simon D’haenensFulbright & BAEF Fellow2014-2016Staff in Research Data ManagementUniversiteit Hasselt
Allison HsiangYale & ACS Postdoc2014-2016ResearcherStockholm University
Michael HenehanHull Lab & YPM Invertebrate Paleontology Postdoc2014-2017LecturerUniversity of Bristol

Graduate Students

Sophie Westacott2016-2022PostdocUniversity of Bristol
Daniel Gaskell2016-2022PostdocUC Santa Cruz
Jack Shaw2017-2022Academic Advising CoordinatorColorado School of Mines
Wayne Strojie2018-2020Analytical ChemistPhysis Environmental Laboratories, Inc.
Robin Dawson2016-2019PostdocUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst
James Super2016-2018Associate EditorNature Geoscience
Shuang Zhang2015-2017Assistant ProfessorTexas A&M University
Jana Burke2014-2020PostdocMichigan State University