Seven Rhodes College students presented research at the annual meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, held Jan. 3-5 in Atlanta, GA.
Stella Venn ’25 (biology major) presented research on how selective breeding in dogs influences skull shape. This was a collaboration with former Rhodes student Sophia Kesser, Prof. Kelly Diamond of Rhodes, and Prof. Nicholas Hebdon of Baylor University.
Yihan Li ’25 (biology major) presented research conducted in the lab of Prof. Elaine Frawley of Rhodes with a focus on the role of alternative metalloproteins in the nitric oxide stress response in salmonella.
Sarah Heckmann ’26 (biology major) presented summer research conducted at the Memphis Zoo and in the lab of Prof. Diamond with a focus on the impact of the presence of visitors on meerkat social behavior.
Malak Ibrahim ’26 (neuroscience major) presented summer research conducted at the Memphis Zoo and in the lab of Prof. Diamond with a focus on the influence of visitor numbers and noise levels on meerkat behavior.
Emily Pertuit ’26 (psychology major) presented research on how vertebral shape changes along the spine in a species of waterfall-climbing goby fish from Hawaii called 'o'opu nōpili. This work was a result of Pertuit working with Prof. Diamond, former Rhodes students Alex Johnson and Melissa Maheu, and collaborators at Clemson University and St. Cloud State University.
Lorenzo Martinez ’26 (biology/environmental sciences major) presented summer research conducted at Friday Harbor Laboratories in Juan County, WA, with collaborators from the University of Washington, California State University, and the University of Florida. The research evaluated the functional strengths and weaknesses of the armor of small fish, called poachers.
Zaha Sarwar ’27 presented summer research conducted at the Memphis Zoo and in the lab of Prof. Diamond with a focus on behavioral differences between the two subspecies of red pandas.
Also at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s annual meeting, Prof. Diamond presented a project that was a collaboration with Rhodes student Raphael Yang ’27 and Memphis Zoo researchers, Dr. Sheila Poo and interns Catherin Alton and Catherin Hanks. This project evaluated the jumping performance in the critically endangered dusky gopher frogs at the Memphis Zoo.
Learn more about undergraduate research at Rhodes.