Julianne Pelaez
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Education
- University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. candidate in Integrative Biology, September 2016 - present
- Harvard University, B.A. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Minor in Environmental Science and Public Policy, 2009-2013
Employment
- Harvard University, Research Assistant, 2013-2015
- Museum of Comparative Zoology, Entomology Collections, Curatorial Assistant, 2014-2015
- Indigo Agriculture, Research Assistant, 2015-2016
Research Interests
Insect-plant interactions, coevolution, evolutionary ecology, genetics & genomics. More details to come!
Background
Growing up in an urban area of New Jersey, I was attracted to small creeks and abandoned lots with a curiosity to learn what was able to flourish in urban ecosystems, and I found beauty even in neglected places. As an undergraduate at Harvard, I was thrilled with the seemingly endless opportunities to expand my understanding of organisms, ecosystems, and evolutionary theories, and to travel across the globe to places rich in biodiversity, from Costa Rica and Mexico to Kenya and Australia. After graduating, I was hired as a research assistant in the Pierce Lab at Harvard, where I worked on research projects that included: investigating the ability of plants to detect and respond to pheromones produced by their ant symbionts; studying the effects of different ant species on the arthropod communities of their host trees; and looking into the potentially manipulative chemical exchange between lycaenid caterpillars and their ant associates. For a year, I was also involved in digitizing the Ant Collections of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, followed by a year working at an agricultural biotech start-up in Boston, Indigo Agriculture, where I helped in the development and production of bacterial and fungal seed coats to increase crop yields.
Here at UC Berkeley, I find myself again searching the small creek running through campus, searching now for our model herbivore, Scaptomyza flava, in the hopes of studying the evolution and chemosensory function of its serated ovipositor that has enabled it to cut into and potentially taste its plant host.
Here at UC Berkeley, I find myself again searching the small creek running through campus, searching now for our model herbivore, Scaptomyza flava, in the hopes of studying the evolution and chemosensory function of its serated ovipositor that has enabled it to cut into and potentially taste its plant host.
Honors and Awards
- NSF GRFP, 2018
- UC Berkeley, Mentored Research Award, 2018
- Outstanding GSI Award, 2018