Our wonderful research assistants!

Joshua Hincks attended UC Davis and majored in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior with a minor in Animal Science. He graduated in fall of 2014. From working in an animal hospital in a small town to interning at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, Josh has a wide variety of experience in veterinary medicine. From 2013-2015, he assisted the Nevitt lab by genotyping Leach’s Storm-Petrels at their MHC Class IIB loci. Josh also joined the Nevitt lab during the 2014 field season as part of an NSF REU. Not only did he learn extensive field methods pertaining to multiple research projects, but he also teamed up with another undergraduate, Amy Miles, to collect data for their own project aiming to determine the occupancy of a petrel burrow in an noninvasive manner. He is currently pursuing an MS in Wildlife Biology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Martha Wohlfeil graduated from Carleton College in June of 2013 with a B.A. in Biology. She is now living in Davis and from 2013-2014 assisted the Nevitt lab on a project with PhD student Matt Savoca, who aims to understand the sensory mechanisms behind plastic ingestion in marine organisms. Martha, who is originally from Wisconsin, enjoys hiking, reading, and cooking, and is loving the amazing California weather. In fall 2016, Martha will start a Master’s Degree studying native California songbirds in the Fleishman Lab at UC Davis!

Sukhjot Sandher was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1992 and lived there for about ten years before moving to the United States. At a young age he became very interested in science, his favorite subjects being biology and chemistry. After integrating into the United States school system, he graduated from Whitney High School and then attended community college before transferring to the University of California, Davis where he majored in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. From 2012-2014, he assisted the Nevitt lab by genotyping Leach’s Storm-Petrels at their MHC Class IIB loci He graduated from UC Davis in spring 2014 with a Bachelor’s of Science. He is currently pursuing an MD at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

Hong Sun graduated from UC Davis with a major in Biological Sciences. From 2013-2014, she worked on a project to determine whether the fitness of a seabird species, the Leach’s Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa), correlates with the volatile chemical profiles of their environment by Gas Chromatography—Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). She also worked on a project comparing the volatile chemical profiles of Tricolored Blackbirds (Agelaius tricolor) and Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus). Hong is currently working towards an MS in Forensic Science at UC Davis developing new analytical techniques for toxin detection.

Former lab assistants

Natasha Reus graduated from UC Davis in 2014 after majoring in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. She has worked with Brian Hoover and the Nevitt lab on the Leach’s Storm-Petrel team! While she loves science, her true passion is art. Therefore, she is currently pursuing a career in animation.

Logan Lewis-Mummert graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Biology in September 2015. She joined the lab in 2014 as an undergraduate working on the Leach’s Storm-Petrel project. During the summer of 2015, she continued her work with the lab through an NSF funded REU. As a part of this REU, she joined the team for the field season on Bon Portage Island in Nova Scotia, Canada to collect feather and genetic samples, measure birds, and help with behavioral studies. She has led the DNA extraction, sexing, and genotyping of the 2015 samples she helped to collect during her summer field work. In spring 2016, Logan began a job as laboratory technician studying skin cancer genetics at Stanford University.

Zachary Yu currently attends UC Davis and majors in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior with a minor in Chemistry. He will graduate spring 2016 and will hopefully go on to medical school. He is working with Sarah Jennings on GC-MS analysis of Leach’s Storm-Petrel samples and has worked with Logan Lewis-Mummert and Joshua Hincks on DNA extraction, molecular sexing, and genotyping of the 2015 Leach’s Storm-Petrel samples. He is originally from San Francisco and loves to listen to music, play basketball, and rock climb.

Raymond John (RJ) Abayan is an undergraduate studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. What fascinates him are chemical and molecular mechanisms, which he hopes to study in the future. Outside of lab and coursework, he also enjoys playing tennis and works at a tennis shop in downtown Davis. He joined the lab during the spring of 2015 to work with Brian Hoover on MHC genetics in the Leach’s Storm-Petrel. Currently, he is working with Sarah Jennings on Leach’s Storm-Petrel chemical samples.

Abigail Alfonso is a senior studying Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, with a specialization in wildlife health. Having grown up in heavily urbanized San Francisco, she is interested in the effects of anthropogenic factors on wildlife and the physiology and behavior of wildlife in the face of climate change and pollution. She is assisting Matt Savoca, on his project examining sensory responses of marine fish to different odor cues and how these cues play a role in the ingestion of plastic debris. Her hobbies include bird watching and drawing, where she finds much of her artistic inspiration from the diversity of wildlife found in the Central Valley.

Lucia Yu is an undergraduate at UC Davis majoring in Environmental Science and Management. She started interning in the lab Winter 2015 for Matt Savoca and helped with his experiment regarding plastic debris ingestion by marine wildlife. She is originally from the East Bay Area and enjoys reading and playing volleyball. Lucia hopes to receive her Bachelor's of Science degree in 2019 and pursue a Master's afterwards. 

Kerstin Ozkan majored in Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. She assisted Matt Savoca with his work on how sensory cues associated with marine plastics influence animal behavior, specifically marine fish. Among her other academic interests are behavioral responses of organisms to ecological and evolutionary traps. Outdoor interests include field work, bird watching, and playing with her dogs.

Anna Lu is an undergraduate majoring in Biological Sciences. She plans to graduate in 2019 and go on to vet school. Currently she is assisting Matt Savoca, helping him analyze fish behavior from experiments conducted in summer 2015. Later this year, she hopes to work with Sarah Jennings to learn more about chemical instrumentation and analyses. Originally from San Jose, Anna enjoys drawing, painting, and playing the piano in her free time.