I had such a great time at Beneficial Microbes 2026, sharing preliminary results for my third chapter (connecting early-life gut microbiota and developmental plasticity in wild red squirrels) and learning from awesome microbe-y scientists!

Yay! I had a fun and fruitful second field season as part of the Kluane Red Squirrel Project. I collected a second year of paired mother-offspring gut microbiota samples + life history data for my second and third chapters and piloted maternal behavior data collection for my fourth chapter! 

This spring, I completed my first field season as a part of KRSP and my PhD research! Going from the Sonoran desert to chilly, boreal southwestern Yukon was quite the change, but a nice break from the heat. Fieldwork was tough, but getting to handle the cutie-pie squirrel pups, and the beautiful scenery + great company made it very much worth it. Very excited to see the results from the pilot pup microbiota samples that I collected! :) 

My first field experience, with tree swallows and the Vitousek Lab at Cornell University!