Maggie Doolin

B.A. (2014) Biology, Hamilton College

Maggie is an M.S. student at SUNY Oneonta who joined the lab in January 2016. She studies the diversity of the large acanthocephalan (thorny-headed worms) genus Neoechinorhynchus, which parasitizes fishes and turtles (see image). Dr. Reyda, Maggie, and field assistants have collected Neoechinorhynchus specimens from New York, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma in an effort to represent genetic and morphological diversity in the species. Through practices of integrative taxonomy – i.e. using both morphological and molecular data to characterize species – of species collected by the Reyda lab and contributed by collaborators, Maggie is analyzing relationships of seventeen North American species of Neoechinorhynchus for her Master’s thesis. She has had the great opportunity to perform her molecular work at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History during the summers of 2016 and 2017, most recently funded by a Smithsonian Institution Graduate Fellowship. She received an award for her research presentation at the 2017 American Society of Parasitologists Annual Meeting.