Gulf eDNA Network
Mapping Species across the Gulf
Meet the Team
Leadership
Yasmina Shah Esmaeili
Yasmina is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and a Visiting Researcher at Texas A&M University at Galveston. Her research focuses on community ecology, using eDNA as a tool to investigate how human and environmental impacts are shaping the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems.
Jordan Casey
Jordan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. She studies marine trophic interactions with molecular techniques. Along the Texas Gulf Coast, she uses eDNA to investigate biodiversity patterns and reconstruct food webs.
Sheila Kitchen
Sheila is an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University. Her research focuses on symbiotic partnerships on and in coral reef ecosystems where she is using eDNA to capture the diversity of reef inhabitants.
Research & Design Team
Ingrid Bunholi
Research Team
Ingrid is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. Her research uses molecular tools to understand fish diversity from the organismal to the community level, focusing on population genetics, eDNA, and biogeography.
Lance David Malcolm Jr.
Research Team
David is a research technician at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. He uses eDNA molecular techniques to study fish and plankton communities of the southern Texas coast. He is excited by interdisciplinary questions of trophic ecology, habitat use, and environmental change.
Marissa Kordal
Research Team
Marissa is a Master’s student at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. She is studying oyster reefs along the Texas Gulf Coast. Using environmental DNA she is evaluating the functioning of oyster reefs through biodiversity assessments and parasite monitoring.
Jaelyn Rodriguez
Research Team, Design Team
Jaelyn is a senior at Texas A&M University at Galveston, majoring in Oceans and One Health, and a first year Masters student at UTMB in Clinical Laboratory Sciences.
Rob J. Ramos
Research Team
Rob is a Computation Biologist at Stony Brook University. His work focuses on species interactions and mutualisms, how changes in microbiome community structure affects community function, applying microbial ecology to ecosystem management practices, and modeling patterns of species diversity at geographic scales.
Emma Sardy
Design Team
Emma is a first year PhD student in the Foroughirad Lab at Texas A&M University at Galveston. She is interested in using eDNA and other non-invasive methods to study bottlenose dolphin population health and social networks.
