My doctoral research in the lab of Dr. Andrew Moiseff centered around the question; how are sensory systems specialized to perform animal specific ecologically meaningful behaviors? To address this question I studied the larval visual system of the Photuris firefly with a focus on the following aspects:• Neuroanatomical description of the firefly larval eyes spanning the range of ultrastructure to gross morphology: organization of photoreceptors (i.e., rhabdomeres), photoreceptor structure and number, optic nerve anatomy, first order visual neural projections to the CNS and putative visual processing neuropils in the brain• Behavioral characterization of visually driven behaviors: phototaxis, firefly larval response parameters to light intensity and wavelength specific stimuli e.g., locomotion patterns, velocity, direction, displacement, burrowing patterns and burrowing depth• Neural coding at the visual system’s periphery: light sensitivity, spectral response and sensitivity tuning curves

Laboratory Instructor: Investigations in Neurobiology (2017 & 2018)Lecture teaching assistant: Anatomy and Physiology (2013-2016)Laboratory teaching assistant: Enhanced Anatomy and Physiology (2011 & 2012)

Instructor for an accelerated program consisting of weekly modules (2-4 weeks) broken down into individual topics listed by the Association of American Medical Colleges. My primary role as instructor was to discuss strategies for problem solving and review and summarize topic material specific to the module (physics, biology and physiology).