Lauren Albert is a Ph.D. candidate in the Hall Lab studying the interactions between host consumers, their resources, and the parasites that infect them. Specifically, her work focuses on individual level energy allocation within Daphnia hosts that are infected by a fungal parasite. She seeks to understand the tension between internal starvation (via parasite) and external starvation (via environmental resources) in shaping disease epidemics. The award will support Lauren's attendance at the Dynamic Energy Budget School and Symposium, where she will develop models that track patterns of energy allocation within the host and theft by the parasite.

Tanmaya is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Kessel lab where she studies quorum sensing gene regulation and small molecule inhibitors of quorum sensing in Vibrio species. Apart from bench work, she enjoys teaching, outreach and advocating for students in the department as the International student rep for MGSA.