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Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program alumni

NSF funds a large number of research opportunities for undergraduate students through its REU Sites program. An REU Site consists of a group of ten or so undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with the faculty and other researchers. Here is a list of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory REU alumni.

Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
George Bekheet
junior
Northeastern
Anne Churchland
Multi-sensory integration during an audiovisual looming stimulus
M.D., U Connecticut
Benjamin Cohen
junior
New York U
Josh Huang
Exploring the Cellular Basis of the Circuitry and Functional Organization of Mouse Motor Cortex
post-bac, Brown University
Marianna Frey
junior
Williams College
Adam Kepecs
Adenosinergic modulation of optimal foraging decisions
Education research assistant, HSS, NY
James Gornet
sophomore
Columbia U
Pavel Osten
Mapping single neurons from whole-brain images
enrolled
Likhitha Kolla
junior
The College of William and Mary
Mickey Atwal
Mapping the Immune Landscape for Breast Cancer Subtypes
Post-bac NIH IRTA
Natasa Kostic
junior
Cornell U
Alex Krasnitz
A Computational Pipeline for Absolute Copy Number Quantification in Single Cancer Cells
Charles Pei
sophomore
Harvard U
Zachary Lippman
Modification of meristem and floral development genes in Physalis peruviana
enrolled
Dawn Truong
junior
Harvard U
Tom Gingeras
Modification of meristem and floral development genes in Physalis peruviana
M.D., U Mass Medical School
George Wang
sophomore
Yale U
Doreen Ware
Resources for identifying the genetic basis of important traits in grapes
Ph.D., U of Southern California
Shenandoah Wrobel
junior
Vassar College
Steve Shea
Granule Cell Modulation of Odor Representations in Awake Mice
enrolled
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Toby Aicher
junior
Middlebury College
Molly Hammell
Investigating drug resistance in melanoma using single-cell RNA-sequencing
Technician, MIT/Harvard
Sara Blagburn
sophomore
Brown U
Florin Albeanu
Developing a psychometric curve for odor intensity via a novel two-alternative forced choice protocol in head-fixed mice
post-bac, Brown University
Alissa Castleberry
junior
Furman U
Thomas Gingeras
Processing of Y5 RNA by cancer cell exosomes
MS, Ohio State University
Erin DeNardo
junior
Washington U
Doreen Ware
Interpretation of gene structure changes in Oryza sativa from a single gene to a population
Ph.D., Yale University
Benjamin Harris
junior
Colgate College
Mickey Atwal
Pan cancer analysis of ectopic germline gene expression
Ph.D., Watson School of Biological Sciences
Daniel Hawkins
junior
Georgia Tech
W. Richard McCombie
Long read sequencing and copy number analysis
Decision Analytics Associate
Ashley Kyalwazi
sophomore
U Notre Dame
Steve Shea
Parvalbumin network and neuroplasticity in the auditory cortex
M.D., Harvard Medical School
Ajay Nadig
sophomore
Northwestern U
Adam Kepecs
Signatures of prediction error in cortical VIP interneurons
Post-bac NIH-IRTA
Tim Nolan
sophomore
U Connecticut
Alex Koulakov
Optimization of the short-time fourier transform spectrogram for machine learning objectives
Technician, Carnegie Mellon University
Katelyn Wilensky
sophomore
U Michigan
Jessica Tolkuhn
Using sex differences to study the relationship between genes and behavior
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Patricia Aubel
junior
San Jose State U
W. Richard McCombie
Evaluation of variant detection with the PacBio SMRT DNA sequencing system
undergraduate, enrolled
Syndi Barish
sophomore
College of New Jersey
Gholson Lyon
Creation and characterization of an isogenic knockout in ScNaa50
Ph.D., tbd
Cassandra Burdziak
sophomore
Rutgers U
Thomas Gingeras
Characterization of cell-specific exosomal small RNAs
Ph.D., tbd
Daniel Burkhardt
junior
U Mass Amherst
Doreen Ware
Searching for SNPs in Stay-Green sorghum
Ph.D., Yale
John Chow
junior
Georgia Tech
Alex Krasnitz
Convex optimization algorithms for population structure analysis in tumors
Ph.D., Georgia Tech
Luz Dojer
sophomore
Boston U
Alea Mills
Chromodomain Helicase DNA Binding Protein 5 in neural stem cells
undergraduate, enrolled
Lucy Rummler
Clemson U
Zach Lippman
Meristem regulation and the fin and fan mutants in tomato
undergraduate, enrolled
Rachel Sherman
junior
Harvey Mudd
Michael Schatz
Whole-genome assembly and alignment for gene discovery
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Emily Flynn
junior
Smith College
Thomas Gingeras
Examining RNA annotation and quantification by RAMPAGE
Ph.D., Stanford
Victoria Jones
junior
North Carolina Central U
Alea Mills
Chromodomain Helicase DNA Binding Protein 5 in neural stem cells
Ph.D., Penn State
Ricki Korff
sophomore
Cornell
Mickey Atwal
Germline genes and cancer
M.D., Albert Einstein
Abigail Lin
sophomore
Duke
W. Richared McCombie
Classifying epistasis in the DISC1 interactome
B.S., Duke
Uju Momah
sophomore
Amherst College
Bruce Stillman
Nucleosome disassembly ahead of the DNA replicattion fork
B.A., Amherst College
Alexis Tchaconas
junior
Columbia
Michael Wigler
Mitochondrial DNA transmission in autism spectrum disorder
M.D., Hofstra-Northwell
Gregory Vurture
junior
NYU
Michael Schatz
Mathematics of genome architecture
Analyst, MSKCC
Alissa Williams
sophomore
Wofford College
Greg Hannon
Viral barcode tracking on clonal tumor formation
Ph.D., UC Berkeley
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Dhruba Banerjee
junior
UC Berkeley
Florian Albeanu
Top-down control of invariant odor perception
Research technician, Champalimaud Institute
Eleanor Batty
sophomore
Brown
Anne Churchland
Encoding of head movement in posterior parietal cortex
Ph.D., Columbia
Eric Biggers
sophomore
Macalester College
Michael Schatz
Assembling the pineapple genome 
Developer, Code42 Software
Emily Glassberg
junior
Dartmouth College
Alex Krasnitz
A novel computational strategy to determine nucleosome positioning in S. cerevisiae 
Ph.D., Stanford
Julian Hornburger
junior
Cornell
Mickey Atwal
Associations between rare variants and complex disease
Ph.D., Stanford
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Victoria Hanna
junior
UC Irvine
Marja Timmermans
microRNA mobility
M.S., UCSD (2014)
Brittany Haugen
junior
Florida Institute Technology
Alea Mills
Investigating p63 isoforms in mouse models of EEC syndrome
Ph.D., MSKCC
Allison Kolbe
sophomore
Ohio Wesleyan U
David Jackson
Maize phyllotaxy by redox regulation of transcription factors
Ph.D., Washington State
Mitchell Leibowitz
junior
UVA
W. Richard McCombie
Third-generation sequencing as a high-throughput diagnostic tool
Ph.D., Harvard
Kevin Wu
junior
UCSD
Doreen Ware
De novo transcriptome assembly and analysis in the Cloud
M.S., UCSD (2012)
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Helen Cha
junior
Williams College
Marja Timmermans
A smallRNA gradient sharpens the adaxial-abaxial boundary in Arabidopsis thaliana
M.D., U Maryland
Jonathan Coravos
junior
Bowdoin College
Josh Dubnau
Is dopamine in glia required for short-term memory in fruit flies?
Ph.D., MIT
Joseph Cammarata
junior
Hunter College
Zach Lippman
A marker of meristem reiteration in Solanum lycopersicum
Ph.D., Cornell
Claudio Morales Perez
sophomore
U Puerto Rico
Hiro Furukawa
The molecular mechanism of antagonism in NMDA receptor
Ph.D., UT Southwestern
Angelina Regua
junior
Molloy College
Leemor Joshua-Tor
Organization of the ClrC complex
Ph.D., SUNY Upstate
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Lina Marcela Carmona
junior
U Pennsylvania
Marja Timmermans
The contribution of polarity determinants to organ development
Ph.D., Yale
Danielle Feldman
junior
Hunter College
Josh Dubnau
Expression and localization of lightoid in Drosophila CNS
Ph.D., MIT
Daniel Goltz
sophomore
Whitman College
W. Richard McCombie
Targeted resequencing using microarray exon capture
M.D., Duke
Aviva Mail
junior
Cornell
Michael Zhang
Detection of genomic structural variation from high throughput sequence data
Analyst, MIT Investment Management Company
Alan Rodriguez Penney
junior
U Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Bo Li
Effect of ketamine on striatum and nucleus accumbens activity
M.D., University of Puerto Rico
Julia Rogers
junior
Yale
Leemor Joshua-Tor
Transducer and repressor complex in the yeast GAL induction system
Ph.D., Harvard
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Alison Baker
junior
Dartmouth College
Tony Zador
A role for rat auditory cortex in attention in time to auditory stimuli
Ph.D., Harvard
Yesenia Correa
junior
Oregon State U
Scott Powers
Influence of initial differentiated state on tumorigenic phenotype
Ph.D., U Washington (2014)
Eric Domb
sophomore
Princeton
Michael Zhang
In silico detection of cis-regulatory modules
Technical Analyst, Gilder Gagnon Howe
Erin Jimenez
junior
UCLA
David Jackson
Understanding the mechanisms controlling phyllotaxy in maize
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins
Daniel Kim
sophomore
Amherst College
Adam Kepecs
Network mechanism of theta oscillations in the hippocampus
MBA, Harvard
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Vikram Agarwal
sophomore
UT Austin
Lincoln Stein
Characterizing coverage and chromosomal rearrangement in the Watson genome
Ph.D., MIT
Jack Angiolillo
junior
Amherst College
Leemor Joshua-Tor
Attempting to solve the structure for the ORC 2-3 subcomplex
M.D., Columbia
Christine Cho
junior
Brown
Josh Dubnau
MicroRNAs in memory: Characterization of miR276a expression
Ph.D., Rockefeller
Emily Combs
sophomore
Cornell
Doreen Ware
Validation of non-canonical introns in rice
Ph.D., U Minnesota (2012)
Lindsay Courtney
junior
Drury U
Wolfgang Lukowitz
Exploring localization and complementation of the MAPK pathway
Analyst, Richard Chandler Corp.
Matt Golub
junior
Stanford
Partha Mitra
The red-eye flight:  Memory of a lifetime
M.S., Stanford (2009)
Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon (2015)
Simon Quay
sophomore
Whitman College
Tony Zador
The role of long-range callosal projections in the auditory cortex
Designer, Terrazign Inc.
Erin Romberg
junior
Oberlin College
Zach Mainen
Uncertainty, decision making, and orbitofrontal cortex
M.D., Washington U St Louis
Rachel Sachs
sophomore
Princeton
Alex Koulakov
Application of the Watershed algorithm to spike sorting
JD, Harvard (2013)
MPH, Harvard (2013)
Adrianna San Roman
sophomore
Williams College
David Jackson
Stop-and-go traffic: Regulating the gates of plasmodesmata
Ph.D., Harvard
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Lenore Barhak
junior
Cooper Union
Leemor Joshua-Tor
A molecular view of transcrptional repression
Ph.D., Columbia
Ryan Devenyi
sophomore
Bowdoin College
Wolfgang Lukowitz
Investigations in the yoda MAP kinase pathway in Arabidopsis
M.D.-Ph.D., Mount Sinai
Nandita Garud
sophomore
Cornell
Doreen Ware
Weeding for phenotypes and motifs in a weed
M.S., Stanford (2012)
Ph.D., Stanford (2014)
Julie Granka
sophomore
Cornell
Michael Zhang
Characterizing the binding specificity of CTCF
Ph.D., Stanford (2013)
Lilian Ho
junior
Vassar College
Cordula Schultz
Novel protein Lucky Luke and cellular integrity
M.D., U Washington
William Kruesi
junior
Carleton College
Marja Timmermans
Regulation of MIR166 gene expression in Arabidopsis
Ph.D., UC Berkeley (2013)
Wenke Li
sophomore
Stevens Institute of Technology
Ravi Sachidanandam
How old are introns?
Ph.D., UT Austin
Christopher Quinn
sophomore
Cornell
Alexei Koulakov
An improved neural spike clustering approach
M.S., U Illinois (2013)
Joshua Siegle
junior
Brown
Partha Mitra
Oscillatory brain dynamics of working memory
Ph.D., MIT
Lincoln Smith
sophomore
Wabash College
W. Richard McCombie
BglII fragment selection using  hybridization-based selections
M.S., Princeton (2012)
M.D., Rutgers (2014)
Vicky Zhou
junior
UC Irvine
Lincoln Stein
Visualization of C. elegans gene expression data in Wormbase
Ph.D., Harvard  (2012)
Student
Academic level
Undergraduate institution
CSHL mentor
Project title
Graduate degree program (graduation year) or professional position
Vineeta Agarwalla
sophomore
Stanford
Michael Zhang
CTCF Binding Site Specificity and Distribution
M.D.-Ph.D., Harvard/MIT
Albert Almada
junior
UC Irvine
Andrew Neuwald
Sequence, structure, and function  in the alpha beta hydrolase fold family
Ph.D., MIT (2013)
Robert Carrasquillo
senior
Washington U St. Louis
Rob Martienssen
Effects of differential methylation on transposon activation and gene expression in A. thaliana
M.D., Harvard (2012)
Christopher Javadi
junior
UT Austin
Josh Dubnau
Drosophila deficiency mapping using whole-genome tiling arrays
M.D.-Ph.D., UT Southwestern
Krishnan Palaniappan
senior
Carnegie Mellon
Bruce Stillman
Binding of mitotic cyclins to Cdc6 and ORC as regulators of PRC formation
Ph.D., UC Berkeley (2012)
Vanessa Ringgold
senior
UC Davis
Marja Timmermans
Investigations into the effects of asymetric leaves 1 in Arabidopsis
M.A., Columbia (2008)
JD, Brooklyn Law School (2013)
Thomas Takara
senior
Grinnell College
Leemor Joshua-Tor
A structural investigation of papillomavirus replication initiation protein E1
Ph.D., MIT (2011)
Ye Wang
junior
U Rochester
Cordula Shultz
To be stem cells, or not to be
M.S., Rochester Institute of Technology (2015)
Kelly Wetmore
senior
UCLA
Wolfgang Lukowitz
Mapping quantitative trait loci that modify SHORT SUSPENSOR
Research Associate, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory