Research

I am examining relationships between benthic octopus body shape and their behavior. I want to know how their body forms scale over their ontogenies, and how they use and lose their limbs in predator-prey interactions, such as those between California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculatus) and the California moray (Gymnothorax mordax). I am also studying how we can best measure the arm loss in ecological and behavioral contexts.

Outreach

I have been an outreach officer for the UCSC Women in Science and Engineering organization since 2017. In addition to leading lab tours for WiSE, I conduct an active learning squid dissection activity I call "Squidding Around." which I have run every year since 2018 at the Science Alive! event through Gavilan College in Gilroy, CA. In 2020, I was also a Santa Cruz County Science Fair judge and a California State University Research Competition judge.

In 2017, I participated in the intensive Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE) Professional Development Program, which focuses on equity and inclusion in designing active learning activities for learners. Our team led a group of 22 new scientists in two-day introduction to constructing complex food webs during the ISEE Workshop for Engineering and Science Transfers.

I have also mentored undergraduate students at UCSC, and participants in USC Wrigley’s summer internship programs in 2019 and 2020. These students learned valuable field, lab, data analysis, and science communication skills while they helped me collect and analyze videos of octopus-moray interactions.