Laura Urciuoli (’14) Fifth Year Masters

Since my first summer at aquarium camp in elementary school I’ve loved working with marine animals. My past year in the Foster & Baker lab has allowed me to develop that love into a wonderful learning experience. Last summer was spent helping Miguel with his diet research. We studied how early life diet restrictions influenced growth, and eventually endurance, of stickleback. This summer I’m starting my own research, also stemming from early life history, specifically on whether tannins in the water influence feeding performance. As vegetation breaks down in the water, protein binding compounds called tannins are released. These are plant defense compounds that can reduce the ability of animals to use the proteins with which they are associated so they may impact growth and survival of young fish. Along with my research I’m also helping the lab raise this summer’s new fry, which means a lot of cleaning mason jars!

Outside the Lab

Outside the lab I spend most of my time doing various forms of art. As the daughter of an art teacher, I love doodling, and painting, I used to do quite a bit of film, and most recently I’ve picked up crochet. I’m also an avid television fan, I could go through an entire series on netflix in a week. Finally, if raising 100s of fish wasn’t enough, I have four fish, including my own stickleback!