In preparation for the Altschul Hall science building renovation, we spent the week relocating to temporary lab spaces in Milbank Hall, where we'll be for the next 2+ years. We put our science on hold to move to these spaces, but we'll be able to start up again this summer! We'll miss the views from Altschul 13 (the penthouse)! 

​Congrats to Ananya Lahiri, Isabella Martinez, and Eliza Tagle, who graduated from Barnard today! Ananya earned a BA in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Eliza earned a BA in Physiological and Organismal Biology, and Izzie earned a BA in Biology and in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies! 

Izzie gave her senior thesis research talk today at the 2024 Biology Research Symposium. Her senior thesis work, funded by a Sigma Xi Grant, studied the fitness consequences of variation in mating duration. She began this work as a junior for her Guided Research & Seminar project. Congrats!

Congratulations to Isabella Martinez, who has been inducted into the Barnard Chapter of  Phi Beta Kappa Society today! Membership into this academic honor society is based on the quality and breadth of Izzie's scholarship as an undergraduate. 

Our lab has been named a Lab Safety Champion for 2023 from Columbia Environmental Health and Safety! This award is given to research labs that demonstrate outstanding safety practices. All lab members contributed to this team effort!

Congratulations to Eliza and Izzie for presenting their summer research projects today at the 2023 Summer Research Institute Poster Session!

Congrats to Ashley Canizares and Grace Freed who graduated from Barnard today! Ashley earned a BA in Physiological and Organismal Biology and Grace earned a BA in Cellular and Molecular Biology! Ashley will be starting a position as a Research Assistant at Columbia University, and Grace will be starting a position as an Associate Researcher in the Wagenblast Lab at Mount Sinai!

Ashley, Grace, Ananya and Izzie presented their Guided Research & Seminar projects today at the Biology Research Symposium. They each gave 1-minute talks and a poster presentation about their work. 

Our new paper, authored by former lab technician Olivia Anastasio and lab alum Chelsea Sinclair ('21), has been published in Evolution. Males of many species, including fruit flies, invest more reproductive resources when they mate with high-quality females, a process known as "cryptic male mate choice". In this paper, we show that this increased male investment in high-quality females reduces their paternity success in their future matings! This cost can limits male reproductive potential over their lifetime. Also see Barnard's news piece on our paper!

Today was Olivia Anastasio's last day as the Pischedda Lab Technician. She is leaving to start a new position as a Laboratory Specialist in the Barnard Biology Department. Olivia will be part of our Introductory Biology team, teaching intro bio labs and discussions. We will miss her in the lab, but the department is lucky to have her!

Taking over as our lab tech will be Pischedda Lab alum Avigayil Lev, who graduated from Barnard in 2022 and completed her Environmental Science senior thesis in the lab. We're thrilled she is able to stay on in the lab! 
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