Dr. Jamie McDevitt-Irwin
Principal Investigator
My first first research experience was at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre as an undergraduate student at Queen's University studying the behavioural ecology of hermit crabs. I completed my MSc at the University of Victoria with Dr. Julia Baum evaluating how local and global stressors alter coral microbiome diversity in Kiritimati, Kiribati. I completed my PhD at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station working with Dr. Fiorenza Micheli evaluating top-down control by consumers on coral reefs and the rocky intertidal, working locally in California and the Chagos Archipelago. I then completed a post-doc with Dr. Deron Burkepile at the University of California, Santa Barbara evaluating how coral reef health alters reef fish diversity through a lens of eDNA metabarcoding in Moorea, French Polynesia. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Email: jmcirwin@hawaii.edu
Madigan Boborci
PhD Student
Madigan graduated with her B.S. in Aquatic Biology and a Minor in Feminist Studies from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2023. She worked on various projects involving herbivorous fishes and their role on algae dominated coral reefs during her time at UCSB. During her graduate studies, Madigan hopes to continue to explore coral reef ecosystems and the role fish play in those communities.
Natalie Goeler-Slough
PhD Student
Natalie, originally from Northampton, Massachusetts, is a PhD student in Marine Biology. She earned her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies from Haverford College, where her senior thesis focused on microbial dynamics in phytoplankton. As an undergraduate, she also interned with Dr. Kuʻulei Rodgers in the Coral Reef Ecology Lab at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, sparking her commitment to coral reef research in Hawai‘i. After graduating, she worked with the Coral Restoration Foundation in Florida, conducting scientific diving to support coral outplanting and nursery maintenance. Natalie is broadly interested in how coral reef ecosystems respond to anthropogenic stressors, particularly through changes in the coral holobiont. She’s curious about how microbial communities, algal symbionts, and macro-symbionts interact under stress and influence coral resilience. She hopes to investigate these dynamics through a combination of fieldwork and molecular techniques, and is committed to community-engaged science and expanding access to marine research