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Undergrad Thesis Students

David Benbassat

David is a fourth year Biology and PNB student who joined ABEL in January 2022 as a 2QQ3 project student. He initially worked with PhD student, Sina Zarini investigating the stomach contents of juvenile round goby. This year as a thesis student, David is examining how termperature impacts growth and feeding behaviour of juvenile round goby.  David is passionate about the natural sciences and can easily spend an entire day at a museum. Outside the laboratory, he also enjoys photography, classical cinema and playing the piano.  

Emily Elsasser

Emily is a 4th year undergraduate student in the Honours Neuroscience Program, who joined the lab in September 2022 as a volunteer. Since then, she has completed a research project, where she scored videos looking at fluctuating turbidity and its effects on zebrafish behaviour. This year she is completing her undergraduate thesis in ABEL, working on understanding how turbidity influences the social behaviour of aquatic animals. Outside of the lab, she enjoys hiking, reading, and running events for the McMaster Neuroscience Society.

Hunter Herron

Hunter is a 4th year Honours Life Sciences student who is doing a 4th year thesis in the lab. Hunter is interested in the comparative biology of organisms, namely animal evolution and physiology. This year, he’ll be working with Sina Zarini to investigate the metabolism of juvenile round goby. Hunter will  be looking at how age and temperature affects the metabolic rate of these fish using respirometry. In his free time he enjoys spending time outdoors, hiking around the beautiful Hamilton escarpment.

Reyad Malakh

Reyad is a fourth-year student in the Honour Biology – Physiology program. He recently joined ABEL in the summer of 2023 as a BIOLOGY 4F06 project student where he worked on round goby population monitoring project with PhD student, Sina Zarini. He assisted in conducting fieldwork around the Hamilton Harbour as well as dissecting round goby specimens and collecting data for subsequent analysis. This year, Reyad will be continuing to work with Sina where he will be developing his undergraduate thesis in the lab with a focus on the alternative reproductive tactics in round goby. He will be working on experiments investigating the effects of sneaker presence on reproductive behaviour as well as parentage assignment experiments utilizing microsatellite markers. Apart from academic work, Reyad enjoys cooking, geocaching, and going on hikes. 

Grace Ogundeji

Grace is a 4th-year Health Sciences student who joined ABEL as an HTHSCI 3H03 project course student and volunteer in September 2022 where she studied the impact of turbidity on the aggression of zebrafish. Since then, she worked at the lab over the summer as an NSERC Undergraduate Student Researcher Award (USRA) holder. This year, she is be working on her 4th-year thesis, where she will analyze how familiarity affects social learning in a group-living cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. Outside the lab, Grace enjoys baking and running.