The Team

Nancy Chen - Principal Investigator

Nancy is an evolutionary biologist interested in the genomic basis of contemporary evolution in natural populations. Her research integrates genomics and long-term demographic studies to characterize the evolutionary processes shaping patterns of variation across the genome through space and time. Nancy earned her Ph.D. with Andy Clark and John Fitzpatrick at Cornell University and then did a postdoc with Graham Coop at UC Davis before moving to Rochester. She is committed to promoting equity and inclusion in STEM. Nancy enjoys running, hiking, cooking, and playing board games. CV

Email: nancy.chen@rochester.edu
Twitter: @popgenchen
Pronouns: she/her/hers


Shailee Shah - Postdoctoral Scholar

Shailee is interested in the movement and dispersal of organisms in response to ecological and social factors, and the resulting group and population dynamics. She is studying Florida scrub-jay dispersal patterns on both an individual and population level. She hopes this work will help us better understand what non-scrub habitat Florida scrub-jays prefer to use for movement between scrub habitat and help inform future conservation and management decisions. Shailee earned her Ph.D. in Dr. Dustin Rubenstein’s lab at Columbia University. Her doctoral dissertation investigated the socioecological drivers of complex social structure in an avian cooperative breeder, the superb starling. In her free time, Shailee enjoys reading (a lot), photography and hiking with her dog, Gus. For more, see Shailee’s website.

Pronouns: she/her/hers




Brian Kirz - Graduate Student

Brian joined the Chen Lab in 2024 as a graduate student. He is interested in the relative importance of selection, drift, and gene flow, as well as how they shape variation in natural populations. His work with the North American red squirrel investigates the effect of fluctuating environments on variation in fitness, long-term genetic contributions, and genome-wide selection. Outside of the lab, Brian enjoys poetry, biking at night, and overly complicated map games.

Pronouns: he/him/his







Faye Romero - Graduate Student

As a PhD student in the Chen lab, Faye is interested in using genomics, computational biology, and population genetics to better understand how inbreeding impacts the fitness of small, threatened populations. Specifically, she is investigating the underlying genetic architecture of inbreeding depression: how does elevated inbreeding manifest in the genome, and what regions of the genome contribute to fitness, and ultimately, population decline? During her undergraduate, she used museum specimens to determine how hummingbirds have responded to human-induced environmental change. Faye also loves to swing dance, birdwatch, and play video games! For more, see Faye’s website.

Pronouns: she/her/hers





Jeremy Summers - Graduate Student

Jeremy is a PhD student interested in the causes of population decline and the role of dispersal in demographic and evolutionary trajectories. Using population level demography, individual fitness variation, and population genetics, he is investigating how dispersal into preserved Florida Scrub-Jay habitat contributes to population growth and levels of genetic variation. Jeremy is also interested in teaching evolutionary biology with an emphasis on diversity at every level of organization and the ways humans shape and interact with our local ecosystems. For more, see Jeremy’s website.

Pronouns: he/him/his







Abby Eckert - Undergraduate Researcher

Abby is a current sophomore majoring in Ecology and Evolution and Environmental Studies. This is her first semester in the lab and she is excited to learn more about population genetics, data analysis, and coding in R. She is especially interested in conservation. Abby is looking forward to implementing what she has learned in her classes. Outside of the lab, she enjoys crocheting, taking care of her houseplants, sailing, and doing artsy things.

Pronouns: she/her/hers










Jenna Savino - Undergraduate Researcher

Jenna is an undergraduate majoring in Molecular Genetics and minoring in American Sign Language. She is very interested in how genetic variation affects populations and quantifying biological data utilizing various computer programming languages. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys listening to music and playing Minecraft.

Pronouns: she/her/hers












Dashi and Espurr - Lab pets

Dashi and Espurr are second-year cats with broad interests including displays of affection, sleeping, and occasionally learning tricks. Dashi is our resident entomologist and wants to investigate the culinary uses of insects, if his lab-mate Jeremy would let him catch any. Espurr is specializing in botany and has discovered that frequent face rubbing with plants triggers a strong purr response in herself.









Minka - Lab pet

Minka is a springerdoodle who loves chewing on sticks, is obsessed with balls, and wants to play with every person/dog/cat she meets.














Gus - Lab pet

Gus is a rambunctious, teen-aged (in dog years) rescue pup who wants nothing more than to lie on your lap so that you are forced to write while he takes a well-earned nap.














The Chen lab is recruiting motivated undergrads, grad students, and postdocs. Please contact me if you’re interested in joining the lab!


Lab Alumni

Felix Beaudry (postdoc) - became a Research Associate at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Tamanna Bhatia (undergraduate)

Michaela Burrell (undergraduate) - became a high school biology teacher

Jonathan Chow (undergraduate) - became a MS student at Georgia Tech

Tiffany Dias (undergraduate) - became a PhD student at the University of Michigan

Elizabeth Flesch (postdoc) - became a biologist at USFWS

Xuewen Geng (undergraduate) - became a PhD student a UWaterloo

Syed Ars Ghani (undergraduate) - became a Take 5 Scholar

Kristin Hardy (undergraduate) - became a PhD student at UC Davis

Martha Hoffman (post-bac research intern) - became a vet student at Cornell

Blue Hovmand Warner (undergraduate)

Bailey Jones (visiting undergraduate) - became a lab tech at Yale

Matthew Le (undergraduate) - became a MS student at USC

Lindsey Perrin (Master’s student) - became an artist and animal care attendant

Nandini Samanta (undergraduate) - became a lab tech at Harvard

Siddarth Seenivasa (undergraduate)

Daniel Seidman (postdoc)

Gladiana Spitz (undergraduate) - became a PhD student at CU Boulder

Ceylin Zeybek (visiting undergraduate) - became a PhD student at Kyoto University

Bo Zhou (undergraduate) - became a MEng student at UC Berkeley

Ph.D. rotation students: Maria Isabel Castano, Rose Driscoll, Matthew Lindsay

Collaborators

Sahas Barve, Archbold Biological Station

Andy Clark, Cornell University

Ben Dantzer, U Michigan

John Fitzpatrick, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Kelley Harris, University of Washington

Steve Schoech, University of Memphis

Susan Johnston, University of Edinburgh

Andrew McAdam, CU Boulder

Jay Rotella, Montana State University

Scott Edwards, Harvard University