Lab Personnel

Dr. Genz received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Miami (FL) in 2005, with minors in Marine Science and Chemistry. She remained at U. Miami for her post-graduate education, advised by Dr. Martin Grosell, and obtained her Ph.D. in Marine Biology & Fisheries from the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) in 2010. Her dissertation focused on the intestinal transport mechanisms associated with osmoregulation in fish exposed to high salinity, comparing species differing in salinity tolerance.

After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Genz undertook a 2-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB, Canada, working with Dr. W. Gary Anderson to investigate the endocrine regulation of spawning in adult lake sturgeon, and calcium regulation of lake sturgeon in the early life stages.

Dr. Genz joined the faculty of the University of West Georgia in 2013, and was awarded tenure in 2018 and promotion to Full Professor in 2024.

Dr. Genz is an American Fisheries Society Certified Fisheries Professional, and a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (Egypt, '24-25)

Juliana Gozdick

Juliana joined the lab in Fall 2024 and is investigating the driving factors behind dietary selection of different macroalgae species by the sea slug Elysia clarki. 

Oluwaseun Samuel Ifedayo, M.S.

After earning an M.S. from the University of Lagos, Samuel joined the Genz lab in Fall of 2021 to work on thermal tolerance of redeye bass. He graduated in Summer of 2022.

Taylor Burrell, M.S.

Taylor graduated with Honors from UWG in 2020, and continued on to pursue a non-thesis M.S. degree in 2021. Taylor is currently working toward her degree in Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University.

Afroza Naznin, M.S.

Afroza graduated with her M.S. in 2021 and went on to earn a Ph.D. at the Ohio State University in the lab of Dr. Konrad Dabrowski. She is currently a lecturer at Kennesaw State University.

Ben McArthur, M.S.

After serving in the U.S. Navy, Ben obtained his M.S. in Biology from UWG in the Fall of 2020.

Rachael Hicks, M.S.

Rachael graduated from Middle Tennessee State in May 2017 and joined our lab the following fall. Her thesis compared formation of dorsal scutes in lake sturgeon reared under natural and hatchery conditions.

Sasha Catalan

During her time in the Genz lab, Sasha extended the work started by Samuel Ifedayo, using respirometry to examine the upper thermal tolerance of redeye bass (Micropterus coosae).

Gabrielle Rousseau

Gabrielle collated and analyzed water quality data from several different research projects, generating a wholistic snapshot of the chemical composition and physical parameters of natural waterways throughout all the defined ecotypes found in Georgia.

Alane (Laney) Rogers

Laney is currently pursuing her M.D. from Medical College of Georgia. She was the recipient of the Outstanding Senior in Biology award (2022).

Christian Burgess

Christian developed protocols for vacuum filtration of tissue homogenates to support accurate measurement of the whole-body osmolarity (solute concentration) of larval striped bass. He will be co-author on the publication currently in preparation.

Adam Park

Adam collected data to help validate the use of human glucometers for use with fish in field research application. He graduated from UWG in 2021.

Trevor Hindman

Trevor was in the lab from 2017-2018 and trained many of his peers in our animal husbandry protocols. In addition to overseeing animal care and contributing to a lake sturgeon feeding trial project, Trevor also found time to highlight the antics of Hank the Sturgeon on Instagram (RIP Hank).

Caitlin Forkin

Caitlin contributed to a study investigating the interaction between water chemistry and feeding in lake sturgeon. She focused on production of cDNA from isolated tissues to allow for gene expression analysis of key ion and nutrient transport proteins.

Lindsey Monkiewicz

For her Honors College thesis, Lindsey analyzed the respirometry data collected from larval lake sturgeon by Godfred Frimpong.

Chance Rankin

Chance completed the analysis of data collected on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, looking at how students engage with computer versus hard copy testing methods in an introductory Biology course.

Chazz Edwards

Chazz joined the lab in Fall 2018, supported by the LSAMP award program. Her research was focused on dietary absorption in juvenile lake sturgeon exposed to varying water chemistry.

Godfred Frimpong

In Fall 2018, Godfred quantified resting metabolic rates of larval lake sturgeon as part of a project supported by the American Wildlife Conservation Foundation. He is currently enrolled at Ross University School of Medicine.

Sommer Starr

Sommer's independent research project examined the impact of environmental factors (temperature, tannin concentrations, etc.) on the habitat distribution of two species of salamanders. This work is in collaboration with the Orianne Society and faculty in the Chemistry department.

LeeAnn Frank

LeeAnn is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at the University of Miami, after graduating with a B.S. in Biology with Honors college distinction in Summer 2017. Her contributions to the lab included development of an artificial feeding mechanism that allows for investigation of the impacts of an anti-herbivory compound, caulerpenyne, on the feeding behaviours of E. clarki. LeeAnn was the recipient of the Outstanding Senior in Biology award (2017).

Caryn West

Caryn graduated from UWG in December 2016. Her project while in the Genz lab was based at the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery, investigating the relationship between nutrition and metabolism in growing juvenile lake sturgeon. Caryn has presented her results in platform presentations at the International Congress on the Biology of Fishes (June 2016), and at UWG's COSM Research Day (April 2016).

Olivia Howard

Olivia is a Chemistry major at UWG. Her research in the Genz lab focused on measuring the non-plastid nutritional components of the macroalgal diet of E. clarki.

Vanessa Thornton

Vanessa graduated from UWG in April 2016. She developed and implemented a method for colorometric image analysis of E. clarki to investigate kleptoplastic efficiency and retention of chloroplasts from various macroalgal species.

Courtney Gilbert

Courtney graduated with a B.S. in Biology from UWG in May 2016. She is an active member of an ongoing international collaboration with Dr. Jon Svendsen (Technical University of Denmark) examining hypoxia tolerance in golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) and will be co-author on the publication currently in preparation.

Michael Arnette

Michael graduated from UWG in May 2015. During his time in the Genz lab, Michael was part of a SRAP-supported investigation of the feeding habits of E. clarki on a variety of marine macroalgae. He presented his findings as a poster at the American Physiological Society's Intersociety Conference: Comparative Approaches to Grand Challenges in Physiology (Oct. 2014) and UWG's Big Night (April 2015). Michael currently is employed by the Clayton County Water Authority, performing assessment of natural water bodies throughout the region.

Ashley Shelton-Brunelle   

Ashley graduated in May 2014 from UWG, obtained her RN BSN (Registered Nurse Bachelor of Science in Nursing) from the University of Georgi, and currently is employed by Northside Hospital. During her time in the Genz lab, Ashley developed the animal holding facility for our photosynthetic sea slugs (Elysia clarki). The system provides continuous circulation of filtered, temperature-controlled, artificial seawater. Ashley is also the reigning "algae queen", having optimized holding conditions for the various macroalgal species maintained in the lab.