Charlotte Researcher Rachel Showers Awarded Derrick Griffith Servant Leader Award
Good news from the Reitzel Lab—Undergraduate researcher and Honors student Rachel Showers was awarded the Derrick Griffith Servant Leader Award this year! This award is awarded to one student per year and Rachel was selected. Rachel has been an incredible student researcher for about 2 years and engaged member of the UNC Charlotte university community.
The Reitzel Lab is interested in answering integrative questions concerning the evolution and ecology of coastal invertebrates by using an interdisciplinary approach that combines comparative genomics, molecular biology, population genetics, evolutionary ecology, and field studies. It utilizes species in the phylum Cnidaria (sea anemones, corals, and jellyfishes) as models because of their ecological importance and phylogenetic position. The Lab’s focal species is the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, which has emerged as a model cnidarian species due to availability of a sequenced genome, ease of culture in the laboratory, and distribution in estuarine habitats throughout North America.