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Department of Invertebrate Zoology
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Andrea Quattrini
Research Zoologist
Andrea is a Research Zoologist and Curator of Anthozoa in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology. She studies the ecology and evolution of corals and associated communities, and often focuses her questions on those that live in the most poorly studied environment on earth—the deep sea. Andrea strives to work on projects that directly connect with resource managers in order to help effectively conserve vulnerable marine ecosystems in the face of global ocean change. Andrea has sailed on numerous research vessels throughout the North Atlantic Ocean using submersibles and ROVS and is passionate about education and outreach. In 2020, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia.
Jeremy Horowitz
Postdoctoral Fellow
Jeremy is a postdoctoral fellow that is supervised by Andrea Quattrini at the NMNH. Jeremy studies black corals (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) that occur from just below the sea surface to the deep sea. Jeremy uses an integrated genomic and morphological approach through emerging technologies like targeted capture and 3D imaging to revise the taxonomy and better understand the evolutionary history of black corals. Jeremy enjoys exploring remote habitats to discover and describe new-to-science species.
Camille Leal
Postdoctoral Researcher
Camille is a Postdoctoral Researcher working for the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities project. She specializes in sponge evolution with a focus on the taxonomy, genomics, and metagenomics of these organisms. She is using nuclear and mitochondrial genomes to identify and classify the biodiversity of the phylum Porifera in the Gulf of Mexico and using metagenomic and transcriptomics to analyze the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the sponges and their associated organisms.
Tara C McIver
Marine Ecologist Contractor
Tara is a Marine Ecologist that has been working in the deep sea environment since 2000. She has been on several research vessels in the southeast Atlantic using submersibles and ROVs to identify benthic communities. She is currently working on video analysis of deep sea communities from submersible and ROV dives in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Declan Morrissey
Postdoctoral Researcher
Declan is a postdoctoral researcher in the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities project. Declan is interested in evolution and the drivers of speciation in the deep sea. However, to research this topic, accurate species identifications are needed, so he focuses on using both genomic techniques and taxonomy to describe and accurately delimit species. In particular, he has been focusing on the bamboo corals (Octocorallia: Scleralcyonacea: Keratoisididae), a prolific and taxonomically challenging group of globally distributed animals.
Adela Roa-Varón
Museum Scientist Contractor
Adela is an evolutionary ichthyologist seeking to understand the factors that have shaped the diversification and evolution of ray-finned fishes using Gadiformes (Codfishes, Hakes, Grenadiers, Codlings, and allies) as a model clade. Her research incorporates molecular, ecological, and morphological data across multiple scales ranging from population to species and higher-level systematics. Adela is particularly interested in applying seascape genomics to empower fish conservation strategies. In the NMNH Coral lab, Adela is using population genomics and otolith microchemistry to understand the processes that shape 3D fish connectivity networks in shallow, upper, and lower mesophotic ecosystems in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). This is an interdisciplinary effort that seeks to answer the broader question: what degree are key coral ecosystem species vertically and horizontally connected throughout The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and expansion sites? This research will improve of our understanding of GoM ecosystems, with effective management of Marine Protected Areas to restore degraded coral communities and preserve long-term viability of marine ecosystems.
Claudia Vaga
Postdoctoral Researcher
Claudia is a Postdoctoral researcher that is supervised by Andrea Quattrini in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology. She has a broad interest in cnidarians species, and she especially focuses on taxonomy and evolution of azooxanthellate and deep-sea stony corals (Anthozoa, Scleractinia). In particular, she is applying integrative approaches that couples genomics techniques and morphological observations to study the diversity and biogeography of corals – and their associates – in the Gulf of Mexico for the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities project.
Kaela Coil
Research Intern
Kaela is a research intern for Andrea Quattrini. She is currently working on various projects including understanding the population genetics of different coral species in the Gulf of Maine, Eunicid worms in the Gulf of Mexico, and analyzing coral communities before the Great Horizon Oil Spill. This research aims to improve the conservation efforts of the global coral communities and determine the effects of climate change on these species. She is a recent graduate from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science degree in Evolution and Ecology, and hopes to continue her education in conservation and policy
Annemarie Wood
Research Intern
Annemarie is a research intern for the Ocean DNA project supervised by Andrea Quattrini, Allen Collins, and Chris Meyer. She recently graduated from Haverford College, where she studied biology with a focus on marine science as well as environmental studies. Her work focuses on the use of environmental DNA as a tool for characterizing the biodiversity of deep-sea coral and sponge gardens, particularly in Puerto Rico and the Gulf of Mexico. This research ultimately aims to illustrate the rich variety of organisms that comprise deep-sea ecosystems, which are still perceived as mysterious and relatively understudied, and demonstrate how anthropogenic activity affects the distribution and abundance of these animals.