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Contact
Email: scleigh19@gmail.com Lab/Office: 577 McCarthy Hall Mailing Address: California State University Fullerton Department of Biological Sciences 800 N. State College Blvd. Fullerton, CA 92831 Curriculum vitae: PDF Fieldwork Photographs: Gallery
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Welcome!
I am interested in how organisms acquire energy based on their specified feeding mechanisms and digestive strategies. My research uses a blend of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and modeling to answer biological questions about performance, mainly in marine animals. I also enjoy pairing my research with various outreach endeavors. News:
June 2020: Black Lives Matter. April 2020: I am so excited to share that I will be joining the Biology Department at California State University Dominguez Hills as an Assistant Professor of animal physiology for Fall 2020! I'll share more information about my new lab and teaching endeavors soon! Also, CSUF ran a story about how Dr. Misty Paig-Tran and I are continuing our research and teaching efforts remotely. You can read the full story here. March 2020: CSUF has officially moved to online instruction for the remainder of the semester. For up to date information, visit: coronavirus.fullerton.edu/. February 2020: I had the privilege to participate in a juvenile grey whale necropsy with permission from NOAA and the stranding network. It was an amazing teaching and learning opportunity! Photographs by Matt Gush can be found in my fieldwork photographs gallery. January 2020: I had a blast presenting at SICB this year! I spoke about some of my new microplastics work. I'll be teaching BIOL 310 - Human Physiology at CSUF this Spring. Stay tuned for more exciting publications (both from my PhD work and postdoc work) coming out in the next few months. 2019 Highlights: This year I had one publication in Biology Open and one more in revision (coming soon!). I also graduated with my PhD from UC Irvine, started a postdoc at CSUF, taught four new courses, won a Biomechanics Early Career Fellowship, presented at SICB, was invited to speak at multiple seminars, and more! 2018 Highlights: Another productive year! I won a Sigma Xi GIAR. I presented my research at SICB and APS, winning an award for my abstract at APS and an award for "Best Talk" talk at SICB. I completed the Pedagogical Fellows Program. I published a chapter of my dissertation on seagrass-eating bonnethead sharks in Proceedings of the Royal Society B and it received a ton of press! I co-organized the first UCI Climate Solutions Summit. I became a writer for the NPR radio show the Loh Down on Science. I accompanied UCI Vice Provost Dr. Frances Leslie to Sacramento for Grad Research Advocacy Day where I met with legislators to advocate for UC graduate programs. I also debuted my first sci-art piece at Art in the Park. On to even more amazing things in 2019! 2017 Highlights: A great year! I advanced to PhD candidacy, I had one paper published in Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries and another one published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology B, I presented at four conferences and won "best talk" awards at two of them (SICB, AES, ESA, and SWOB), I was awarded four major fellowships (UCI OCEANS, UCI Newkirk, UCI Distinguished Public Impact Fellowship, UCI Microbiome Initiative Pilot Project Award), I completed my internship with NOAA through the UCI Climate Action Training Program, and I became more active in science communication (Brews and Brains, SciComm Monday, Gills Club). 2016 Highlights: I was honored to be awarded an NSF GRFP, as well as a YEG from National Geographic, a GIAR from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, the Raney Grant Award from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and a GIAR from Sigma Xi. I was also fortunate enough to participate in the Friday Harbor Labs Fish Functional Morphology course and be accepted to the 2017 UCI Climate Action Training Program. 2015 Highlights: Watch me and three young scientists explore the California coast in the SciGirls episode "Terrific Pacific" on PBS! The full episode is now available online here.
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