Natalie Haydt joined the lab in the summer of 2021 as a PhD student. Natalie is from Troutman, North Carolina (a little town near Charlotte). She attended Davidson College for her undergraduate degree and became member of the Davidson Herpetology Lab, assisting with field work on spotted salamanders and Diamondback terrapins. She helped monitor a nearby bog turtle population and examined the boldness of juvenile Burmese pythons.
Natalie went obtained her Master’s degree from Frostburg State University in western Maryland where she developed a Bayesian model (with Dr. Dan Hocking) to quantify the density of turtle species in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. She then worked at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences as a Faculty Research Assistant with Dr. Matt Fitzpatrick. For her PhD, Natalie is currently examining connections between snake skin infections, microbiome, and immune function. She hopes to build a disease risk model for snakes in Arkansas and surrounding states!! Also, Natalie really enjoys reading a good book (usually something involving dragons or elves or vampires). She really loves cooking curries, thinking about rock climbing, and watching Korean dramas.
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