People

Mary Rogalski

Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies

I received my B. S. in Biology and Environmental Science (2002) from the College of William and Mary, my MESc (2009) and Ph.D. (2015) from the Yale School of the Environment working with Dr. David Skelly, and was a postdoctoral researcher (2015-2018) at the University of Michigan under the mentorship of Dr. Meghan Duffy. I joined the Bowdoin faculty in 2018.

email: mrogalsk@bowdoin.edu

CV (updated 12/4/25)

Google Scholar page

Current lab members

During the academic year, students help maintain our Daphnia cultures, conduct pilot studies, pursue honors research and independent studies, and contribute to ongoing projects we are preparing for publication. Meet our current crew!

Eva Ahn, ’26
Fall research fellow
Kayla Kulzy, ’26
Chief Daphnia wrangler
Ava Moore, ’27
Daphnia wrangler
Carolina Bragg, ’26
Honors student
Zellie Lipman, ’26
Daphnia wrangler
Chioma Ralph-Mbah, ’27
Fall research fellow
Sage Garver, ’27
Daphnia wrangler
(studying away!)
Blue Monreal, ’28
Daphnia wrangler
Tali Serlin, ’26
Honors student

Research Fellows, Honors and Independent Study Projects

Tali Serlin ’26
Honors ’25-’26: Impact of time spent outside the host on the virulence of a Daphnia gut parasite

Carolina Bragg ’26

Honors ’25-’26: Coevolutionary history and salt stress modify interactions between Daphnia and its gut symbiont

Ava Moore ’27
Summer ’25: Plasticity of gut physiology in Daphnia responding to salt stress and gut infection

Chioma Ralph-Mbah ’27
Summer-Fall ’25: Adaptation to broad gradients in ion availability

Ella Riccio, ’25

Spring ’25: Transmission potential of an environmentally transmitted microsporidian Daphnia parasite

Gracie Scheve ’25

Honors ’24-25: Fitness and sex effects of a novel microsporidian parasite on its Daphnia host

Sage Garver ’27 and Eva Ahn ’26
Summer ’25: Examining Daphnia fitness in response to an unknown microsporidian gut parasite

Owen Chambers, ’25

Summer ’23: Rapid evolution of Daphnia ambigua to salinity stress

Almira Arnold, ’23

Summer ’23: Daphnia disease: Characterizing the fitness effects of a previously understudied epibiont of D. ambigua

Sophie Burchell, ’23
Fall ’22: Impacts of sea salt on Daphnia fitness

Gracie Scheve ’25
Summer ’22: Daphnia relative abundance along calcium gradients in Maine lakes

Maya Chandar-Kouba ’23 and Shane Araujo ’23
Summer ’21: Calcium’s effect on NaCl toxicity in Daphnia ambigua

Clara Benadon, ’23

Summer ’20: Road salt’s impact on fitness in Daphnia ambigua

Elizabeth Baker, ’22 and Utku Ferah, ’20

Summer ’19: Daphnia morphological variation across an ion gradient; Local adaptation to water chemistry in Daphnia ambigua