Jennifer Zhu, who earned a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center with Baruch as her home campus, was recently hired as the Marine Habitat Resource Specialist at the Billion Oyster Project, which works to restore oysters in New York City waters with the help of students and community scientists. She’ll be leading the group’s scientific monitoring and data efforts.

“I think it’s a good sign our graduates are both getting these jobs and staying local to contribute,” said Baruch/GC Professor Stephen Gosnell, her PhD advisor.​ “My lab at Baruch has been working with the BOP for the past several years on outreach and research. We are currently developing new data collection and storage protocols for the group as part of a long-term plan to enhance our ability to inform oyster restoration in the city. Jenn and I will continue to collaborate in her new position.”

 

Zhu is also the lead author on an article in Restoration Ecology titled “Fear changes traits and increases survival: a meta-analysis evaluating the efficacy of antipredator training in captive-rearing programs.”

Her co-authors were Gosnell; Baruch/Macaulay student Micah Goltsman; and Baruch undergrad alumna Laila Akallal, now at Dartmouth in an MPH (public health) program.

The article looked at antipredator training for animals reared in captivity. These animals are supposed to replenish diminished wild populations once they are released, and the training is intended to help them survive in the wild. Zhu and the team reviewed over 3,000 papers to find the few that had data on whether the antipredator training works. They found that antipredator training typically leads to changes in prey traits and improves the fitness of released organisms, but further work is needed to understand the links among these changes.

Published by Beth Harpaz