Lab Members

Principal Investigator

Department of Biological Sciences 162B Steger Hall 1015 Life Science Circle Blacksburg, VA 24061

Telephone: (540)231-7254

E-mail: dbcortes@vt.edu

Graduate Student

E-mail: jph7ht@vt.edu

About me: I’m a former wahoo, receiving my biochemistry degree in 2019. However, it seems like after my undergrad I’ve become less of a chemist and more of a biologist, working in a molecular biology lab on circadian rhythms, and now a microbiology lab! I’m fascinated by cell biology, and I’m excited to see where my PhD pathway takes me at the Cortes lab. Besides being great at chemical extractions, I’m also an avid snowboarder and an okay-ish skier. When it’s not below freezing outside, you can usually find me hiking, camping, or roller-skating with my dog.

Graduate Student

E-mail: noahrupp2002@vt.edu

About me: I received my bachelor’s degree in biology at Virginia tech in May of 2025 and am now excited to embark on my journey into graduate school. In my undergraduate career I spent time in mathematical modeling but am now excited to move along a bioinformatics track. My interests include genomics and cell biology. I am currently working to fully sequence and discover new Stentor species and would love to use that data to learn more about how Stentors function and learn in the future! Outside of the lab I’m a snowboarder in the winter, soccer enjoyer, and dog lover. If you have a dog I will try to pet it! Although, I can’t say my dog would like that!

Research Assistant

E-mail: lilacmess@vt.edu

About me: Since finding my first Stentor on August 23, 2022, I have been dedicated to learning everything I can about them. In 2024, I started my very exciting journey in the Cortes lab, doing phototaxis experiments on a newly discovered species of Stentor. Last summer, I was a visiting Research Assistant at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Most recently, I have been working with Dr Cortes on identifying potentially new Stentor species, which is what I am most interested in. I am also very interested in Stentor behavior, and how they learn. I love teaching people on social media about freshwater microorganisms, and I hope to inspire others to get excited about microscopic life. Besides visiting ponds and collecting samples, I enjoy spending time with my beloved rescue pig, Mr Seymour Chonky. I also enjoy writing, singing, and playing music.

Undergraduate Student

Working on Stentor adaptation to heavy metals!

Undergraduate Student

Working on Stentor Imageomics!

Undergraduate Student

Working on Stentor decision-making!

Undergraduate Student

Working on Stentor phylogenetics!