Diana LaScala-Gruenewald

Diana is primarily interested in scale-free patterns and emergent behavior in biological systems. Currently she is cultivating a few research options. Many organisms are thought to use a scale-free foraging strategy called a Lévy walk to find food in a patchy environment. To discover whether limpets also use this strategy, Diana is characterizing limpet foraging in the field under a variety of feeding conditions. Additionally, she is initiating a project that investigates the effects of fractal-like rock topography on larval settlement and post-settlement community structure in the intertidal environment. Finally, Diana is participating in a long term study that evaluates the effects of large temperature fluctuations on the success of rocky intertidal communities.

 

Before joining the Denny lab, Diana received her B.S. in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology