Dr. Megan Maloney is an Earth Commons Postdoctoral Research Fellow working in the lab of Dr. Rebecca Helm. Her research investigates evolutionary development and ecological resilience in marine invertebrates, with a specific focus on Cnidarians and Neuston. Megan earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Auburn University, where her dissertation explored how dynamic phenotypes and pigmentation patterns influence thermal tolerance and survival in changing environments. At Georgetown, her current research will focus on processes driving life cycle changes in jellyfish and molecular ecology of organisms living at the air-sea interface. Using molecular and bioinformatic analysis, Megan hopes to identify genes responsible for phenotypes across the entire life of an organism in order to better understand how they have evolved and survived.
