Graduate Students
Our Team
Drin's research interests include the timing of life history events and the effects of climate-driven timing shifts on community ecology. They primarily work with models and simulations of grassland ecosystems. Drin's models deal with food webs, long-term persistence and coexistence. Drin loves to code and to game in their spare time.
Drin Brown
I am interested in species interactions, especially how these relationships could change with migration and the impact on different systems involved. I aim to understand the population dynamics and community structure of interacting migratory species using theoretical models. Before joining the Peller Lab, I completed my Master in National Taiwan University studying cetaceans and worked as a research assistant at Prof. Hsi-Cheng Ho’s lab applying models to understand animal movement in different context. When I am not at work, I enjoy cooking and reading historical fiction.
Yun Ho
My name is Madeline, and I’m a PhD candidate with Dr. Peller looking at nutrient recycling and how animals impact these processes via their movement over varying spatial scales. I have a BSc from the University of Toronto where I studied ecology and quantitative biology. I’ve previously done research projects in on community assembly of fish in Appalachian Mountain streams and how we can improve measures of beta diversity with flexible shortest path analysis. In my free time I enjoy wildlife photography, running, mountain biking, live music, and playing video games.
Madeline Ramsden
Undergraduate Students
I am a 4th year EEB specialist doing an advanced research project in the Peller Lab. My interests include trait-based ecology, the movement of nutrients and energy in ecosystems, and trophic chains; mostly in marine or freshwater systems. Currently I am working on a project regarding how the Storm Water Management Ponds prevalent in the GTA affect decomposition rates and nutrient levels in the streams that feed into and drain out of them. This project is built around cotton strip assays, which measure the decomposition rates of cellulose in streams and are vastly more standardizable than their older brother, the litter-bag assay. I spend most of my free time cooking, baking, and playing guitar or video games. – Oh, and cutting cotton strips.
Lilith Lazo Herzka
Alumni
Emma Zongaro (EEB498 student and NSERC USRA student; 2025-2026)
Benedict Cummins-Mburu (EEB 397 student; 2025-2026)
Audri Helix Supsup (EEB 497 student; 2026)