Letters of Recommendation
I love helping students be successful in their ventures beyond Vassar, and so am happy to write letters of recommendation for students. For me to write letters for you, it is critical that I can write a detailed, personal, and specific letter about your academic/research experience with me. If your interaction with me has been limited or lacked real engagement, then I will not be able to write a strong letter. And a weak letter can be damaging to your applications. So when thinking about possible letter writers, think carefully about which professors have gotten to know you as a person and as an active and engaged student.
If you do wish to ask me to write and submit letters of recommendation, please follow this process:
- Reach out to me by email to set up time to meet and talk about the programs you are applying to. Please do this at least 3 weeks before any letters are due.
- After we meet to discuss the programs, please submit the following information to this Google Form at least two weeks before any letters are due:
(a) spreadsheet or table showing details for each program that you will apply to (if more than one)
(b) example personal statement from your application(s) that clearly explains why you are applying to the program(s) and why you are a highly qualified candidate.
(c) your Resume/CV
(d) a list of your academic experiences with Prof. Schwarz
(e) explanations of your academic experiences with Prof. Schwarz - If the deadline is approaching within the next day or two and you have not received notification that the letter has been submitted, please send me an email reminder two days before the deadline for each letter, and remind me which program this is for and which website/link to use to submit the letter.
Former Research Students
| Name | Year | Major | Project | Title | Post-Vassar |
| Stephen Evans | 2008 | BIO | URSI and Thesis | Physiological effects of copper-based antifouling paint on the Aiptasia symbiosis | |
| Lisl Esherick | 2008 | BIO | Thesis | Expression patterns of stress-response genes under different environmental stressors | PhD, Stanford Department of Genetics |
| Annika O’Dea | 2008 | BIO | URSI and Thesis | Microarray analysis of gene expression patterns of corals exposed to heavy metal / Effect of thermal stress on symbiosis | MS, Coastal and Ocean Engineering Oregon State University, Fulbright Fellow |
| Nooreen Rubin | 2009 | BIO | URSI and Thesis | Spatial effects of symbionts on gastrodermal cells of A. pallida | |
| Nick Hebert | 2009 | BIO | Thesis | Characterizing expression levels of sym32 in the tropical sea anemone Aiptasia pallida | |
| Felix Steiny | 2009 | CMPU | URSI | AiptasiaWiki: a community genomics resource | |
| Mickey Thaler | 2009 | CMPU | URSI | AiptasiaBase: a transcriptome resource | |
| Annamarie Pasqualone | 2010 | ENST | Thesis | Effect of microbial community on bleaching resistance in symbiotic cnidarians | PhD, University of Delaware |
| Sam Seymour | 2011 | BIO | Thesis | Response of corals to heavy metal pollution: involvement of the ETS transcription factor? | |
| Joe Carver | 2011 | BIO | URSI | Acute toxic responses of symbiotic sea anemones to crude and dispersed oil | MS, National Institutes of Health |
| Peter Grauman | 2011 | BIO | URSI | Differential protein expression in Aiptasia pallida during heat stress | PhD, University Massachusetts Amherst, Computer Science |
| Danielle Twum | 2012 | BIO | URSI and Thesis | Corals need their vitamins too: Effect of antioxidants on coral bleaching | PhD, Roswell Cancer Institute, Department of Immunology |
| Eadaoin Harney | 2012 | BIOCH | URSI and Thesis | The symbiosis transcriptome and cellular changes associated with symbiosis | PhD, Harvard University, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Program |
| Joey Azofeifa | 2012 | BIO | Thesis | Bioinformatic and Evolutionary analysis of the Leucine-rich Repeat G-Protein Coupled Receptor Gene family in metazoans | PhD, University of Colorado Boulder, Computer Science |
| Ian Heller | 2012 | BIO | Thesis | Bioinformatic identification of gametogenesis-specific genes in cnidarians | PhD, Stanford University, Department of Integrative Biology |
| Josh Klein | 2012 | CMPU | URSI and Thesis | Developing AiptasiaBase: a public DNA sequence repository and annotation resource | PhD, Boston University, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology |
| Ben Chipkin | 2013 | STS | URSI | Role of NPC2 in symbiosis | |
| Alvin Chang | 2013 | Bio | URSI | Strain-specific differences in Symbiodinium lipids | |
| Ishaira Nieto-Rosas | 2014 | Bio | URSI/Thesis | NPC2 in symbiotic anemones | |
| Ann Nguyen | 2015 | Bio | Thesis | NPC2 Expression | |
| Jordan Brooker | 2015 | Bio/CMPU | Thesis | Nonsynonymous SNPs in Rana sylvatica | |
| Gabby Scher
Margaret Walter |
2015 | Bio | Thesis | Expression of LGR genes in anemones | |
| Lena Josephs | 2016 | Bio | URSI/Thesis | Genetic control of coral spawning: verification of differentially expressed genes using real time PCR | |
| Daria Egorova | 2017 | Bio | Thesis | Strain-specific differences in resilience to bleaching |