The Ramirez Lab
The Team
Dr. Matthew D. Ramirez
Assistant Professor of Coastal and Marine Biology (he/him/his)
​Dr. Ramirez is a marine ecologist whose research seeks to elucidate the links between demography, consumer-resource interactions, and ecosystem change, with an emphasis on using ecogeochemical tools (e.g., stable isotopes) to study these processes. He is particularly interested in understanding how multiple stressors interact to influence sea turtle demography and food wed dynamics. Outside the lab you can find him gardening, traveling, and/or spoiling the lab mascots Ruby and Tusc.
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You can learn more about Matt and his career path HERE.
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E-mail: ramirezmd [at] uncw.edu | Twitter: @Matt_D_Ramirez
Graduate Students & Staff
Jamie Clark
Ph.D. Student in Integrative, Comparative & Marine Biology
Jamie (she/her) is a Ph.D. researcher who aims to study the detectable biological differences as animals age (e.g. counting growth rings in hard structures [bones, otoliths, teeth, etc.], near-infrared spectral signatures, and DNA-methylation levels). Jamie received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of South Carolina in Marine Science, with an emphasis in Biological Oceanography. After earning her Master’s in 2018, she worked at the NOAA Fisheries Beaufort, NC Lab for 5 years. Initially, Jamie researched population ecology and age estimation techniques as a Fisheries Biologist II on the Sea Turtle Team. In 2020, she transitioned to the Fisheries Life History and Biology Team becoming a Senior Research Associate II exploring predictive aging with near-infrared spectroscopy for White Grunt otoliths. During her Ph.D., Jamie is particularly interested in the development, validation, and application of aging techniques on live sea turtles and their significance for sea turtle conservation. Outside the lab, you’ll find Jamie beach combing, building things in the garden, or at the dog park with her pup, Dexter.
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Follow her research journey on various socials below:
Taylor Mannes
Ph.D. Student in Integrative, Comparative & Marine Biology
Taylor (she/her) is a PhD student interested in marine invertebrates (especially sponges) and primary producers. Her dissertation will evaluate how these groups support the larger food web using ecogeochemical tools (e.g., stable isotopes). She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s at Northeastern University as part of their Three Seas program.
Taylor has two cats (Pete and Millie) and enjoys reading and exploring new restaurants in her free time.
Samantha Sanders
M.Sc. Student in Marine Biology
Samantha (she/her) is a M.S. student who graduated in May of 2023 with a B.S. in Biology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Before joining the lab, she spent the last year working with Dr. Michael Polito in his stable isotope lab through the NSF Ramp Program LAGNiAppE, where she built a foundational knowledge stable isotopes and their applications in research. Samantha is eager to expand her understanding of stable isotope biology and apply her work towards coastal conservation and restoration. During her MS program in the Ramirez lab, she looks forward to using stable isotopes to understand the utilization and importance of the Frying Pan Shoal to coastal fishes, through food web dynamics
Outside of the lab Sam enjoys stay active outdoors, walking or running with her roommate’s dog Finn, and discovering her favorite coffee shops and restaurants.
Gracie Semmens
Research Technician
Gracie (she/her) graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2025 with a B.S. in Environmental Biology. She joined the Ramirez Lab as a technician in July, assisting with sample processing, field work, and undergraduate management while maintaining active research collaborations with the University of Alabama and Oregon State University. These projects focus on clownfish behavior analysis through video imaging and population modeling of the North Atlantic right whale. Looking ahead, Gracie hopes to pursue a Ph.D., with a particular interest in amplifying the natural resilience of coral reef ecosystems by combining skills from her previous work with those gained in the Ramirez Lab.
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Outside of the lab, Gracie can always be found knitting, watching Jeopardy!, photographing and developing her own film, and spending as much time underwater as possible.
Undergraduate Students
Dannette Dunavent
Honor's Student
Dannette is a Senior working on a B.S. in Marine Biology. Her honors thesis studies Atlantic croaker on Frying Pan Shoals to determine resource use across spatial and seasonal scales through stable isotopes. She joined the lab in spring 2024, and has since assisted with both fish focused projects in the lab.
Olivia Trahan
Honor's Student
Olivia is a Senior working on a B.S. in Marine Biology and an Honor's student in the lab. She joined the lab in fall 2024 as a member of the Turtle Team, where she is working on a project characterizing loggerhead sea turtle growth rates. Her Honor's work is using resulting data on turtle body condition and growth to assess drivers of somatic growth variation in association with a loggerhead sea turtle mass mortality event.
Elizabeth Grace Norris
Honor's Student
Elizabeth Grace is a Senior working on a B.S. in Marine Biology. She joined the lab in fall 2024. For her thesis, she is evaluating a new tool to evaluate the effect of temperature on sea turtle somatic growth. This involves reconstructing temperatures experienced by individual turtles using oxygen isotopes from commensal barnacles so that these data may be temporally aligned with the turtle's growth patterns derived from skeletochronology analysis.
Jessica Hufham
Honor's Student
Jess is a senior working on her Bachelors in Marine Biology and joined the Turtle Team for the lab in 2024. After assisting in aging studies for the bulk of the academic year, she began her thesis researching stable isotope ratio’s throughout the decomposition stages of stranded Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles.
Ava Fuller
Undergraduate Student
Ava joined the lab in Spring 2025 and works on the fish team.
Axel Wallace
Undergraduate Student
Axel joined the lab in Fall 2025 and works on the turtle team.
Caitlin Wallace-Giddings
Undergraduate Student
Caitlin joined the lab in Fall 2025 and works on the turtle team.
Cheyenne Collins
Undergraduate Student
Cheyenne joined the lab in Summer 2025 and works on the fish team.
Clara Rojas
Undergraduate Student
Clara joined the lab in Fall 2025 and works on the turtle team.
Dalton Bostian
Undergraduate Student
Dalton joined the lab in Spring 2025 and works on the fish team.
Ella Goldberg
Undergraduate Student
Ella joined the lab in Fall 2025 and works on the turtle team.
Kayla Padua
Undergraduate Student
Kayla joined the lab in Fall 2025 and works on the fish team.
Lizzy Ross
Undergraduate Student
Lizzy joined the lab in Fall 2025 and works on the turtle team.
Samantha Paul
Undergraduate Student
Sam joined the lab in Fall 2025 and works on the fish team.
Lindsey Campbell
Undergraduate Student
Ava joined the lab in Summer 2024 and works on the fish team.
Andrew Horstkamp
Undergraduate Student
Andrew joined the lab in Fall 2024 and works on the turtle team.
Past Students
​2024
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Sierra Hershberger, Honor's student, UNCW, 05/2023–05/2024
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Tanner Murray, Honor's student, UNCW, 08/2023–05/2024 (Current: M.Sc. Marine Bio, UNCW)
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Deedra LaFon, Post-bacc, UNCW, 06/2023–05/2024
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Mary Brandle, DIS student, UNCW, 05/2023–05/2024
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Thao Nguyen, DIS student, UNCW, 08/2023–05/2024
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Christian Richter, DIS student, UNCW, 09/2023–05/2024 (Current: M.Sc. Marine Bio, UNCW)
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​2023
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Justin Jenkins, Undergraduate Research Assistant, University of Miami, 06/2023–08/2023 (Current: Ph.D. Biology, Texas A&M-Galveston)
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Ashley Dees, DIS Student, UNCW, 06/2023–09/2023