Research Data Specialist at Oklahoma State University

Danielle (Dani) Kirsch

I earned a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Spanish in 2018 from Southeast Missouri State University. During my time as an undergrad, I spent a semester abroad in León, Spain studying Spanish. I started working as an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Jon Davenport's lab in the spring of my junior year. My research focused primarily on non-consumptive effects and resource competition in aquatic communities. I spent the summer after my junior year working with desert stream communities in Arizona and the following summer researching thermal effects on fish and amphibians in Tennessee and North Carolina.

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I started at Oklahoma State University in the fall of 2018 in Dr. Barney Luttbeg's lab and I graduated with my Ph.D. in Integrative Biology this May. I worked primarily with the snail, Physa acuta, and a crayfish predator. My research focused on how risk perception – based on information provided by chemical cues – impacts behavior, physiology, and reproduction in these snails.

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In addition to my ecological work, I have been working as a Research Data Specialist at the OSU Library where I help coordinate – and occasionally teach – workshop series that help introduce people to new technologies and workflows, learn programming basics, and get connected with experts across the university. I also provide resources and consultations to researchers relating to topics such as data management and sharing plan feedback, data management assessments, data repository selection, and data curation.