NICE TO MEET YOU!
My name on publications is Ann E. Finneran, but everyone calls me Annie. I am an ecology PhD student in the Beaudrot Lab at Rice University in Houston, Texas and use the pronouns she/her. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, USA, and am told that I had quite the habit of running out of my house and into the nearby nature preserve, much to the dismay of my mother. It was always a surprise if I actually wore shoes outside and spent several mornings before school begging to go barefoot. A slightly wild child. I just loved being able to feel the grass on my toes and the cool touch of the Earth, and I still do. This feeling of exploration of the natural world drove me to documentaries, books, and as many after school activities as I could. I grew to love science as well through particpating in GEMs programs and Girl Scouts. I wanted to merge the magic of science with the magic of the outdoors, and thus I found myself studying ecology.
I attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for my B.S. in Biology with a minor in Conservation Biology. During this time, I was able to participate in field courses to Channel Islands, USA and Cocha Cashu Field Station in Manú National Park in Peru, as well as explore National Parks and study abroad in New Zealand, learning about diverse ecosystems. The summer after my sophmore year I was an intern at the Navy Marine Mammal Program working on bioacoustic analyses of several dolphins, and I worked on various undergraduate research projects related to animal behavior and species distributions. After graduation, I continued research with UCLA working on damselfly behavior in Costa Rica as well as chemical analyses of specimens in collaboration with Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Throughout my time in Los Angeles, I volunteered with Friends of Ballona Wetlands, a conservation NGO and explored as much as I could.
I began at Rice in August of 2022, and have loved it ever since! Besides research, I enjoy running, reading (send me book recommendations!), writing poetry, cooking, and finding every excuse to be outside. See below for some highlights of cool places I have worked/visited, and check out more in photos.
I attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for my B.S. in Biology with a minor in Conservation Biology. During this time, I was able to participate in field courses to Channel Islands, USA and Cocha Cashu Field Station in Manú National Park in Peru, as well as explore National Parks and study abroad in New Zealand, learning about diverse ecosystems. The summer after my sophmore year I was an intern at the Navy Marine Mammal Program working on bioacoustic analyses of several dolphins, and I worked on various undergraduate research projects related to animal behavior and species distributions. After graduation, I continued research with UCLA working on damselfly behavior in Costa Rica as well as chemical analyses of specimens in collaboration with Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Throughout my time in Los Angeles, I volunteered with Friends of Ballona Wetlands, a conservation NGO and explored as much as I could.
I began at Rice in August of 2022, and have loved it ever since! Besides research, I enjoy running, reading (send me book recommendations!), writing poetry, cooking, and finding every excuse to be outside. See below for some highlights of cool places I have worked/visited, and check out more in photos.