People

Hannah Bleecker
Research Technician
hrbleecker@uchicago.edu  

Hannah is a Research Technician in the Ross lab. After graduating from UChicago with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences (concentration in Ecology & Evolution), she spent the next several years working as a zookeeper in facilities around the country, obtaining her master’s degree as a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Veterinary College in London, and training animal care technicians at the University of Washington. She has also headed a spectrophotometry project with museum specimens, as well as an animal behavior project with endangered crows. Now, she is excited to be working to expand our knowledge of the evolution of feeding biomechanics in mammals. She is particularly interested in delivering high-quality research while maintaining excellence in animal welfare.

Yeganeh Sekhavati, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
ysekhavati@uchicago.edu   Google Scholar  

Yegan is a postdoctoral scholar in the Ross lab. She is a biological anthropologist interested in understanding how morphology represents a compromise between function and phylogenetic constraints. Yegan is also interested in comparative biomechanics of locomotor and feeding systems to understand the mechanisms that drive the evolution of these systems. For her dissertation, she examined the evolutionary patterns and selective histories that have shaped human foot evolution. For her postdoctoral work, she studies the feeding system by creating biomechanical modeling of the tongue to test hypotheses about the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic tongue muscles.

Kaleb Sellers, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
kalebsellers@uchicago.edu  

Kaleb is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Ross lab. His interests include comparative vertebrate anatomy and evolution, comparative functional morphology of the feeding system, and vertebrate paleontology. His postdoctoral work focuses on characterizing the basic and functional anatomy of the hyolingual apparatus across mammals with a focus on primates. Kaleb uses contrast-enhanced CT scanning, morphometrics, and engineering techniques to characterize muscle anatomy and assess muscle forces. For his dissertation research, Kaleb investigated the functional effects of skull flattening on the jaw muscles and joints in the lineage leading to crocodylians. He has also worked on projects investigating enamel thickness in various reptiles and collaborated on biomechanics projects in various non-avian dinosaurs and other reptiles.

Jessica Skinner, PhD
Staff Scientist
jskinner2@uchicago.edu   Google Scholar  

Jessica is a staff scientist for the Ross Lab and an instructor for the Human Body course.

She completed her PhD at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee in 2021, using structured light scanning and computational modeling with archaeological and historical documentation to bolster IDs of individuals recovered from the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery.

She then completed postdoctoral training at Mayo Clinic Arizona. There she used scanning electron microscopy to elucidate the micromechanics of peri- and postmortem human cortical bone fractures and coordinated a multidisciplinary team to evaluate a novel bioinspired patch with growth factor for regenerative rotator cuff repair.

She loves biomechanics at the intersection of biology and behavior: her interests include personalized and holistic MSK modeling, life course biology, skeletal anatomy and physiology, as lower limb anatomy and gait. She’s thrilled to contribute to the Ross Lab’s excellent combination of top tier animal care and groundbreaking research.

Chelsie Snipes
csnipes@uchicago.edu   Research Gate  

Chelsie is a first year PhD student in the Ross and Luo labs. She is broadly interested in the evolution and biomechanics of the feeding and middle ear systems in vertebrates. For her dissertation research, she is investigating the evolution and kinematics of the hyolaryngeal system during feeding and vocalization in mammals. Her work will utilize geometric morphometrics, XROMM, and finite element modeling (FEM) techniques. Chelsie has previously conducted research on the function of the hyoid apparatus and middle ear in echolocating bats using traditional and contrast enhanced microCT data and acoustic modeling in ANSYS.

Georgina McKusick Voegele, PhD
Lecturer and Anatomy Lab Manager
georgina@uchicago.edu  

Georgina is the Anatomy Lab Manager and Lecturer for the Human Body course. She facilitates education and research using human donors from the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois and also the large collection of Ross Lab (Dept. of Organismal Biology and Anatomy) vertebrate specimens.

Georgina loves dissection and specializes in the comparative anatomy and evolution of the mammalian forelimb. Other interests include the evolution of vertebrate body wall layers, mammal pelvic anatomy, collecting and preserving vertebrate specimens, Paleocene/Eocene paleontology fieldwork, poultry, and plants.

Georgina was an Anthropology undergraduate student at University of Chicago (AB’03) and then completed her doctoral work at the Center for Functional Anatomy & Evolution at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (PhD’14). She taught the anatomical sciences at Dartmouth before returning to the University of Chicago in 2021.

Alec Wilken
PhD Student in Integrative Biology
atwilken@uchicago.edu  

Alec Wilken is a graduate student interested in vertebrate biomechanics and evolution. For his dissertation, Alec is investigating the evolution of the mammal jaw and the mammalian middle ear. Much of Alec’s work employs Finite Element Analysis (FEA), an engineering technique, to explore the biomechanical environment of the feeding apparatus, combining work from novel imaging techniques and in vivo data to construct robust biomechanical models. Alec has previously conducted research studying the evolution of kinetic, mobile skulls in lizards, birds, and non-avian dinosaurs and the burrowing adaptations of North American shrews.