SRIRAM V.

RAMAMURTHY
University of California, Santa Barbara | (408)-642-9567 | sramamurthy@ucsb.edu

EDUCATION
University of California, Santa Barbara
Incoming PhD student: Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology (EEMB) 2028 expected
Major advisors: Drs. Armand M. Kuris and Todd H. Oakley

University of California, Santa Barbara

College of Creative Studies
Bachelor’s degree in Biology with highest honors 6/22
Concentrations in ecology, evolution, and marine biology
Minor in Music
GPA: 3.97

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
University of California, Santa Barbara; Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Graduate Student Researcher, Kuris & Oakley Research Groups 7/22 –
Research focus is on characterizing species interactions in rocky intertidal
zones using ecological and evolutionary approaches.

University of California, Santa Barbara; Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Undergraduate Researcher, Kuris Research Group 9/19 – 6/22
Worked on independent projects involving the ecology of sea anemones in
the genus Anthopleura.

Undergraduate Researcher, Oakley Research Group 9/19 – 6/22

Worked on projects relating to phylogenetics. Main project focused on
complex trait evolution within Cephalopods.

Smithsonian National Museum of National History; Dept. of Invertebrate Zoology

Undergraduate Research Intern, Quattrini Research Group (Coral lab) 11/20 – 3/21
Identified genes of interest pertaining to deep-sea octocorals for target-
enrichment bait design.

Stanford University; Dept. of Genetics

Undergraduate Research Intern, Pringle Research Group 6/19 – 9/19
Studied algal symbiont population dynamics in the model sea anemone,
Aiptasia.

University of California, Santa Barbara; Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Research Assistant, Burkepile Research Group 1/19 – 6/19
Analyzed scleractinian coral recruitment and growth in Moorea through
time series photographs.

FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE
Santa Barbara/San Mateo, CA 2/20 –
Documenting spatial distributions of sea anemones in the rocky intertidal zone.
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Catalina Island, CA 1/20

Collected bioluminescent ostracods and taxonomically identified, sorted, and
collected various other ostracod species.

FELLOWSHIPS AND RESEARCH FUNDING

EEMB Block Grant Fellowship ($15497.68) 9/22 – 3/23
UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Grant ($450) 12/21
UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Grant ($230) 12/20
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History ($3000) 11/20 – 3/21
Stanford University, Pringle Lab ($1500) 6/19 – 9/19

HONORS AND AWARDS

Joseph H. Connell award for excellence in ecological or evolutionary research ($1000.00) | 2022 |
Awarded by the UCSB EEMB department

1st place, UCSB Undergraduate Research Slam ($1500.00) | 2022 | Awarded by the UCSB Undergraduate
Research and Creative Activities Office

Best full-length talk award | 2022 | Awarded at the 2022 UCSB EEMB undergraduate research symposium

Raymond B. Huey award for best student poster presentation, Division of Ecology and Evolution
($150.00) | 2022 | Awarded at the 2022 Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) annual
meeting

Top 5 Candidate for Student Scholarship | 2019 | Awarded by the Marine Aquarium Societies of North
America

PUBLICATIONS (IN PREP)

Convergent evolution of bioluminescence in Cephalopods. (in prep) B.A. Vincent, E.S. Lau, C.M.
Bourguignon, S.V. Ramamurthy, T.H. Oakley

CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS

UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Slam 5/22
Oral presentation - “Characterizing the fine-scale spatial distribution of the sea
anemone Anthopleura sola” S.V. Ramamurthy, A.M. Kuris ** Won first place
and $1500 prize

UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Colloquium 5/22

Poster presentation - “Characterizing the fine-scale spatial distribution of the sea
anemone Anthopleura sola” S.V. Ramamurthy, A.M. Kuris

UCSB EEMB Undergraduate Symposium 4/22

Oral presentation - “Characterizing the fine-scale spatial distribution of the sea
anemone Anthopleura sola in the rocky intertidal zone” S.V. Ramamurthy,
A.M. Kuris ** Received best talk award

Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting (SICB+) 1/22

SRIRAM V. RAMAMURTHY PAGE 3

Poster presentation - “Social distancing before it was cool: Fine scale spatial
distribution of the sea anemone Anthopleura sola” S.V. Ramamurthy, A.M.
Kuris ** Received the Raymond B. Huey Best Student Poster Award in the
Division of Ecology and Evolution and $150 prize

Poster presentation - “Distribution and color polymorphism of the sea anemone

Anthopleura artemisia” S.V. Ramamurthy, A.M. Kuris

UCSB College of Creative Studies Research and Creative Activities Conference 11/21
Oral presentation - “Social distancing before it was cool: Fine scale spatial
distribution of the sea anemone Anthopleura sola” S.V. Ramamurthy, A.M.
Kuris

International Deep Sea Biology Symposium 9/21

Poster presentation - “A target-enrichment bait set for assessing environmental
change in deep-water octocorals” S.V. Ramamurthy*, A.Y. Buckenmeyer*,
D.M. DeLeo, A.M. Quattrini *equal author contributions

UCSB Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Colloquium 6/21

Poster and oral presentation - “Distribution and color polymorphism of the sea
anemone Anthopleura artemisia” S.V. Ramamurthy, A.M. Kuris

UCSB College of Creative Studies Research and Creative Activities Conference 11/20
Poster and oral presentation - “Creating a species-level Cephalopod phylogeny to
resolve major and minor clades” S.V. Ramamurthy, B.A. Vincent, E.S. Lau,
T.H. Oakley

UCSB College of Creative Studies Research and Creative Activities Conference 11/19
Poster and oral presentation - “Symbiont population dynamics in hospite in a
model cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis” S.V. Ramamurthy, C. Renicke, J.R.
Pringle

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Undergraduate teaching assistant for EEMB 111 (Parasitology) 1/22 – 3/22
Led lab discussion sections and prepared instructional materials.

OUTREACH AND SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

Panelist 11/21
Participated in a panel discussion for introductory biology students on becoming
involved in undergraduate research.

Macroevolution Honors Section 6/21

Created engaging course materials on interpreting molecular data to be used for a
future course-based undergraduate research experience for EEMB 102,
Macroevolution.

UCSB Art of Science Photography Competition - 3rd Place Winner 5/20

Communicated science to the public through my photography.

Los Altos High School 6/18

Set up aquariums with live coral in the classroom, which allowed biology and
environmental science students to conduct experiments on how climate change
affects corals.
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MENTEES
Emalia Partlow

PROFESSIONAL AFFILITATIONS
Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

SELECTED SKILLS
▪ Molecular, Cellular, and Microscopic Methods
o Microscopy (including confocal and fluorescence microscopy)
o DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, qPCR, Gel electrophoresis
o Flow cytometry
▪ Computational Skills
o R
o Command-line bioinformatics
▪ IQ-TREE, BLAST, Trinity, Transdecoder, MAAFT, EMBOSS, MEGA, etc.
o Command-line proficiency (Linux/Unix operating systems)
o Python
o Wolfram Mathematica
o Microsoft Excel
o ImageJ/Fiji
▪ Organism and Natural History Skills
o Saltwater aquarium husbandry (ornamental and laboratory)
▪ Experienced with coral reef, Syngnathid, jellyfish and other systems
▪ Designed and constructed custom pseudokreisel aquaria for the Oakley lab
▪ Responsible for the maintenance of laboratory animals in closed and flow
through systems
o Terrarium husbandry (ornamental)
▪ Experienced with amphibians, reptile, and Arthropod husbandry
▪ Has worked with medically significant venomous species
o Organism dissection and preparation

SELECTED COURSEWORK
Invertebrate zoology, lower invertebrates – A+ (achieved highest grade in the class)
Invertebrate zoology, higher invertebrates – A+ (achieved highest grade in the class)
Parasitology – A+ (achieved highest grade in the class)
Molecular genetics – A+
Advanced biostatistics and Bayesian data analysis – A+
Coral reef ecology – A+
Cell physiology – A+

MEDIA COVERAGE
A slam dunk: Two CCS biology students place first and second at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Slam
competition | https://ccs.ucsb.edu/news/2022/slam-dunk

CCS Biology Student Wins Award at Annual Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Conference:
Sriram Ramamurthy receives Raymond B. Huey Award for best student poster in the Division of Ecology and
Evolution | https://ccs.ucsb.edu/news/2022/ccs-biology-student-wins-award-annual-society-integrative-and-
comparative-biology
SRIRAM V. RAMAMURTHY PAGE 5

Sriram Ramamurthy (CCS Biology ’22) Studies Deep Sea Coral Genomics: CCS student interns with
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History | https://ccs.ucsb.edu/news/2021/sriram-ramamurthy-ccs-
biology-22-studies-deep-sea-coral-genomics

LANGUAGES
English – Native proficiency
Tamil – Native conversational proficiency
Sanskrit – Intermediate proficiency
French – Elementary proficiency

MUSIC
Jazz trombonist, studied with Dr. Jon Nathan and Bill Booth at UCSB
Classical pianist, studied with Drs. Natasha Kislenko and Charles Asche
at UCSB (Performed a senior recital on 4/30/2022)
15+ yrs. experience playing and performing around Santa Clara/Santa
Barbara communities
Selected performance venues: SF Jazz Miner Auditorium (San Francisco,
CA), Tateuchi Hall (Mountain View, CA), Karl Geiringer Hall (UCSB),
Lotte Lehmann Hall (UCSB), SoHo restaurant and music club (Santa
Barbara, CA)

REFERENCES
Dr. Todd H. Oakley – oakley@lifesci.ucsb.edu
Dr. Armand M. Kuris – kuris@lifesci.ucsb.edu