Curriculum Vitae

Education

2017 – 2021 Ph.D., Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (with distinction), Yale University

2015 – 2017 Graduate Program, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Brown University

2009 – 2013 Sc.B., Marine Science,  Universidad Católica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

Publications

Damian-Serrano, A., Walton, K.A., Bishop-Perdue, A., Bagoye, S, Du Clos, K. T., Gemmell, B. J., Colin, S. P., Costello, J.H., Sutherland, K.R. (2025) “Colonial architecture modulates the speed and efficiency of multi-Jet swimming in salp colonies”. Journal of Experimental Biology https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.249465

Sutherland, K. R., Damian-Serrano, A., Du Clos, K. T., Gemmell, B. J., Colin, S. P., & Costello, J. H. (2024). Spinning and corkscrewing of oceanic macroplankton revealed through in situ imaging. Science Advances 10(20), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adm9511

Damian-Serrano, A., & Sutherland, K. R. (2024) “A developmental ontology for the colonial architecture of salps” Biol. Bull. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/730459

Hetherington, E. D., Close, H. G., Haddock, S. H. D., Damian-Serrano, A., Dunn, C. W., Wallsgrove, N. J., Doherty, S. C., & Choy, C. A. (2024) “Vertical trophic structure and niche partitioning of gelatinous predators in a pelagic food web: Insights from stable isotopes of siphonophores.” Limnology and Oceanography  https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12536 

Damian-Serrano A. (2024) “Yellow tails in Iasis cylindrica (Salpida: Salpidae) chains suggest zooid-type subspecialization in salp colonies” Ecology — The Scientific Naturalist https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4243.

Damian-Serrano A., Hughes, M., Sutherland, K.R. (2023) “A new molecular phylogeny of salps (Tunicata: Thalicea: Salpida) and the evolutionary history of their colonial architecture.” Integrative Organismal Biology, obad037.

Damian-Serrano A., Hetherington E.D., Choy CA, Haddock S.H.D., Lapides A., Dunn C.W. (2022) "Characterizing the secret diets of siphonophores (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) using DNA metabarcoding” PLoS ONE 17(5): e0267761. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267761 

Abraham, J.O., Upham, N.S., Damian-Serrano, A., Jesmer, B.R. (2022) “Evolutionary causes and consequences of ungulate migration” Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01749-4 

Hetherington, E.D., Damian-Serrano, A., Haddock, S.H.D., Dunn, C.W., Choy, C.A. (2022) “Integrating siphonophores into marine food-web ecology” L&O Letters https://doi.org/10.1002/lol2.10235 

Damian-Serrano, A., Haddock, S.H.D., & Dunn, C.W. (2021) “The evolutionary history of siphonophore tentilla: Novelties, convergence, and integration.” Integrative and Organismal Biology 3, 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obab019.

Nunez, J.C., Ferranti, D.A., Rong, S., Damian-Serrano, A., Neil, K.B., Glenner, H., Elyanow, R., Brown, B.R., Alm Rosenblad, M., Blomberg, A., Johannesson, K., Rand, D. (2021) "From tides to nucleotides: genomic signatures of adaptation to environmental heterogeneity in barnacles” Molecular Evolution 00:1–17.

Damian-Serrano, A., Haddock, S.H.D., & Dunn, C.W. (2021) “The evolution of siphonophore tentilla for specialized prey capture in the open ocean” PNAS 118 (8) e2005063118. https://www.pnas.org/content/118/8/e2005063118

Nunez, J.C., Rong, S., Damian-Serrano, A., Burley, J.T., Elyanow, R.G., Ferranti, D.A., Neil, K.B., Glenner, H., Rosenblad, M.A., Blomberg, A. and Johannesson, K., (2020). “Ecological load and balancing selection in circumboreal barnacles.” Mol. Biol. Evol. 2020 Sep 8 : msaa227.

Townsend, J.P., Tassia, M.G., Damian-Serrano, A., Whelan, N.V., Halanych, K.M., & Sweeney, A.M. (2020) “A mesopelagic ctenophore representing a new family, with notes on family-level taxonomy in Ctenophora: Vampyroctena delmarvensis gen. nov. sp. nov. (Vampyroctenidae, fam. nov.).” Mar. Biodivers. 50, 34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01049-9

Sendra, M., Damian-Serrano, A., Araujo, C.V.M., Moreno-Garrido, I., & Blasco, J.  (2018) “Erythromycin sensitivity across different taxa of marine phytoplankton. A novel approach to sensitivity of microalgae and the evolutionary history of the 23S gene" Aquatic Toxicology (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2018.09.008).

Munro, C., Siebert, S., Zapata, Z., Howison, M., Damian-Serrano, A., Church, S.H., Goetz, F. E., Pugh, P. R., Haddock, S., & Dunn, C. W. (2018) “Improved Phylogenetic Resolution within Siphonophora (Cnidaria) with Implications for Trait Evolution” Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2018.06.030).

Teaching

2024 Summer Instructor for BI457/557 Biology of Fishes at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology

2024 Spring Instructor for BI399 Animal Form and Function at the University of Oregon.

2022 Fall Guest Lecturer for BI357 Marine Biology at the University of Oregon. Open Ocean Ecosystems.

2018 Spring Teaching Assistant for EEB 223 Evolution of Functional Traits and the Tree of Life at Yale University,.

2016 Fall Guest Lecturer for BIOL 0410 Invertebrate Zoology at Brown University. Ecological Interactions.

2016 Fall Lead Teaching Assistant for BIOL 0410 Invertebrate Zoology at Brown University.

2015 Fall Guest Lecturer for BIOL 0410 Invertebrate Zoology at Brown University. Phylum Porifera.

2015 Fall Lead Teaching Assistant for BIOL 0410 Invertebrate Zoology at Brown University.

2014 Spring Teaching Assistant for Marine Zoology at Universidad Católica de Valencia (Spain).

2014 Spring Teaching Assistantship of the Degree in Marine Science at Universidad Católica de Valencia

Training & Workshops

2024 Winter Teaching Introductory Science Courses: How to Engage All Students. OSM, 2024.

2022 Spring Building a Better Fieldwork Future: Sexual harassment and assault prevention. CAMINO, UCSC.

2022 Spring FathomNet Workshop. Open-source AI for marine animal identification.

2021 Summer I/ITAPINA: Imagine/Imaging The Atlantic – Pelagic Imaging Workshop

2016 Summer Our Ocean One Future – US Department of State Summit at Georgetown University

2016 Summer Breakthrough Lab: Entrepreneurship Workshop at Brown University

2016 Spring IHCM: Immunohistochemistry and Microscopy. Marine Biological Laboratory

2014 Fall Introduction to Pelagic Cnidarians and Ctenophores: Research Topics and Methods at ICM

2014 Fall Species distribution modeling course in R at ICM

Invited Talks

Damian-Serrano, A. “The Evolution of Form and Function in Oceanic Gelatinous Animals” Larry Mays Seminar for Bioinformatics. University of North Carolina, Charlotte. March, 2024.

Damian-Serrano, A. “The Evolution of Form and Function in Oceanic Gelatinous Animals” Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Oregon. Spring Seminar Series. April, 2023.

Damian-Serrano, A. “The Evolution of Form and Function in Oceanic Gelatinous Animals” Portland State University, Biology Seminar. February, 2023.

Damian-Serrano, A. “Colonial Jellyfish Predators: From Evolutionary History to Food Web Structure” University of Virginia - Ecology & Evolution Seminar. April 2022

Damian-Serrano, A., Haddock, SHD., Dunn, CW. “Shaped to Kill: The Evolution of Siphonophores’ Secret Weapons for Prey Capture” University of British Columbia. Phylogenetic Biology. March, 2022.

Damian-Serrano, A., Haddock, SHD., Dunn, CW. “Shaped to Kill: The Evolution of Siphonophores’ Secret Weapons for Prey Capture” Yale Peabody Museum. December, 2021.

Damian-Serrano, A. “Siphonophores as Predators: From Evolutionary History to Food Web Structure” Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Oregon. November, 2021.

Damian-Serrano, A. “Siphonophores as Predators: From Natural History to Food Web Structure” CICIMAR-IPN (Universidad de Baja California, La Paz, MX). September, 2021.

Damian-Serrano, A. “Siphonophores as Predators: From Natural History to Food Web Structure” National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian, D.C.), Dept. of Invertebrate Zoology. February, 2020.

Damian-Serrano, A. “Fathoming Life in the Void: Understanding the Evolution of Planktonic Predators in the Ocean Midwaters”. Brown-Bag Seminar at Brown University's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. October, 2015.

Peer Review

February 2025   ‘Sifonóforos’ chapter for the book ‘Zooplancton Gelatinoso’

November 2024 Journal of Oceanology & Limnology

October 2024 Journal of Oceanology & Limnology

July 2024   Ecology — The Scientific Naturalist

February 2024 Ecology — The Scientific Naturalist

December 2023  NSF BIO-OCE Research proposal

September 2023 MDPI Diversity

August 2023 Marine Biology

July 2023 Frontiers in Marine Science

June 2023 Integrative and Comparative Biology

April 2023 PLoS One

March 2023 Integrative and Comparative Biology

August 2022 Comisión de Biodiversidad, Ecología, Genética y Evolución (GRF +INVI; FONCyT)

March 2022 Journal of the Marine Biological Association

June 2020 Journal of Sea Research

October 2019 Nature Communications Biology

April 2019 Nature Communications Biology

Service to the Community

May 2023 Zooplankton workshop for 5th graders form the Edison Elementary School at the Sutherland Lab.

April 2022 Zooplankton showcase at ArtSci outreach event for Women in Science and Math ARC at UO.

July 2019 Lecture on Phylogenetics for high school students of the Oxford Academy Summer program at Yale

2018 - 2019 Mentoring NY Harbor High School student George Desjarlais

2015 - 2018 SACNAS Volunteering at The Boys and Girls Club. Co-founder of Brown Junior Researchers Program

Service to the University

2022 Fall University of Oregon IE2 Seminar Speaker host

2021 - Present Sutherland Lab social media manager

2020 -2021 Yale Peabody Museum Invertebrate Zoology Twitter manager

2019 Fall - Present Graduate Affiliate at the Saybrook College. Organizer of “Oil & Butter at Saybrook”

2019 Fall Yale University E&EB Department Graduate Student Social Chair

2019 Spring Yale University E&EB Dept. Graduate Program Improvement Committee

2018 Fall Yale University E&EB Department John Spangler Nicholas Retreat organizer

2016 Spring Brown University E&EB Department Seminar organizer

Fieldwork

2023 May Blackwater diving off Kona, HI. 7 days. 

2023 February R/V Sikuliaq off Oregon. MOCNESS, CTD, ring net, ISIIS. 14 days.

2022 September Blue-water and blackwater diving off Kona, HI. 7 days. 

2022 July R/V Markus R. Langseth off Oregon. MOCNESS, CTD, ring net, ISIIS. 13 days.

2022 June Blackwater diving off Kona, HI. 7 days.

2022 April Blue-water and blackwater diving off Kona, HI. 8 days.

2022 February R/V Sikuliaq off Oregon. MOCNESS, CTD, ring net. 14 days. 

2021 September Blue-water and blackwater diving off Kona, HI. 7 days. 

2020 October Blue-water diving expedition off Block Island. 2 days.

2019 May BIOS Bermuda SiphWeb Physalia physalis collection. 7 days.

2019 March R/V Western Flyer. SiphWeb cruise. Off California. ROV and tucker net. 7 days. 

2018 November R/V Kilo Moana. DEEP-C cruise. Off Hawaii. ROV and tucker net. 10 days. 

2018 May R/V Western Flyer. DEEP-C cruise. Off California. ROV and tucker net. 9 days. 

2017 June R/V Western Flyer DEEP-C cruise. Off California. ROV and tucker net. 9 days.  

2017 March R/V Ka’Imikai-O-Kanaloa. DEEP-C cruise. Off Hawaii. ROV and tucker net. 10 days. 

2016   July R/V Western Flyer. MBARI cruise. Off California. ROV and tucker net. 7 days. 

2016 May R/V Hugh R. Sharp. Sweeney Lab U. Penn. Tucker net. 7 days. 

2013 April R/V Rachel Carson. MBARI cruise. Off California. ROV. 2 days. 

Awards & Accolades

2022 John Nicholas Spangler award for outstanding dissertation in Yale EEB. $500

2019 Best Talk Award (Evolution Session) at CRPPY 2019 Symposium

2019 1st Place Yale E&EB Graduate Symposium Photography Competition

2019 YIBS Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant $4,900

2018 YIBS Doctoral Pilot Award $3,000

2017 Yale Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department Chair’s Fund $1,400

2017 Society of Systematic Biologists Graduate Student Research Award $1,800

2013 Highest honors in 28 courses at Universidad Católica de Valencia $19,694

Scholarships

2015 Fulbright España Graduate Scholarship $99,306

2014 La Caixa Graduate Scholarship (Declined)

2013 MUNDUS Prácticas Scholarship. Banco Santander, Spain $2255

2012 JAE Intro. Spanish National Research Council $2255

Grants

2018 June Co-author of ”Collaborative research: The effects of predator traits on the structure of oceanic food webs”. Co-PIs: Dr. Casey Dunn. Dr. Steven Haddock, Dr. Anela Choy. Award #: NSF-OCE 1829835.