Logs, Labs, and Lectures: Celebrating RedHawk Researchers
July 23, 2025 | admin
If you’ve had a chance to work on a research project at Miami University, you know how exciting the experience can be. From outdoor excursions to breakthrough discoveries in the lab, the opportunities always come with incredible lifelong memories. Here are some of the fascinating topics RedHawks have been researching lately:
Halie Seifert ’27
One of Halie Seifert’s favorite things to do is visit the aquarium with her family. Not only did this inspire her passion for ecology — it also helped inform her decision to double major in Biology and Individualized Studies and minor in Molecular Biology.
She dreams of being a professional researcher someday, and she’s already getting a taste of what that entails. She’s conducting her own research right now, and the topic is pretty incredible: Antarctic algae.
Halie has managed to grow her own algae cultures in the lab, and she has specific questions she wants to answer. Using three different types of Antarctic algae, she’s going to test if certain species outcompete others in a shared environment. The answer could have big real-world implications: Learning how these algae compete and coexist can help scientists better predict environmental changes.
While the results of Halie’s experiment are not in yet, one thing is already certain: There will be plenty of scientific breakthroughs in her future.
Adam Smith ’24
When Miami alumnus Adam Smith started college, he couldn’t have expected that one of his courses would take place on a river. Yet Adam’s favorite class, Geology of Streams, did exactly that. For two weeks, he studied the geology of southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana in a canoe, exploring environmental changes since the previous glaciation.
“I had never been camping before that,” he says. “It was a really, really cool experience.”
Throughout the course, he learned about stream health, and he collected nutrient data to prepare him for his final paper. He also got to climb over fallen trees to study log jams, which brought back memories of being a kid: “It was like the biggest playground I’ve ever been on.”
It became clear that his majors in Environmental Earth Science and Sustainability — and his minor in Political Science — would give him plenty of adventures. Soon, he was back out on the water, tagging along with a small team of researchers doing drone imagery of the Whitewater River. Then he spent two days studying hydrogeology in Mammoth Cave National Park. And somehow, between these remarkable projects, he still found time to go to every RedHawks basketball game!
Annemarie Jones ’24
Annemarie Jones came to Miami University with two passions: dancing and helping adults with physical disabilities.
With a Kinesiology major and a Disability Studies minor, she found a way to blend her interests for movement and advocacy. She knew she wanted to pursue occupational therapy, but she couldn’t have expected to be involved in treatment so early in her college career.
In her first year, Annemarie responded to a class announcement from one of her Kinesiology, Health, and Nutrition professors, Helaine Alessio, who was looking for a research assistant. Next thing she knew, Annemarie was teaching an exercise class for older adults. But it wasn’t just a class — it was an experiment.
“We were looking at a dual-task exercise program,” she explains. “Doing something cognitive while you are also working out to see if that had a greater impact on either your cognitive or physical abilities.”
After collecting the data from this study, Annemarie presented her findings in a lecture at the American College of Sports Medicine Midwest Conference in Indianapolis. Now, thanks to her important work, other researchers are compiling the results into an academic essay!
Learn more about research initiatives and opportunities at Miami University.
