Lab News

July 2026: Cosi holding a sandbar shark with Mel’s endorsement.

July 2026: Connor and Mel deploying an otter trawl for squid capture!

July 2026: Cosi observing brief squid swimming in the water tunnel.

June 2026: Mel and Cosi selecting squid for experimental runs.

June 2026: The Squid Squad is back at the VIMS Eastern Shore Lab for another year of data collection.

April 2026: Mel successfully defends his MS thesis!

January 2026: Morgan and Ian at the 2026 SICB Conference in Portland, OR.

January 2026: Morgan presenting her research at the 2026 SICB Conference in Portland, OR.

**June 2025:** Mel and Morgan deploying an otter trawl to capture squid for Morgan’s
research project.

**June 2025:** Mel and Morgan at the VIMS Seawater Lab.

**June 2025:** Moving the water tunnel to the VIMS Eastern Shore Lab for the field season.

**March 2025:** Mel awarded Best Student Oral Presentation in Animal Biology at the 2025
Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB) Annual Meeting held in Myrtle Beach, SC.

**March 2025:** Morgan receives SICB’s 2025 Libbie H. Hyman Memorial Scholarship to
conduct research at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, ME.

**September 2024:** Setting up tank for squid behavior studies.

**September 2024:** Alissa and Ian with their favorite stuffed animals at VIMS’ Marine Life Day.

**September 2024:** Alissa and Ian at VIMS’ 2024 Marine Life Day.

**July 2024:** In search of squid schools!

**June 2024:** First trawl of the season.

**June 2024:** Squid captured in first trawl — this bodes well for field season.

**May 2024:** Morgan Garrett joins the lab!

**April 2024:** Dr. Alissa Ganley from the Bartol Marine Biomechanics Lab receives ODU’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.

**April 2024:** Erin Coulter, an undergraduate research assistant in the Bartol Marine Biomechanics Lab, presents her work at the 2024 ODU Undergraduate Research Symposium.

**April 2024:** The *Squid Squad* at the 2024 ODU Undergraduate Research Symposium.

**March 2024:** Alissa Ganley successfully defends her dissertation, “Maneuverability of cuttlefish and squid: an integrated kinematic and hydrodynamic analysis.” Congrats Dr. Ganley! (The individual on the lower right is none other than Dr. Vecchione, the international expert in cephalopods.)

September 2023: Jahnita Demoranville (Cal State Fullerton) joins the crew to study bite force in squid.

August 2023: Trawling season for squid commences!

August 2023: Mel Lhuillier (MS Student) joins the Bartol Biomechanics Lab. Welcome Mel!

**June 2023:** Drs. Allyson McNaughton and Alissa Mones from the Virginia Aquarium use ultrasound to examine stingrays in the lab. Many thanks Ally and Alissa for your assistance!

**May 2023:** Alissa and Zack collect blood samples from stingrays (sun’s out, guns out).

**September 2022:** Alissa in the field holding a brief squid!

**September 2022:** Alissa and Jean Paul trawling for squid.

**July 2022:** Alissa completes her final data collection run on cuttlefish.

**April 2022:** Bartol Lab presents at the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC2022) Meeting

**January 2022:** Atlantic stingrays are here!

**October 2021:** Cuttlefish experiments are in full swing.

**August 2021:** Trident ROV in search of squid in coastal Maine.

**August 2021:** ROV pilot hard at work collecting footage of swimming squid. Go Blue!

**May 2021:** Amanda and Alissa collecting data on cuttlefish hatchlings and squid paralarvae. A closer look reveals their caffeinated beverages of choice.

**March 2020:** Kristy Volker successfully defends her MS thesis: Diet analysis of stranded bottlenose dolphin (*Tursiops truncatus*) in Virginia

**February 2020:** Setting up for stingray swim tunnel experiments.

**August 2019:** Squid trawling season has begun!

**July 2019:** Preparing the cast net for the next major squid haul.

**July 2019:** The crew ready for another day of data collection at the DMC.

**July 2019:** An unexpected Illex illecebrosus captured in a cast net in Boothbay Harbor!

**July 2019:** 3D velocimetry experiments underway at the Darling Marine Center. (That’s Dr. Krueger in the menacing glasses in the back.)

**June 2019:** Alissa, Amanda, and Dr. Whiteman performing blood draws on a stingray.

January 6, 2019: Amanda Tumminelli presents her research at the 2019 SICB Annual Meeting in Tampa, FL.

January 6, 2019: Alissa Ganley presents her research at the 2019 SICB Annual Meeting in Tampa, FL.

October, 2018: Alissa and Amanda during a data collection marathon.

July, 2018: Master squid fisherman waiting to land the perfect test subject.

June/July, 2018: Summer at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, ME (Year 2)!

April, 2018: Undergraduate research assistant and star lacrosse player, Cydney Tutchton, selects Bartol as Gameday Professor (and hooks him up with team gear)!

March, 2018: Kelly Zalaskus presents her research at the ASB Meetings.

September, 2017: Fall trawling for Lolliguncula brevis commences!

August 10, 2017: Alissa selecting a squid for turning experiments

August 5, 2017: The crew hard at work — note the family size M&M bag!

August 1, 2017: Fishing for squid in Boothbay Harbor

July 15, 2017: Summer at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, ME. Alissa Ganley and Amanda Tumminelli join the team!

August 21, 2016: Trawling season for 2016 has begun!

August 15, 2016: Diana Li from Stanford University begins working in the lab.

April 12, 2016: Julie Levans of the Virginia Aquarium brings 4 loggerhead turtles to ODU for swim tunnel studies (from left to right: Julie Levans, Soraya Bartol, Ian Bartol, Kelly Jacobson)

February 19, 2016: Carly York successfully defended her doctoral dissertation Anti-predator responses of squid throughout ontogeny.

November 20, 2015: Ian Bartol gives an invited talk at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Lab entitled, “Now you see them, now you don’t: understanding swimming and turning in multi-propulsor squids using 3D flow imaging and kinematic analyses.”

(from left to right: Drs. Ian Bartol, Paul Krueger, Mike Vecchione, Rachel Jastrebsky, Mark Butler, Dan Barshis)

September 21, 2015: Rachel Jastrebsky successfully defended her doctoral dissertation Kinematics and hydrodynamics of cephalopod turning performance during routine swimming and predatory attacks

August 1, 2015: Carly York is awarded a University Fellowship

Summer 2015: Dr. Bartol worked with his collaborator, Dr. Paul Krueger (Southern Methodist University), on a science exhibit for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, TX. A short clip of a video portion of the exhibit is included below.

May 2015: Rachel Jastrebsky is awarded ODU’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant/Laboratory Instructor Award