Carnegie Science | Spring 2019 9 Will Ludington joined the Department of Embryology scientific staff in June 2018. His lab investigates complex ecological dynamics from microbial community interactions using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The fruit fly gut carries numerous species of microbes, which can be cultured in the lab. He uses experiments, theory, and computational approaches to understand the relationship between gut microbial ecology and host health, among other questions. Ludington received a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University. He then worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Nature Conservancy on eradicating invasive species, stream hydrology, and related work before earning a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from U.C.-San Francisco. He came to Carnegie from his lab at U.C.-Berkeley. Staff associate Kamena Kostova joined the Department of Embryology in November 2018. She studies ribosomes, the factory-like structures inside cells that produce proteins. Scientists have known about ribosome structure, function, and biogenesis for some time. But a major unanswered question is how cells monitor the integrity of the ribosome itself. Problems with ribosomes have been associated with diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer. The Kostova lab investigates the fundamental question of how cells respond when their ribosomes break down. She uses mass spectrometry, functional genomics methods, and CRISPR genome editing for this work. Kostova received a B.S. in Biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from U.C.-San Francisco. She was a recipient of a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 2018 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. Staff scientist Sally June Tracy joined the Geophysical Laboratory earlier this year. She is interested in how crystallizing materials behave in extreme environments. She applies cutting-edge experimental and analytical techniques to understand the fundamental physical behavior of materials under extreme pressure and temperature conditions. Tracy uses dynamic compression techniques with high-energy X-ray sources to probe the structural changes and transitions in materials at conditions that mimic impacts and the interiors of terrestrial and exoplanets. She is also an expert in nuclear resonant scattering and synchrotron X-ray diffraction to observe the behavior at the electronic level of materials as they transition. Tracy received her B.A. in Physics from Occidental College and both a masters and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the California Institute of Technology. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University prior to arriving at the Geophysical Lab. Carnegie Welcomes Will Ludington, Kamena Kostova, and Sally June Tracy! WILL LUDINGTON KAMENA KOSTOVA SALLY JUNE TRACY