Chris Mulligan
[email protected]
EDUCATION
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616
September 2021 - Present
PhD candidate, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Thesis Title: An experimental approach to understanding animal holobiont paleobiology using lipid biomarkers
Thesis Advisor: Dr. David Gold
University of Colorado, Boulder
Boulder, CO 80303
August 2018 - May 2021
BA, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, cum laude
Minor, Geological Sciences
Thesis Title: Harmful algal blooms as a possible cause of Late Cretaceous vertebrate mortality events in Northwestern Madagascar
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Julio Sepùlveda
PUBLICATIONS
Brunoir, T., Mulligan, C., Sistiaga, A., Vuu, K.M., Shih, P.M., O'Reilly, S.S., Summons, R.E., and Gold, D.A. (2023). Common origin of sterol biosynthesis points to a feeding strategy shift in Neoproterozoic animals. Nature Communications 14, 7941. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43545-z
Halamka, T. A., Raberg, J. H., McFarlin, J. M., Younkin, A. D., Mulligan, C., Liu, X. L., & Kopf, S. H. (2022). Production of diverse brGDGTs by Acidobacterium Solibacter usitatus in response to temperature, pH, and O₂ provides a culturing perspective on brGDGT paleoproxies and biosynthesis. Geobiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12525
AWARDS
Russell and Dorothy Bilinski Fellowship at Bodega Marine Lab, 2024
"Monitoring Ecosystem Health using Trophic Biomarkers: Using Citizen Science to Bridge Seagrass Meadows and Shorebirds"
UC Davis Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences Durrell Research Grant, 2023 and 2024
Jumpstart Graduate Award (NSF) Grant Recipient, Summer 2021
“Sterol composition of Phragmatopoma californica under different diets: unlocking the potential of biomarkers for paleoecology”
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Grant Recipient, Summer 2019
Co-Principal Investigators: Dr. Edward Chuong and Dr. Orit Peleg
“Dissecting honeybee collective behaviors using genomics”
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Gold Lab Summer Fellowship for community college students
Bodega Marine Lab, UC Davis
July 22 - August 03 2024
Pathways to Marine Science undergraduate transfer student mentorship
Bodega Marine Lab, UC Davis
July 2023
GeMS and Jumpstart scholarship recipients mentorship
Depts. of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Coastal and Marine Sciences, UC Davis
March 2022 - September 2022
Vertebrate Curation Assistant
Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Department of Zoology
2001 Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80205
November 2018 - January 2020
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Mulligan, C., Gold, D.A.. Microbial Production of Coprostanol: Implications for Early Animals and Reappraisal of the Biomarker (presentation). Geologic Society of America CONNECTS conference, New Voices in Geobiology session. Sept 22, 2024, Anaheim, California.
Mulligan, C., Gold, D.A.. Coprostanol Production in Invertebrate Microbiomes: Implications for Biomarkers in Early Complex Animals (poster). Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon), Global Environmental Changes and Increased Biological Complexity in the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic session. May 8, 2024, Providence, Rhode Island.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Teaching assistant, Physical Geology (GEOL 001), Winter and Spring 2022
Teaching assistant, Introduction to Geobiology (GEOL 053), Winter 2023
Teaching assistant, Paleobiology (GEOL 107 and 107L), Fall 2022 and 2023
Teaching assistant, Historical Ecology (GEOL 144), Spring 2022
Invited lecture, “Agnostic Biosignatures” for GEOL 053, Jan 19th 2023
Invited workshop, "Introduction to the ggplot2 package in R" for the UCD EPS R User Group, Nov 17 and Dec 01 2023. https://rpubs.com/Mulligan3/1116224
Invited workshop, "Introduction to the tidyverse package in R" for the UCD EPS R User Group, Mar 01 2024. https://rpubs.com/Mulligan3/1155813
CERTIFICATIONS
Wilderness First Aid (WFA), Sierra Rescue - exp. Feb 2027
CPR certified, Sierra Rescue - exp. Feb 2026
Epinephrine administration certified, Sierra Rescue - exp. Feb 2027