
Seira Ashley Adams
Graduate Student
Bachelor of Arts (2012)
Biology & Visual Arts | Brown University
PhD Candidate (2013 – present)
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management | University of California, Berkeley
Areas of Interest
Chemical Ecology / Animal Behavior / Evolution / Speciation
email: seira.adams (at) berkeley.edu
Biography
Born and raised in Japan, I grew up running around the forests of Japan finding plants and catching animals. I moved to the United States after my first year of high school and have been here since. I went to Brown University as an undergraduate where I double majored in Biology and Visual Arts. There, I worked with Prof. Douglass Morse on the mating behavior of the parasitoids wasp Alabagrus texanus in Maine, which lead to my Animal Behaviour paper – “Condition-dependent mate choice of a parasitoid wasp in the field”.
Driven by my enthusiasm for public education and mentoring of youth, I have made use of my skills in both the arts and sciences to create and engage in various outreach opportunities throughout my life. My innate interests in biology deeply influences my artwork, and in turn, my art stimulates my creation of unique scientific outreach and education material.
Now, as part of the EvoLab working with Prof. Rosemary Gillespie, I am pursuing my research interests in chemical ecology, animal behavior, and evolutionary biology and advancing through my graduate career in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at University of California, Berkeley.
Publications
Adams, SA & Morse, DH 2014. Condition-dependent mate choice of a parasitoid wasp in the field. Animal Behaviour 88:221-232. PDF
Teaching Experience
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley Connect Fellow | 2018 – 2019
Insect Behavior (ESPM 143) | Fall 2017
General Entomology (ESPM 111) | Fall 2015
Wheeler High School
Japanese Language Course | 2011 – 2012
Outreach Experience
Everything Matters: Copper | Exploratorium | May, 2018
Creatures, Nightlife | California Academy of Sciences | Oct, 2018
Creatures, Nightlife | California Academy of Sciences | Oct, 2017
Poison, After Dark | Exploratorium | Nov, 2018
Animal Appetite, After Dark | Exploratorium | Nov, 2017
Animal Senses, After Dark | Exploratorium | Feb, 2017
Wakase High International Exchange | UC Berkeley | 2013 – present
Entomology Student Org, Co-President | UC Berkeley | 2014 – 2015
Elementary School Spider Course | Bay Area Science in Schools | 2014
Science Center, Graphics & Events Coordinator | Brown University | 2010 – 2012