Connor J Whalen

Contact

email | cjwhalen@uw.edu

Room 262B | Fishery Sciences Building | 1122 NE Boat St Box 355020, Seattle, WA 98195

About Me

I am a second year graduate student at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences in Seattle, WA. I work as a member of the Wood Lab under the guidance of Dr. Chelsea Wood where we study historical parasite ecology in aquatic systems around the world.

For my dissertation work I am focused on understanding how wildlife parasites are affected by extreme weather events and climate change. I currently am conducting projects on the parasites of marine mammals, freshwater fishes, and terrestrial birds across a range of ecosystems.

Marine Mammals

Myself along with a team of 15 undergraduate volunteers dissect marine mammal (mainly harbor seal and harbor porpoise) GI tracts to detect, identify, and quantify parasitic burden therein. We conduct our dissections at the Burke Museum every Wednesday from 10-4 during the academic year. These data will be used to inform how parasites affect metabolic output of their hosts, as well as providing new insights into marine mammal parasitism rates and diversity.

Freshwater Fish

In the summer of 2024, myself and a team of 8 others from the University of Washington, the University of South Carolina, Tuskeegee University, and Valdosta State University traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana to work with the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection housed at Tulane University’s Biodiversity Research Institute. We dissected 1,118 fish over the course of 3 months and identified over 36,000 individual parasites. These data are currently being analyzed in relation to extreme weather events that affected the Pearl River ecosystem between 1963 and 2005, including 25 hurricanes, with the ultimate goal of determining the effect of such storms on parasite biodiversity and abundance in freshwater fishes. You can learn more about the larger project and how our lab’s scientists study the effects of urbanization and pollution on parasite populations here.

Education

2023 - pr. | Graduate Student | University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences | Seattle, WA

2014 - 2018 | B.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | University of California, Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz, CA

You can view my entire CV here: CV

Publications

2025

Cooper, E.B., Whalen, C., Beeby, N., Negron-Del Valle, J.N., Phillips, D., Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Snyder-Mackler, N., Brent, L.J.N., & Higham, J.P. (2025). Associations between social behaviour and proinflammatory immune activation are modulated by age in a free-ranging primate population. Animal Behaviour, 2019:123021 | PDF

2023

Higham, J.P., Cooper, E.B., Whalen, C., Stahl-Hennig, C., Giavedoni, L.D., & Heistermann, M. (2023). Urinary cytokine measurements do not reflect surgery-induced inflammation in rhesus macaques. American Journal of Primatology e23506 | PDF

2022

Chiou, K.L., DeCasien, A.R., Rees, K.P, Testard, C., Spurrell, C.H., Gogate, A.A., Pliner, H.A., Tremblay, S., Mercer, A., Whalen, C.J., Negrón-Del Valle, J.E., Janiak, M.C., Bauman Surratt, S.E., González, O., Compo, N.R., Stock, M.K., Ruiz-Lambides, A.V., Martínez, M.I., Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Wilson, M.A., Melin, A.D., Antón, S.C., Walker, C.S., Sallet, J., Newbern, J.M., Starita, L.M., Shendure, J., Higham, J.P., Brent, L.J.N., Montague, M.J., Platt, M.L., & Snyder-Mackler, N. (2022). Multiregion transcriptomic profiling of the primate brain reveals signatures of aging and the social environment. Nature Neuroscience 25:1714–1723. | PDF

Cooper, E.B., Watowich, M.M., Beeby, N., Whalen,C., Montague, M.J., Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Brent, L.J.N., Snyder-Mackler, N., & Higham, J.P. (2022). Concentrations of urinary neopterin, but not suPAR, positively correlate with age in rhesus macaques. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10: 1007052 | PDF

Parasite Playlist

I am curating a playlist of songs that center around parasites, or mention parasites in some meaningful way. The playlist can be viewed here, and if you can think of any other great parasite songs, send me an email and I will add them!

Connor J Whalen

Contact

email | cjwhalen@uw.edu

Room 262B | Fishery Sciences Building | 1122 NE Boat St Box 355020, Seattle, WA 98195

About Me

I am a second year graduate student at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences in Seattle, WA. I work as a member of the Wood Lab under the guidance of Dr. Chelsea Wood where we study historical parasite ecology in aquatic systems around the world.

For my dissertation work I am focused on understanding how wildlife parasites are affected by extreme weather events and climate change. I currently am conducting projects on the parasites of marine mammals, freshwater fishes, and terrestrial birds across a range of ecosystems.

Marine Mammals

Myself along with a team of 15 undergraduate volunteers dissect marine mammal (mainly harbor seal and harbor porpoise) GI tracts to detect, identify, and quantify parasitic burden therein. We conduct our dissections at the Burke Museum every Wednesday from 10-4 during the academic year. These data will be used to inform how parasites affect metabolic output of their hosts, as well as providing new insights into marine mammal parasitism rates and diversity.

Freshwater Fish

In the summer of 2024, myself and a team of 8 others from the University of Washington, the University of South Carolina, Tuskeegee University, and Valdosta State University traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana to work with the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection housed at Tulane University’s Biodiversity Research Institute. We dissected 1,118 fish over the course of 3 months and identified over 36,000 individual parasites. These data are currently being analyzed in relation to extreme weather events that affected the Pearl River ecosystem between 1963 and 2005, including 25 hurricanes, with the ultimate goal of determining the effect of such storms on parasite biodiversity and abundance in freshwater fishes. You can learn more about the larger project and how our lab’s scientists study the effects of urbanization and pollution on parasite populations here.

Education

2023 - pr. | Graduate Student | University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences | Seattle, WA

2014 - 2018 | B.S. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | University of California, Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz, CA

You can view my entire CV here: CV

Publications

2025

Cooper, E.B., Whalen, C., Beeby, N., Negron-Del Valle, J.N., Phillips, D., Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Snyder-Mackler, N., Brent, L.J.N., & Higham, J.P. (2025). Associations between social behaviour and proinflammatory immune activation are modulated by age in a free-ranging primate population. Animal Behaviour, 2019:123021 | PDF

2023

Higham, J.P., Cooper, E.B., Whalen, C., Stahl-Hennig, C., Giavedoni, L.D., & Heistermann, M. (2023). Urinary cytokine measurements do not reflect surgery-induced inflammation in rhesus macaques. American Journal of Primatology e23506 | PDF

2022

Chiou, K.L., DeCasien, A.R., Rees, K.P, Testard, C., Spurrell, C.H., Gogate, A.A., Pliner, H.A., Tremblay, S., Mercer, A., Whalen, C.J., Negrón-Del Valle, J.E., Janiak, M.C., Bauman Surratt, S.E., González, O., Compo, N.R., Stock, M.K., Ruiz-Lambides, A.V., Martínez, M.I., Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Wilson, M.A., Melin, A.D., Antón, S.C., Walker, C.S., Sallet, J., Newbern, J.M., Starita, L.M., Shendure, J., Higham, J.P., Brent, L.J.N., Montague, M.J., Platt, M.L., & Snyder-Mackler, N. (2022). Multiregion transcriptomic profiling of the primate brain reveals signatures of aging and the social environment. Nature Neuroscience 25:1714–1723. | PDF

Cooper, E.B., Watowich, M.M., Beeby, N., Whalen,C., Montague, M.J., Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Brent, L.J.N., Snyder-Mackler, N., & Higham, J.P. (2022). Concentrations of urinary neopterin, but not suPAR, positively correlate with age in rhesus macaques. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10: 1007052 | PDF

Parasite Playlist

I am curating a playlist of songs that center around parasites, or mention parasites in some meaningful way. The playlist can be viewed here, and if you can think of any other great parasite songs, send me an email and I will add them!