Research Team
Research Leads
John Stark, PhD – Director of Washington Stormwater Center, Professor of entomology and ecotoxicology, Washington State University Puyallup
John Stark is a professor in the Department of Entomology and a principal investigator of the Aquatic Ecotoxicology Lab at WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center. John is also the director of the Washington Stormwater Center and a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. His research deals with the protection of endangered species and ecological risk assessment of pollutants with particular emphasis on salmon and their food. John is also a population modeler and has developed population-level risk assessments based on matrix models and differential equation models. Recent projects involve the determination of the effects of stormwater low-impact development on salmon and invertebrate health and assessing the impact of pesticides on endangered butterfly species. John has published over 140 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals, numerous book chapters, and a book on ecological risk assessment titled “Demographic Toxicity: Methods in Ecological Risk Assessment”.
Jenifer McIntyre, PhD – Associate Professor, Washington State University Puyallup
Jen is an associate professor in the School of the Environment and a principal investigator of the Aquatic Ecotoxicology Lab at WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center. Her research focuses on the ecotoxicology of stormwater runoff and the biological effectiveness of green stormwater infrastructure, with particular emphasis on salmon. Jen was one of the lead researchers, along with Dr. Ed Kolodjiez, who discovered 6PPD-quinone as the causative agent of coho salmon mortality in urban streams. Additional research areas include the impacts of pesticides on aquatic life and understanding and mitigating harmful contaminants in wastewater effluent.
Ani Jayakaran, PhD – Associate Professor, Washington State University Puyallup
Ani is a professor and extension specialist in the ANR Unit of WSU Extension and an affiliate faculty with Biological Systems Engineering and the School of the Environment. He leads the Green Stormwater Infrastructure Lab at WSU’s Puyallup Research and Extension Center. Ani’s role is to provide extension and research strategies to manage water resources using GSI principles and improve current engineering designs through applied research. Ani’s areas of academic interest are green stormwater infrastructure, University Extension, and watershed hydrology. He serves his peers as an associate editor for two journals and as the co-vice Chair of Puget Sound Partnership’s Science Panel.
Ed Kolodjiez, PhD – Associate Professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Washington Tacoma
Ed’s interests include water quality and contaminant fate in natural and engineered systems, especially focusing on interdisciplinary approaches to complex environmental issues affecting water and ecosystem health. His research group works to characterize and control roadway runoff and chemical pollution derived from tire rubbers while understanding attenuation mechanisms in natural systems and optimizing engineered systems for trace contaminant removal. His research has been published in Science and featured in news media such as Nature, Scientific American, The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, US News and World Report, Scientific American, and many others. He works regularly with Dr. Jenifer McIntyre and her team on research associated with toxic impacts on fish.
Postdoc
Melissa Driessnack, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Associate
Melissa is a Postdoctoral Research Associate working under Dr. John Stark and Dr. Jenifer McIntyre. She earned her BS in zoology from Miami University in 2007 before heading north to the University of Saskatchewan, where she completed her MS (2012) and PhD (2017) in aquatic toxicology.
Melissa’s master’s research contributed to a large-scale assessment of mining and milling effluents on the aquatic health of a northern lake system. Through collaborative field and laboratory studies, she helped define selenium’s transformation pathways within complex ecosystems. Her PhD research expanded on this foundation, focusing on the effects of complex chemical mixtures on aquatic species, utilizing mesocosms, tissue cultures, and molecular techniques.
Since joining WSU in 2021, Melissa has played an integral role in multiple research projects while also mentoring graduate students. Her current work explores the environmental impacts of contaminants on aquatic ecosystems, including:
- Evaluating how anticoagulant rodenticides affect early-life stage and juvenile salmon, as well as aquatic invertebrate communities.
- Investigating how food quality and quantity influence the health, survival, and smolting capabilities of juvenile Chinook salmon.
- Assessing the effects of sediment contamination on native benthic invertebrates.
- Studying the impacts of pesticides on native aquatic invertebrate communities using modular mesocosm systems.
- Examining the effects of antiozonant tire chemicals on aquatic invertebrate life histories.
Through her research, Melissa aims to advance understanding of aquatic toxicology and inform conservation efforts for freshwater ecosystems.
Technicians
Jill Wetzel, BS – Scientific Assistant
Jill is a Scientific Assistant in the Aquatic Ecotoxicology Lab. She graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma with a BS in environmental science with a geoscience focus and has since pivoted from rocks to salmon husbandry.
Claire O’Connor, BS – Animal Technician III
Claire has a BS in environmental science from the University of Washington Tacoma with a focus on conservation biology and ecology. As an Animal Technician III at WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, she manages the husbandry and maintenance of the Aquatic Ecotoxicology Lab’s zebrafish colony, supports research on urban pollution and environmental toxicology, and conducts toxicology testing using zebrafish to assess morphometric endpoints and perform molecular genetic techniques.
