Biology Graduate Students
Alumni Fellow and PhD student with Drs. Ken Hobson and Michael Patten; BS University of New Mexico; Research interests include plant-insect interactions, biogeography, evolutionary ecology, physiological ecology.
Afkhami, Mehrnaz
PhD student with Dr. JP Masly; BS & MS University of Tehran, Iran. Research interests include evolutionary genetics, male-female interactions.
Allen, Addison
MS student with Dr. Hayley Lanier, BS from Univ. of Oklahoma; Research interests include ecological shifts in the small mammal community.
Bates, Caleb
MS student with Dr. Gary Wellborn, BS Univ. of Oklahoma; Research interests include community ecology and freshwater ecology.
Besozzi, Elizabeth
Alumni Fellow and PhD student with Dr. Michael Patten; BS Smith College; Research interests include exploring relative importance of top-down and bottom-up drivers of distribution, community ecology, biogeography and conservation.
Bittner, Steven
PhD student with Dr. LIz Bergey; BS University of Massachusetts – Amherst. Research interests include freshwater community and ecosystem ecology, food web dynamics and meta-communities.
Busch, Michelle
PhD student with Dr. Dan Allen; BS University of Michigan. Interested in how anthropogenic effects affect macroinvertebrate communities, hydrology, trophic level interactions and food webs.
Cimprich, Paula
PhD student with Dr. Jeffrey Kelly; BS Miami University, Ohio; Research interests include conservation biology, ornithology and ecology.
Clark, Bonne
MS student with Dr. Jeff Kelly; BS University of Delaware, Newark; Research interests include migration and population ecology of avian species, aeroecology, wildlife-habitat relationships, and human-wildlife conflicts.
Cook, Katherine
NSF Graduate Research Fellow and PhD student with Dr. David Hambright; BS Baylor University; Research interests in include aquatic ecology, botany and water resource management.
Cooper, Alex
MS student with Dr. Elizabeth Bergey; BA & BS University of Iowa. Research interests include biogeography, conservation, and community ecology.
Cruz, Marcos
PhD student. Research interests include phylogenetics, bioinformatics, genomics, molecular evolution and population genetics.
DiPilla, Alisha
MS student with Dr. Jeffrey Kelly, BS from Univ. of Oklahoma; Research interests include conservation, evolutionary ecology, population biology of invasive species.
Duarte Ribeiro, Emanuell
PhD student with Dr. Ricardo Betancur; MS National Institute of Amazonian Research – Brazil; Research interests include understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that drove parallel radiations in marine percomorph clades using phylogenetic comparative approaches.
Eliades, Sam
Alumni Fellow and PhD student with Dr. Cameron Siler; BS North Carolina State University. Research interests include reptile systematics, phylogeography and conservation.
Ellsworth, Elyse
MS student with Dr. Liz Bergey, BS from Univ. of Oklahoma; Research interests include ecology and conservation of freshwater turtles.
Franzen, Alex J.
PhD student with Dr. Caryn Vaughn. MS- Univ. of Minnesota. Research interests include community ecology, conservation genetics, evolutionary ecology of freshwater bivalves (unionoida), and freshwater ecosystems in general.
Glidewell, Dani
MS student with Dr. Dave Hambright, BS from Univ. of Oklahoma. Research interests include microcystins and their effects on freshwater systems.
PhD student with Dr. Eli Bridge; BS Humboldt State University, MS San Diego State University; Research interests include ornithology, marine biology, tropical ecology and stable isotope applications in ecology.
Han, Donglin (Donny)
First year PhD student in Cellular and Behavioral Program. Doing rotations at Dr. Ashlee Rowe’s Lab and Dr. Michael Markham’s Lab. Interested in investigating sensory physiology and electricphysiology in animals, ion channels function and weekly electric fish.
Higgins, Ed
Alumni Fellow and PhD student with Dr. Caryn Vaughn; BS Boston University. Research interests include freshwater ecology, ecosystem services and genetics.
Kelley, Ethan
MS student with Dr. Katie Marske, BS- Univ. of Oklahoma. Research interests include entomology, biogeography, phylogeography, and chemical ecology.
Kiehnau, Emily
PhD student with Dr. Lawrence Weider; BA Lawrence University; Research interests include evolutionary ecology, aquatic ecology and evolutionary genetics.
Kolbmann, Christina
PhD student with Dr. Jeff Kelly, MS Southeastern Louisiana University, Louisiana. Research interests include animal behavior, aeroecology, and computational biology.
Kopp, Darin
PhD student with Dr. Daniel Allen; BS DePaul University, MS New Mexico State University; Research interests include geographical ecology, food webs, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
MS student with Dr. Eli Bridge; BS University of Florida; Research interests include avian migration, movement ecology and conservation.
Leri, Faith
PhD student with Dr. Laura Stein, MS Penn State University., Research interests include evolution, behavior, and plasticity.
Lopez, Jonathan
PhD student with Dr. Caryn Vaughn; BS North Carolina State University. Research interests include ecology and ecosystem services of freshwater mussels.
McLaughlin, Jessica
Alumni Fellow and PhD student with Dr. Matt Miller; BS & MS University of Alaska - Fairbanks. Research interests include secondary contact and avian speciation, population genomics.
Melendez, Fernando
Ph.D. student with Dr. Dahiana Arcila; BS & MS University of Puerto Rico; Research interests include evolutionary history of pelagic fishes. Ecological and evolutionary implications of the development of endothermy in pelagic fishes.
Minkin, Eve
MS student with Dr. Dave Hambright, BS from Eckerd College.
PhD student with Dr. Jeremy Ross; BS & MS Texas State University – San Marcos. Research interests include the natural history of birds, biogeography and wintering ecology of migratory birds.
Nourbakhsh, Mehrnoush
PhD student with Dr. Michael Markham; BSc Isfahan University, Iran; MSc National Institute of Polytechnic and University, France. Research interests include neurobiology in weakly electric fish.
PhD student with Dr. Eli Bridge; BA College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, MA The Citadel, Charleston, SC; Research interest include migration and population ecology of songbirds, wintering ecology of tidal marsh sparrows, the technology used to track migratory songbirds and science education and citizen science.
PhD student with Drs. Eli Bridge and Jeremy Ross; BS Indiana University; MS Oklahoma State University. Research interests include ornithology, behavioral ecology, sexual selection, electrical engineering and computer programming.
Pedraza Marrón, Carmen
PhD student with Dr. Ricardo Betancur; BS and MSc Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo; Research interests elucidating biogeographical and evolutionary processes shaping population structure and species diversity patterns in marine ecosystems.
Perera, Nu
PhD student with Dr. Jeremy Ross, MS from Wichita State Univ. Research interests include wintering ecology of migratory birds and conservation of birds.
Alumni Fellow and PhD student with Dr. Michael Kaspari; BS George Washington University; Research interests include community ecology, ants and tropical ecology.
Rodriguez Silva, Rodet
PhD student with Dr. Ingo Schlupp; BS and MSc University of Havana, Cuba; Research interests include ecology, evolution and conservation of livebearing fishes.
rodet.rodriquez.silva-1@ou.edu
MS with Dr. Katharine Marske. Research interests include phylogeography of spiders and understanding how climate change affects their geographic distribution.
Santaquiteria Gil, Aintzane
PhD student with Dr. Ricardo Betancur; BS University of Navarra (Spain), MS University of Tromsø (Norway); Research interests include fish evolution, phylogenomics and biogeography.
Shahrokhi, Golya
PhD student with Dr. Michael Patten; BS Shahid Beheshti University, Iran; MS Texas State University-San Marcos. Research interests include genetic studies, evolution, ornithology and ecology.
Spikes, Montrai
PhD student with Dr. Ingo Schlupp; BS University of Missouri-Columbia; Research interests include behavior, sexual selection and evolution of complex mating systems.
Smith, Sierra
MS student with Dr. Cameron Siler. Research interests include understanding the relationship between an organism’s ecology and the diversity and function of its microbiome.
Strand, Alva
Ph.D. student with Dr. Jeffrey Kelly. Research interests include the ecology of seasonal avian migration, the impacts of climate change on migration, and radar aeroecology.
Theriot, Miranda
PhD student with Dr. Hayley Lanier, MS- University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Research interests include body size trends and responses to recent climate change in mammals.
Tolentino, Giovanni
PhD student with Dr. Hayley Lanier, BS from Univ. of Oklahoma.
Troyer, Emily
PhD student with Dr. Dahiana Arcila; BA & BS Ohio State University, MS King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia; Research interests include fish evolutionary ecology, biodiversity, and systematics.
Wang, Kai
NSF Graduate Research Fellow and MS student with Dr. Cameron Siler; BS Washington State University; Research interests include phylogeography and evolution of reptiles and amphibians.
Ward, Sarah
Ph.D. student with Dr. Dahiana Arcila; B.S. Bob Jones University, South Carolina, M.S. Southeastern Louisiana University; research interests include systematics and morphological adaptations of deep-sea fishes.
Wersebe, Matthew
PhD student with Dr. Larry Weider, BS from SUNY: Binghamton; Research interests include phenotypic plasticity, secondary salinization, aquatic ecology, and evolution.
Wilbert, Greg
MS student with Dr. Rich Cifelli; Research interests include fish osteology and evolutionary biology.
Wiser, Shannon
MS student with Dr. Markham; BS The University of Oklahoma; Research interests include animal communication, biophysics, and the behavioral and metabolic constraints caused by ecological changes.
