Principal Investigator
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David C. Blackburn
Associate Curator of Herpetology Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida Affiliate Faculty in UF's Department of Biology, Tropical Conservation and Development program, School of Natural Resources and Environment, and Center for African Studies. Lead PI, oVert Thematic Collections Network Fellow and Research Associate, California Academy of Sciences Assistant Curator, 2011–2015, California Academy of Sciences Postdoctoral Researcher, 2008–2011, University of Kansas Ph.D., 2008, Harvard University A.B., 2001, University of Chicago |
Staff
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Coleman M. Sheehy III
Collection Manager, Herpetology Florida Museum of Natural History Ph.D., 2012, University of Texas at Arlington M.S., 2006, University of Florida B.S., 2002, University of Florida Coleman oversees a growing group of volunteers and curatorial assistants working in the FLMNH herpetology collection. ResearchGate |
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Ed Stanley
Associate Scientist Florida Museum of Natural History Ph.D., 2013, American Museum of Natural History M.S., 2009, Villanova University B.S., 2005, University of St. Andrews Ed's a driving force in FLMNH behind large-scale collection of digital phenotypes via CT-scanning. He is a coPI on the oVert Thematic Collections Network. |
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Oona Takano
Administrative Specialist, oVert Thematic Collections Network Florida Museum of Natural History M.S., 2016, Texas A&M University B.S., 2010, University of Florida |
Postdoctoral Researchers
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Stu Nielsen
coming soon... Ph.D., 2016, University of Mississippi M.S., 2008, Villanova University B.S., 2004, Brigham Young University Stu will join the lab in July 2018 after finishing up a postdoc in Tony Gamble's lab at Marquette University. |
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Jessica Oswald
Ph.D., 2014, University of Florida B.S., 2007, Michigan State University Jess is part-time in the Blackburn Lab, but spending most of her time working with Rob Guralnick and David Steadman in FLMNH. She's doing some totally cool ancient DNA work in the lab. |
Graduate Students
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Greg Jongsma
Ph.D. student in UF Department of Biology M.S., 2014, San Francisco State University B.S., 2010, Acadia University NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship Greg's working on phylogeography of frogs in Central Africa. He's conducted field research in Angola, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Uganda. Some of his recent field research was supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society. |
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Rachel Keeffe
Ph.D. student in UF Department of Biology B.S., 2017, University of Massachusetts, Amherst UF Graduate School Fellowship NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Rachel's working on the diversity and evolution of the phenotypes in frogs, including cool stuff on the convergence of morphology in front-first burrowers. She also likes gymnotiform fishes! |
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Marcel Talla Kouete
Ph.D. student in UF School of Natural Resources & Environment M.S., 2015, San Francisco State University EGDGE Fellow, 2011–2013, Zoological Society of London M.S., 2003, University of Douala Marcel's working on issues related to the conservation of amphibians in tropical forests in Central Africa. He conducts field research in Cameroon, including surveys to understand the distribution and diversity of the fungal pathogen contributing to many amphibian declines as well as to understand the host defenses against this pathogen. |
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Dan Paluh
Ph.D. student in UF Department of Biology M.S., 2016, Villanova University B.S., 2014, John Caroll University UF Graduate School Fellowship NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Dan's working on a variety of projects related to phenotypic diversity, evolution, and function across amphibians and reptiles. A master of CT-visualization and 3D geometric morphometrics, Dan's working on everything from gecko quadrates to frog skulls to the soft parts of tadpoles. |
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María Camila Vallejo-Pareja
coming soon... Ph.D. student in UF Department of Biology M.S., 2018, Sam Houston State University B.Sc., 2011, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá UF Graduate School Fellowship María will be joining the lab in the fall of 2018 and will be co-advised with Jon Bloch at FLMNH. She's been working on the anatomy associated with miniaturization in squamates and has a background in vertebrate paleontology. ResearchGate |
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Interested in joining the lab?
Check out the graduate program in Biology at the University of Florida, or contact us in the Division of Herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. |
Undergraduate Students
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Giovanni Fuentes
University of Florida Gio's using CT-scans to work with grad student Dan Paluh on rattlesnake head anatomy. |
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Danielle Hayes
University of Florida Dani is working in our molecular genetics lab with grad student Greg Jongsma where she's helping out on a diversity of projects related to the systematics of African frogs. |
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Urja Shah
University of Florida Urja is doing a terrific job working to share our lab's CT data via MorphoSource as well as collect quantitative data from these scans for research and the oVert TCN. |
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Amber Singh
University of Florida Amber's working to characterize shape variation in the inner ears of frogs and relating that to ecomorphology and phylogeny. But she also really likes snakes. |
Former Lab and Field Team Members
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Lauren Gonzales
Assistant Professor Univ. South Carolina - Greenville Lauren was a postdoc in the Blackburn Lab from 2015–2016 and was also associated with Jon Bloch's lab. Lauren's website |
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Amrita Sumal
University of Florida undergraduate volunteer |
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Manas Sharma
Visiting Student Researcher June–July 2017 Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Trivandrum, India |
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C.J. Blair
Visiting Student Researcher January 2017 Oberlin College |
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Luís Ceríaco
Postdoc, Villanova Univ. Luis was a postdoc in the Blackburn Lab from 2014–2016 funded by a grant from JRS Biodiversity Foundation. Luis on ResearchGate |
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Lauren Roberts
Undergraduate Curatorial Assistant June–July 2016 Lauren visited us from Dave McLeod's lab at James Madison University |
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Dan Portik
Postdoc, Univ. Arizona Cameroon 2011, 2013, 2014 Uganda 2014 Dan's website |
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Brian Freiermuth
M.Sc., 2015, San Francisco State University Cameroon 2013, 2014 Brian's website |
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Lauren Scheinberg
Collection Manager California Academy of Sciences Nigeria 2012 Cameroon 2014 CAS Herpetology |
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Jens V. Vindum
Collection Manager (retired) California Academy of Sciences Nigeria 2012 Angola 2012, 2013, 2015 CAS Herpetology |
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Trevor McCabe
Undergraduate, University of Florida |