Blackburn Lab
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​


​Principal Investigator

Picture of Dave Blackburn, Principal Investigator
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
ResearchGate    Google Scholar    Impactstory

Staff

Picture of Collection Manager, Coleman Sheehy
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
Picture of Ed Stanley, Associate Scientist
Ed Stanley
Associate Scientist
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF's College of Engineering's Research Service Centers 

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.
Ed's website

ResearchGate    Google Scholar
Picture of Oona Takano, Administrative Specialist for oVert TCN project
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
Oona's website

ResearchGate

Postdoctoral Researchers

Picture of Stuart Nielsen, postdoc
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.
Google Scholar
Picture of Jessica Oswald, postdoc
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.
Jessica's website

ResearchGate    Google Scholar

Graduate Students

Picture of Greg Jongsma, graduate student
Greg Jongsma
Ph.D. student in UF Department of Biology
M.S., 2014, San Francisco State University
B.S., 2010, Acadia University

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.
Greg's website

Google Scholar
Picture of Rachel Keeffe, graduate student
Rachel Keeffe
Ph.D. student in UF 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!
Picture of Marcel Talla Kouete, graduate student
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 for the fungal pathogen contributing to many amphibian declines.
ResearchGate    ​Google Scholar
Picture of Dan Paluh, graduate student
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. No one loves quadrates more than Dan. Seriously, no one.
Dan's website

​ResearchGate    Google Scholar
Picture of Blackburn Lab
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
Picture of Gio Fuentes
Giovanni Fuentes
University of Florida

Gio's using CT-scans to work with grad student Dan Paluh on rattlesnake head anatomy.
Picture of Dani Hayes, undergraduate researcher
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.
Picture of Trevor McCabe
Trevor McCabe
University of Florida

Trevor's isolating the middle ear bone of frogs from CT scans to relate shape diversity to aspects of ecology.
Picture of Urja Shah, undergraduate researcher
Urja Shah
University of Florida

Urja is doing a terrific job working to share our lab's CT data via MorphoSource.
Picture of Amber Singh, undergraduate researcher
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

Picture of Lauren Gonzales, postdoc
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
Picture of Amrita Sumal
Amrita Sumal
University of Florida

undergraduate volunteer
Picture of Manas Sharma, visiting student researcher
Manas Sharma
Visiting Student Researcher
June–July 2017

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Trivandrum, India
Picture of CJ Blair, visiting student researcher
C.J. Blair
Visiting Student Researcher
​January 2017


Oberlin College
Picture of Luís Ceríaco, postdoc
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
Picture of Lauren Roberts
Lauren Roberts
Undergraduate Curatorial Assistant
June–July 2016

Lauren visited us from Dave McLeod's lab at James Madison University
Picture of Dan Portik
Dan Portik
Postdoc, Univ. Arizona

Cameroon 2011, 2013, 2014
​Uganda 2014

Dan's website
Picture of Brian Freiermuth
Brian Freiermuth
M.Sc., 2015, San Francisco State University

Cameroon 2013, 2014

​Brian's website
Picture of Lauren Scheinberg
Lauren Scheinberg
Collection Manager
California Academy of Sciences

Nigeria 2012
Cameroon 2014


CAS Herpetology
Picture
Jens V. Vindum
Collection Manager (retired)
California Academy of Sciences
​
Nigeria 2012
Angola 2012, 2013, 2015

​CAS Herpetology
Picture of Walter Tapondjou
Walter Tapondjou
PhD student, Univ. Kansas
​
Cameroon 2014
Picture of Becca Tarvin
Becca Tarvin
Postdoc, UT-Austin

Cameroon 2013

Becca's website
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