Current lab members 

Robert Cox - PI

Bob is an evolutionary ecologist whose interests span from comparative endocrinology and physiology to behavioral ecology and evolutionary genetics. His current projects are focused on integrating quantitative genetics, endocrinology, and genomics to study intralocus sexual conflict, phenotypic evolution, and life-history tradeoffs.
Rachana Bhave - graduate student

Rachana joined our lab in 2016 and is currently studying patterns of pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection in wild populations of brown anoles. She has been one of the main contributors to the development of our SNP genotyping panel and is now using the resultant multi-year fitness dataset and pedigree to characterize the mating system and patterns of natural and sexual selection in our Florida populations of brown anoles. Her previous MS work explored personality along the shyness-boldness axis in agamid lizards.
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Matthew Hale - NSF postdoc 

Matthew joined our lab in 2019 after finishing his PhD on the transcriptomic effects of endocrine disruptors in alligators at University of Georgia and the Savannah River Ecology Lab. Matthew is currently leading our studies on the evolution of sex-biased gene expression in anoles and phrynosomatid lizards using an approach that blends experimental hormone manipulations, transcriptomic profiling across a range of tissues, ages, and species, and in silico methods linking gene expression patterns to androgen and estrogen response elements throughout the genome.
Daniel Nondorf - graduate student

Daniel joined our lab in 2019 and is currently developing a dissertation project that will explore whether and how patterns of sex-, age-, and tissue-specific gene expression influence rates of coding sequence evolution in phrynosomatid lizards.
Chris Robinson - graduate student

Chris joined our lab in 2018 after completing his master's on natural selection and ventral coloration in the prairie lizard with Matt Gifford at Central Arkansas, and his bachelor's studying anoles with Michele Johnson at Trinity University. Chris is currently studying the cellular, endocrine, and transcriptomic mechanisms that underlie repeated evolutionary gains and losses of sexual dimorphism in bright ventral coloration across phrynosomatid lizards. Chris recently received an EXPAND Fellowship that will support his training in the integrative biology of the phenotype. 
Tyler Wittman - graduate student

Tyler joined our lab in 2016 and recently lead an exciting "side project" exploring the effects of testosterone on genetic variance and covariance (G matrix) in anoles. Tyler's PhD research is focused on the fitness consequences of parasitism in wild anole populations using a combination of experimental manipulations of nematode parasites and large-scale analyses of survival and reproductive success throughout the life of the anole host. His previous MS research focused on mate choice and pheromone marking in parasitoid wasps.
Former lab members ​
Torun Carlson - undergraduate (2018-20)

Torun's Distinguished Majors Project involved treating wild juvenile anoles with an anti-parasite drug to measure the effects of several common nematode parasites on host growth, development, survival. One of the major findings from her work is that removal of parasites results in a significant increase in the growth rates of juvenile males and females. Torun's presentation won 3rd place in the annual Katz Research Symposium!
Albert Chung - undergraduate and lab manager (2012-16)

As an undergraduate, Albert studied metabolic rate in anoles and also contributed to a paper on parasites as a cost of reproduction. After graduating, Albert continued to work with our group on field trips to Florida and as our animal facilty manager prior to joining Christian Cox's at Georgia Southern University, where he completed his MS. Albert is now a PhD student with Shane Campbell-Staton at UCLA. 
Robin Costello - research rotation (2014-15)

Robin developed our technique for quantifying dewlap coloration using reflectance spectroscopy, and her rotation project using this method led to our paper on the quantitative genetics of sex differences in dewlap color. She went on to complete her PhD studying social networks in forked fungus beetles with Butch Brodie at UVA.
Christian "Free Meat" Cox - postdoc (2012-15)

Christian took the lead on a variety of projects during his postdoc in our lab, including studies of sex and species differences in growth-regulatory gene expression, the effects of testosterone on female anoles, and the evolutionary physiology of metabolic rate and evaporative water loss in reptiles. Christian is now an Assistant Professor of Biology at Florida International University, where he continues to collaborate with our group on studies of sex-biased gene expression in anoles and phrynosomatid lizards. Christian is also an avid homebrewer, and we miss his particularly excellent Funky Dark Saison (mmmm, Brettanomyces).
John David Curlis - undergraduate (2012-15)

John David led a project on sex and population differences in metabolic rate of anoles and also contributed to our recent study on quantitative genetics of thermal physiology. He recently completed his MS with Christian Cox at Georgia Southern, where he studied population genetics of color polymorphism in ground snakes. After lots of birding, herping, and research in Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras, John David began his doctoral research in Alison Davis Rabosky's lab at the University of Michigan in 2018. 
Hannah Donald - lab manager (2013-14)

Hannah ran our Anolis breeding colony for several years and collaborated on our studies of the developmental breakdown of between-sex genetic correlations. She's now a research technician in Vince Formica's lab at Swarthmore College, where she is studying social selection in forked fungus beetles.
Cara Giordano - undergraduate (2015-18)

Cara completed her Distinguished Majors Project exploring the dewlap as a signal of good genes and male quality. It turns out that the dewlap most reliably signals the age of a male, becoming incresingly yellow over time. Her presentation won first place at the annual Katz Research Symposium. Cara is also the only undergraduate to achieve "Professional" status when it comes to catching hatchling anoles.
Amanda Hanninen - graduate student (MA in 15)

Amanda studied the interactions between brown anoles and a sexually transmitted nematode worm, Cyrtosomum penneri. She also streamlined the hormone assays for our studies of the effects of testosterone on female anoles.
Ariel Kahrl - graduate student (PhD in 2017)

Ariel's dissertation took the lab in an entirely new direction by focusing on the evolution of sperm morphology in anoles and other lizards. She published a variety of papers on topics such as the condition-dependence of sperm morpholoy, the coevolution of testis size and sexual size dimorphism, differences in sperm morphology between native and introduced anoles, and even the evolution of the Anolis ​gut microbiome. Ariel is now a postdoc with John Fitzpatrick at Stockholm University.

Check out Ariel's website
Matthew Kustra - undergraduate (2016-18)

Matt completed a Distinguished Majors Project showing that sperm count and sperm morphology change with fine-scale variation in population density across our island population of anoles. In fall 2018, he headed UC Santa Cruz to begin graduate school in Suzanne Alonzo's lab with an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Liza Mitchem - research rotation (2017-18)

Liza conducted a rotation project quantifying effects of testosterone on aggression and signaling behavior in juvenile male and female anoles. She recently defended her PhD on aggression, behavioral plasticity, and personality in forked fungus beetles with Butch Brodie at UVA.
Jennifer Price - postdoc and lab manager (2012-2013)

Jennifer ran our Anolis breeding colony for several years and generated the initial data for our common-garden comparisons of sexual dimorphism between populations of brown anoles from Eleuthera and Great Exuma. She also worked with Josh Nash on a project showing that incubated anole eggs hatch in response to photoperiodic cues.
Aaron Reedy - grad student and NSF Broadening Participation postdoc 

Aaron completed his PhD on sex differences in behavior, life history, parasitism, and natural selection in 2018. After graduating, Aaron continued to collaborate with our group as an NSF Broadening Participation postdoc studying sex differences in aging in anoles with Tonia Schwartz at Auburn University. He now runs his own educational software company, DataClassroom, which provides professional-quality statistics and graphing software in a fun and educational format for classrooms around the world. Aaron is also the co-founder of our Evolution Education program for science teachers
Nicky Rose - lab manager (2015-16)

Nicky ran our Anolis colony and generated the F2 generation for our ongoing breeding studies. She now works for the UVA Office of Animal Welfare. 
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Heidi Seears - Postdoc (2015-19)

Heidi developed the high-throughput genotyping pipeline that we now use to assign parentage and study the population and quantitative genetics of wild anoles. Her ongoing projects with our group are focused on measuring reproductive success and studying the fitness consequences of individual variation in heterozygosity in anoles. She is also involved in nearly all of our studies of phenotypic selection and quantitative genetics in wild anoles.​​