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Tom grew up in Staten Island, New York and fell in love with Ecology as an undergraduate at Colgate University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and held a USDA postdoc fellowship at Florida State University before moving to Rice. Tom's research combines long-term demographic data, field experiments, ecological theory, and statistical modeling to address basic and applied problems in population and community ecology.
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Dr. Kenji Hayashi
Postdoctoral Scholar My research combines plant demography with ecological theory and statistical modeling to understand how variation in the abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) environment shapes species distributions. I joined the lab after completing my Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles, where I studied the spatial distributions and coexistence of annual plants in California grasslands. I am now working with the Sevilleta LTER to analyze how dryland plant communities and ecotones respond to climatic variation. I am also passionate about open, reproducible research and evidence-based teaching in ecology.
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I earned a B.S in Biology at Industrial University of Santander in Colombia. For my undergraduate thesis I studied the phenology of Aiphanes graminifolia, an endangered, endemic palm species. I worked at the Botanical Garden in Santa Barbara, California where I sorted and took pictures of amazing arthropods. I am interested in plant phenology, mutualistic relationships, and how climate change impacts plants and arthropod communities.
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Akiem Gough
Ph.D. student After discovering my fervor for ecology during my undergraduate studies at Florida Southern College, I decided to pursue this interest as a career. With my B.S. in Biology, I went on to work at Archbold Biological Station in the Agroecology program as an intern and then as a research assistant. There, I further distilled my interest into plant ecology and now, as a PhD student, I am particularly enthused to study how plant species interactions, including facilitation, competition, mutualism and invasion, influence plant population dynamics.
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Julia Martin
Ph.D. student I received a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation from California State University, Sacramento. After exploring various fields of Ecology, I was able to narrow my interests and align myself with this phenomenal lab. My research focuses on the mutualistic and symbiotic relationship between hosts and endophytes, investigating factors that affect endophyte density, and exploring climate induced species range limitations. I am also interested in community outreach and helping guide students to achieve their academic goals.
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I received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Houston. Following this, I have begun my position as a post-baccalaureate researcher in this lab through the STEGG-Interact program. I am interested in learning about symbiotic relationships and understanding the factors that contribute to their transmission. Currently, I’m working to understand the sensitivity of endophyte transmission to aridity.
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Lab Alumni
Ali Campbell (Ph.D. 2025)
Jacob Moutouama (Postdoc 2023-2025)
Josh Fowler (Ph.D. 2023)
Marion Donald (Ph.D. 2020)
Tingfa Dong (CSC Visiting Scholar 2019-2020)
Emily Schultz (Ph.D. 2018)
Brad Ochocki (Ph.D. 2017)
Michelle Sneck (Ph.D. 2017)
Aldo Compagnoni (Postdoc 2013-2017)
Michelle Downey (M.S. 2015)
Andrew Bibian (M.S. 2015)
Jacob Moutouama (Postdoc 2023-2025)
Josh Fowler (Ph.D. 2023)
Marion Donald (Ph.D. 2020)
Tingfa Dong (CSC Visiting Scholar 2019-2020)
Emily Schultz (Ph.D. 2018)
Brad Ochocki (Ph.D. 2017)
Michelle Sneck (Ph.D. 2017)
Aldo Compagnoni (Postdoc 2013-2017)
Michelle Downey (M.S. 2015)
Andrew Bibian (M.S. 2015)