**We are recruiting PhD applicants to join the lab in August 2024. Learn more about the EEB graduate program and application process here. Applicants are encouraged to email Tom with a CV and brief statement of purpose describing their background and interests in the lab.
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. He serves on the editorial boards of Ecology and American Naturalist, and he is the faculty director of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduate program at Rice University.
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Dr. Jacob Moutouama
Postdoctoral Scholar Jacob Moutouama received his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His research interest revolves around understanding the mechanisms underlying species range limitation. He is also interested in understanding why and how local people use natural resources in the tropics. He uses a combination of demographic data, manipulative lab and field experiments, and mathematical models to inform conservation management issues in a changing world.
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I study species interactions and how they strengthen or weaken in response to their surrounding ecosystems and environments. I am particularly interested in mutualisms and the impacts of partner diversity and environmental heterogeneity on them.
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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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I am broadly interested in sustainability and plant-soil ecology. I want to know more about the potential effects of climate change and make discoveries on environmental issues. I am currently working on the endophyte range limit experiment to test how fungal endophytes can provide drought tolerance.
Karl's LinkedIn
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Chris joined the Miller lab at the start of 2023 as a research technician. He works on projects studying the ecological consequences of climate-induced sex ratio shifts in dioecious trees and the effects of fungal endophytes on the range limits of cool-season grasses. Prior to this, he worked as a research technician at Texas A&M at Galveston, where he also earned his B.S. in marine biology. As a technician, he studied oyster disease ecology, hard-substrate marine assemblages, microplastics in oysters, and marsh and oyster restoration practices. Chris is interested in using a combination of field ecology and molecular techniques to better understand how anthropogenic changes affect coastal invertebrate communities. He hopes to become a professor and is passionate about teaching, scientific communication, and public outreach.
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Dajanae Pearson
REPS (Research Experience for Post-baccalaureate Students) Fellow (joint with McCary Lab) .Daja is a post-baccalaureate research intern in the lab. She joined the lab in summer 2023, after graduating from Texas Southern University in May 2023 with a B.S. in Biology. She is currently conducting NSF-sponsored research studying how climate change is affecting dioecious plants and their surrounding soil arthropod communities. Daja is broadly interested in wildlife management and restoration ecology. She hopes to become a zoologist and would like her research to help inform environmental efforts.
Daja's LinkedIn
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Lab Alumni
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)
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)