​Mike Logan (PI)
I am an Associate Professor at UNR. My lab studies the ways in which organisms adapt to rapid changes in their environments. We address our research questions from many angles and integrate methods from a diversity of fields including ecology, evolution, physiology, genomics, and animal behavior. 

​Contact: [email protected]

​Noa Ratia (PhD student)
As an Erasmus student from Kristianstad, Sweden, I spent my masters measuring greenhouse gas fluxes in the wetlands of Doñana, Spain, through incubation of sediment cores. I am conducting my PhD work on western fence lizard populations in the Great Basin Desert, where I am interested in how microhabitats are shifting in response to climate change. I am leveraging my physics background to determine how abiotic factors such as wind, precipitation, and temperature interact to affect lizard behavior, physiology, and habitat quality. To this end, I'm utilizing a range of technologies including microcontrollers, 3D-printing, and remote sensing. I envision a lot of potential for novel technology in ecological research and I'm passionate about developing more efficient ways to gather and analyze field data, using autonomous methods and open-source hardware that ideally make research more accessible and fun! 
Contact: [email protected]
Catherine Grey (PhD student)
As an undergrad, I looked at fluctuating asymmetry and stress effects on zebra finches. I am leveraging my background in endocrinology during my PhD work, which  explores the ecological drivers and physiological mechanisms linking the evolution of endocrine physiology with thermal tolerance in slender anoles in Panama.
Contact: [email protected]
Madeline Kerr (high school student)
Madie is a senior at McQueen High School who is interested in pursuing a career in biology research. She is working on a project examining scale density evolution in Panamanian slender anole lizards.



Lab Alumni

​Kristin Charles (PhD student)
Kristin worked on the evolution of parity mode in fence lizards while she was in the lab. Kristin currently works as an ecological consultant in the Las Angeles area. 

​Dan Nicholson (PhD student, co-advised)
Dan used experimental populations of lizards in Panama to understand adaptive responses of organisms to environmental change. He is now the Science Manager at the Los Amigos Biological Station in the Amazon basin of Peru. 

​Colton Irons (undergrad)
Colton worked on a project examining morphological evolution in brown anoles from The Bahamas. Colton is now a masters student studying rattlesnake and rodent habitat use in Kevin Shoemaker's lab at UNR.​
Renata Pirani (postdoc)
During Renata's postdoc in the lab, she sequenced, assembled, and annotated a reference genome for our study organism in Panama, the slender anole. She also worked out the genetic basis of the dewlap polymorphism in that species. Renata is currently a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. 
Samir Gulati (undergrad)
While in the lab, Samir conducted research on the use of 3D-printing to build operative temperature models. Samir was also our 2022 Evolution In Action intern at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where he conducted research on lizard evolution in response to climate change and took part in a live-action science education show for kids. 
Samantha Fontaine (postdoc)
Sam conducted part of her NSF PRFB in the lab. She studied how gut microbes affect the plasticity of heat tolerance in anoles. She also worked on culturing gut microbes from the slender anole and testing the thermal sensitivity of growth rate in microbial strains adapted to our experimental islands. Sam is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota. 

​Karla Alujevic (postdoc)
Karla worked on a range of projects in the lab, including the development of 3D printed operative temperature models and aerial thermography to map terrestrial thermal environments. Karla is now a Project Manager at Lander Analytics.
Alexis George (undergrad)
Lex analyzed thousands of digital scans of slender anole scales to understand how scale densities may have evolved on our experimental islands in Panama. 
Madison Glenwinkel (undergrad)
Madison conducted both field and lab work to understand the role of parasitism in western fence lizard ecology and evolution. ​
Kaitlyn Napier (undergrad)
Kaitlin conducted both field and laboratory research on the evolutionary drivers and ecological functions of ventral coloration in western fence lizards.  ​
Cody Chapman (undergrad)
Cody worked on several projects in the lab, including calculating lizard body temperatures from IR images, analyzing habitat structure from pictures taken in the field, and building arenas for studies of fence lizard behavior. 
Emma Schmitz (undergrad)
Emma worked on two projects in the lab. The first was on morphological evolution in slender anoles in Panama, and second was on the use of aerial thermography to map terrestrial thermal environments. Emma is now a PhD student in the Cox Lab at Florida International University.
Shea McKendree (undergrad)
Shea worked on our fence lizard project in both the lab and the field. 
Akhila Gopal (PhD student)
For Akhila's Ph.D., she investigated the Pace of Life Syndrome (POLS) using western fence lizards in the Great Basin. She studied how behavior, life-history, metabolism, and thermal physiology covary and contribute to fitness both across and within populations. Akhila is now an Endeavor Community Engagement and Environmental Science Fellow at the Center for the Urban River at Sarah Lawrence College. 
Guillermo Garcia-Costoya (PhD student)
Guille's dissertation research integrated theoretical, simulation-based studies with empirical data to understand how life history tradeoffs mediate ectotherm responses to climate change. Guille helped establish a multi-year mark-recapture study on several populations of western fence lizards across an elevational gradient in the Great Basin Desert. He studied how territory-level differences in thermal environments mediated differences in reproductive strategies, affected intra and inter-specific competition, and structured fitness landscapes. Guille is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stroud Lab at Georgia Tech.
Claire Williams (PhD student)
For Claire's dissertation, she used a combination of laboratory experiments, long-term field monitoring, and field-transplant experiments to study how gut microbiomes might facilitate adaptive responses to rapid environmental change in the Panamanian slender anole lizard. Claire is now a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Hammer Lab at UC-Irvine.
Vedanth Vishwanath​ (undergrad)
Vedanth conducted his senior thesis project in the lab, working on a project that was funded by a Nevada Undergraduate Research Award. He investigated the links between gut microbiome composition, physiology, and fitness in wild populations of western fence lizards living at different elevations. Vedanth is currently applying to med schools. 
Neil Babu (undergrad)
Neil worked in the lab on a project funded by a Nevada Undergraduate Research Award. Neil's project was aimed at resolving the "g-value paradox" by exploring relationships between host genome characteristics and the complexity of their microbiomes.