Current lab members
Molly Schumer is an Associate Professor in Biology. She is interested in understanding the ways in which hybridization impacts genetic and evolutionary processes.
JJ Baczenas is our lab manager and leads many research projects in the lab. He is interested in using genomic techniques and next gen sequencing to investigate how ecological pressures affect genetic processes. JJ completed his undergraduate in marine biology from Hawai’i Pacific University in 2019. Before joining the lab, he worked for the University of Wisconsin researching a variety of pathogens, including SIV and SARS-CoV-2 using next gen sequencing.
Sophia Haase Cox is a graduate student in the lab. She is excited to utilize a variety of techniques to study hybridization, behavior, and the genetics of pigmentation patterns in Xiphophorus and Poecilia fish.
Tris Dodge is a graduate student interested in structural variation, balancing selection, and introgression. His projects combine long-read sequencing, functional genomic experiments, and behavioral studies in the lab/field to understand the origin and maintenance of color polymorphisms in swordtails.
Sashoya Dougan is a postbac researcher in the lab. She is interested in exploring how genetic variation shapes biodiversity and contributes to species adaptation. She hopes to contribute to the growing field of conservation genomics.
Paola Fascinetto-Zago is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab. She earned her PhD at TAMU working with Gil Rosenthal on the study of learning and personality in Xiphophorus fishes. She is now interested in studying the effect of different colorimetric traits on the behavior of swordtails and in conducting genetic studies that can bring together behavior and genes.
Theresa Gunn is our fish room manager extraordinaire and contributes to many projects on swordtail reproduction, pigmentation, and life history.
Victoria Grant is a graduate student in the lab interested in investigating patterns of genetic diversity and observing its effect on wild populations’ risk for extinction. She plans to use these patterns to assist conservation efforts aimed at the preservation of species.
Nadia Haghani is a graduate student studying the intersection of evolutionary processes and molecular mechanisms. She plans to integrate ecology, morphology, and genetics to explore novel pigmentation traits.
Rob Hall is a PhD student in the lab. During his PhD, Rob will pursue long-held evolutionary interests with dual advisership in the Schumer and Altemose labs. He earned an A.A. from UW-Waukesha and a B.Sc. from UW-Madison with majors in genetics and history. Through studying swordtail fish, he aims to understand conserved genetic processes, like meiotic recombination and centromeric evolution. Ideally, Rob hopes to interrogate the role of hybridization that informs speciation.
Kelsie Hunnicutt is an incoming postdoc in the lab interested in studying the evlutionary genomics of reproductive isolation and hybridization in swordtail fish. During her PhD and postdoctoral work at the University of Denver, she worked with Erica Larson on the causes and consequences of hybridization in mammals and with Jon Velotta on high altitude adaptation in deer mice. To learn more about her research, visit her website.
Alyssa Kaatmann is a lab technician interested in adaptive introgression and genetic diversity of populations in changing environments. She is excited to use a wide range of laboratory techniques to be able to study the world around her.
Will Pangburn is a graduate student in the lab. He is interested in implementing transgenics, microscopy and other molecular techniques to study hybrid incompatibilities in swordtail fish.
Gabe Preising is a graduate student studying the evolution and genomic architecture of body size in swordtails. He earned his B.A. in biology from Reed College (’20), where he also did a NIH-funded postbac on the gene expression signatures of mouthbrooding in African cichlids.
Nim Robles is a graduate student studying how the environment influences speciation. They plan on merging genetic and molecular data with mesocosm experiments and field studies to understand how genetic incompatibilities impact hybrid fitness.
Majo Rodríguez is a laboratory intern who contributes to bioinformatics analyses in the lab. She graduated from the Genomic Sciences B.A. program at UNAM, Mexico, and has previously worked in population genomics and ancient DNA (aDNA). Her current interests include applying and developing bioinformatics pipelines to investigate questions in evolutionary and conservation genomics, as well as the processes surrounding speciation.
Undergraduate researchers
Lyle Given is an undergraduate student majoring in Biology (Ecology and Evolution). She is interested in understanding how genetics and selective pressures, like behavior and environmental factors, influence the evolution of aquatic organisms.
Lab Alumni
Rhea Sood was a technician in the lab from 2024-2026. She is now a graduate student at University of Utah.
Ben Moran was a graduate student in the lab from 2019-2025. He is currently a Schmidt Science Fellow at UC Davis studying population and conservation genomics.
Ken Thompson was a Human Frontiers in Science Long-Term Fellow co-supervised by Moisés Expósito-Alonso from 2021-2024. He is now a Mitacs Elevate Fellow at the Ontario Centre for Biodiversity Genomics.
Stepfanie Aguillon was a Stanford Science Fellow in the lab from 2021-2024 and is now an Assistant Professor at UCLA. To learn more about her research and lab, visit her website.
Dan Powell was a postdoc in the lab from 2019-2024 and is now an Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University. To learn more abour his research, visit his website.
Quinn Langdon was an NSF Rules of Life postdoc in the lab from 2019-2023. She is now a staff scientist at UCSF.
Alex Donny was a lab technician from 2022-2024. She is now a PhD student at University of Washington.
Shreya Banerjee was our lab manager from 2019-2022 and is now a graduate student at UC Davis.
Cheyenne Payne was a graduate student in the lab from 2019-2023. She is now a postdoc at UCSC and NOAA.
Erden Tumurbaatar was life science technician in the lab from 2020-2021.
Dani Blakkan was our lab and fish room manager from 2019-2020.
Schumer lab 