people | pierson lab

Todd W. Pierson
assistant professor

If you are a KSU undergraduate student and are excited about gaining some experience with field or laboratory research, email me to discuss opportunities! Likewise, if you are interested in joining the lab as a graduate student through KSU's Master of Science in Integrative Biology (MSIB) program, send me an email! Here is some good general advice about how to pursue a graduate degree in ecology and evolutionary biology.

graduate students

Yatin Kalki

Yatin joined as an MSIB student in Fall 2021 and is using a variety of field and laboratory methods to better understand the nature of alternative reproductive tactics in salamanders.

Leah Rittenburg

Leah joined as an MSIB student in Fall 2021 and is conducting comprehensive field surveys to study how urbanization influences salamander life history traits and community composition.

undergraduate students

Lexi Bailey

Lexi joined the lab in Fall 2021 and has conducted laboratory behavioral trials to better understand how two-lined salamanders locate and choose mates. In Summer 2022, Lexi conducted salamander field research as part of KSU's Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

Zaynab Massenburg

Zaynab joined the lab in Fall 2021 and has conducted laboratory behavioral trials to better understand how two-lined salamanders locate and choose mates.

Frankie McGowan

Frankie joined the lab in Fall 2021 and is studying how color and pattern vary between sexes and reproductive tactics in two-lined salamanders.

Allison Vessell

Allison joined the lab in Fall 2022 and is evaluating methods for determining salamander body condition and health.

lab alumni

Devan H. Faddis

From Fall 2021 – Fall 2022, Devan contributed to many lab efforts. Most notably, she conducted courtship trials to better understand sexual isolation between different species of two-lined salamanders and designed an experiment to understand how urbanization influences stream chemistry and salamander growth.

Jasmine Brown

In Fall 2022, Jasmine contributed to a variety of projects—including efforts to explore the genetic correlates of alternative reproductive tactics and our lab's first forays into Nanopore sequencing.

Emma Downing

From Fall 2021 – Fall 2022, Emma worked on a wide variety of projects in the lab. She designed and conducted field research to understand nest-site selection in urban salamanders and worked with museum specimens to evaluate how salamanders respond to land-use change. In Summer 2022, Emma led our lab's efforts to survey for the patch-nosed salamander using environmental DNA.

Ken Wang

In 2022, Ken was a high school researcher in the lab. He collected data from museum specimens and used geometric morphometric methods to study secondary sexual characters in salamanders. Ken is also a host of the herpetology podcast CheloniaCast.

Karam Ittayem

In 2021 and 2022, Karam used environmental DNA (eDNA) methods to survey for chytrid fungi in urban streams.

Kelly-Ann McDonald

In Spring and Summer 2021, Kelly-Ann collected data from museum specimens and used geometric morphometric methods to study secondary sexual characters in salamanders.

Tyshiona Brandon

In Spring and Summer 2021, Tye collected data from museum specimens and used geometric morphometric methods to study secondary sexual characters in salamanders.

Jadin Cross

In Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, Jadin assembled and analyzed genome-wide SNP data to better understand the phylogeography of slimy salamanders in northern Georgia.

Jasmyne Blake-Sinclair

In Fall 2020, Jasmyne curated and analyzed observations from the citizen science databases, field notes, and scientific literature to better understand the phenology of nesting in two-lined salamanders. In Spring and Summer 2021, Jasmyne extracted and amplified DNA to identify a mysterious predator of an Appalachian salamander.

Tyler Schwartz

In Fall 2020, Tyler used his GIS skills to build maps and analyze data to understand how Eurycea are distributed among river drainages.

Todd W. Pierson assistant professor

graduate students

undergraduate students

lab alumni

Todd W. Pierson
assistant professor