Todd W. Pierson
assistant professor
email: tpierso3@kennesaw.edu
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.
Click on the links below to expand each section and learn about members of the lab—past and present.
graduate students
Yatin Kalki
MSIB student
Leah Rittenburg
MSIB student
Yatin joined as an MSIB student in Fall 2021 is using variety of field and laboratory methods to better understand the nature of alternative reproductive tactics in Eurycea.
Leah joined as an MSIB student in Fall 2021 and is studying how urbanization influences salamander life history traits and community composition.
undergraduate students
Lexi Bailey
biology major
Lexi joined the lab in Fall 2021 and has conducted laboratory behavioral trials to better understand how two-lined salamanders locate and choose mates.
Emma Downing
environ. science major
Emma joined the lab in Fall 2021 and has 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.
Devan H. Faddis
biology major
Zaynab Massenburg
biology major
Devan joined the lab in Fall 2021 and has conducted courtship trials to better understand sexual isolation between different species of two-lined salamanders.
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
biology major
Karam Ittayem
biology major
Frankie joined the lab in Fall 2021 and is studying how color and pattern vary between sexes and reproductive tactics in two-lined salamanders.
Karam joined the lab in Summer 2021 and is using environmental DNA (eDNA) methods to survey for chytrid fungi in urban streams.
lab alumni
Tyshiona Brandon
biology major
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Kelly-Ann McDonald
biology major
In Spring and Summer 2021, Kelly-Ann collected data from museum specimens and used geometric morphometric methods to study secondary sexual characters in salamanders.
In Spring and Summer 2021, Tye collected data from museum specimens and used geometric morphometric methods to study secondary sexual characters in salamanders.
Jasmyne Blake-Sinclair
biology major
Jadin Cross
modern language & culture (Spanish) major
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.
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
environ. science major
In Fall 2020, Tyler used his GIS skills to build maps and analyze data to understand how Eurycea are distributed among river drainages.