Evolutionary and Ecological Genomics -People-
 
 
CURRENT MEMBERS: THE LAB: Summer 2011 (L to R) Back: Suegene, Alison, Becky, Kendra, Lindsey Front: Chris, Paul, Ted Principal Investigator Ted Morgan Ted received his BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from The University of Arizona in 1997. He completed his Ph.D. in 2002 in the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University. For his dissertation, Ted worked on a classical quantitative genetics project in house mice. Specifically, this work utilized statistical and mathematical quantitative genetic approaches to determine the effects of early-age selection on molecular and quantitative genetic variation in house mice. He then moved to North Carolina State University as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow where he developed a molecular quantitative genetic research program focusing on the genetic control and evolution of stress-response phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster. The Morgan Lab was founded at KSU in August 2006, Ted is now an associate professor in the Division of Biology. Are you interested in joining the lab? See the openings page or e-mail me. Postdoctoral Fellows Suegene Noh Suegene received her BS in biological Sciences from Seoul National Universityin 2003. She completed her Ph.D. in 2010 at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. more soon... YOU? - Want to join the lab as a postdoc? Graduate Students Paul Crawford Paul received his B.S. in Biology from Penn State University Erie, the Behrend College in May of 2010. While at PSU Erie Paul worked on the role of urban development on the spatial migration patterns of the spotted salamander. Paul joined the Morgan Lab in the Fall of 2010 as a Ph.D. student, with broad interests in the evolutionary genetics of complex adaptive traits in animals. Since his arrival Paul has taken on two interesting projects. The first which will be completed soon is an investigation of the population genetic structure of functional cold tolerance polymorphisms across populations sampled across latitudes. The second project which will be the focus of his dissertation, is an ambitious project that seeks to identify thermal plasticity genes that contribute to adaptive plasticity among populations in nature (Fallis et al. in prep.) . To do this Paul will combine QTLs and artificial selection to identify variable genomic regions that contribute to this fascinating variation in Genotype-by-Environment interactions in nature. Paul is currently supported by supported by The KSU EIDRoP GK-12 fellowship supported by NSF. Alison Egge Alison received her B.S. in Psychology and M.S in Biology from University of South Dakota where she worked in the laboratory of John Swallow. While at USD Alison worked on the behavioral evolution of aggressive phenotypes is stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni). Specifically, for her Master’s thesis she characterized the sequence of aggressive behaviors and winner and loser experience effects on male-male competitive interactions. In August 2010 Alison joined the Morgan Lab as a Ph.D. student supported by an Ecology, Evolution and Genomics GAANN graduate fellowship. Since her arrival in Alison has been working on a set of lines that were artificially selected for increased and decreased chill-coma recovery time. She has been doing two related projects on these lines with the goal of determining the genetic and and physiological mechanisms that underlie variation in cold sensitivity in nature. Specifically, she has been characterizing the transcriptional response to selection at physiologically informed time points and identifying the suites of thermal characters that exhibit correlated responses to selection. Through the combination of phenotypic and gene expression analyses she will develop an integrated picture of how thermal phenotypes evolve. Elizabeth Everman - coming Fall 2012 Elizabeth will be joining the Morgan Lab as a PhD Student in the Fall of 2012. Join the lab as a graduate student YOU? - Want to join the lab as a graduate student? Undergraduate Students Chris Berger: REU Site Summer Students Chris is a junior in Biology, who started working in the lab in the Summer of 2011 on a project investigating the effects of thermal selection on absolute fitness across multiple thermal environments. In addition to counting eggs until he is cross-eyed, Chris is also the fly food chef in the lab. Olivia Eller: McNair & NSF URM Research Scholar Olivia will be joining the Morgan Lab in the Summer of 2012. YOU?- Want to join the lab as an undergraduate? MORGAN LAB ALUMNI: Lindsey Fallis: 2007 - 2012 Lindsey received her B.S. and M.S. in Biology from Texas Christian University where she worked on the developmental reproductive biology of the highly invasive zebra mussel. While at TCU she developed an interest in evolutionary genetics, so in 2007 she joined the Morgan Lab supported by an Ecological Genomics Graduate Fellowship. Lindsey is broadly interested in the evolutionary processes that drive phenotypic adaptation within and among natural populations of Drosophila. During her time Lindsey has conducted a number of interesting studies that have: Characterized patterns of phenotypic variation in environmental stress response phenotypes along latitudinal clines. Documented adaptive variation in thermal plasticity among populations along altitudinal transects. Dissected the genetic basis of putatively pleiotropic heat and cold stress QTL. She recently defended her dissertation (April 2012), graduated in May of 2012 and is now a postdoctoral fellow in Todd Schlenke’s Lab at Emory University. Kendra Schuler (NSF URM Student): 2010 - 2012 Kendra is a senior in Biology, who started working in the Morgan Lab in the Spring of 2010. During her time in the lab she has worked on a number of projects these include: Large experiments on heat, starvation, and desiccation; The fine-mapping and genetic characterization of thermal QTL (with Lindsey), and the analysis and editing of sequencing data from many thermal candidate genes. Kendra was also the master fly food chef in the Morgan Lab until the Summer 2011. She is currently supported by a year long NSF URM Scholarship for undergraduates working in ecological genomics research. Kendra graduated from K-State in the Spring of 2012 and will begin her Masters of Genetic Counseling at IUPUI Medical School in Indianapolis, IN in the Fall of 2012. Rebecca Sullivan: Summer 2012 - REU Site Summer Student Becky is a senior in Biology from the University of Dallas. Who was working in the Morgan lab in the Summer of 2011. She was supported by the NSF site based REU at KSU and she, Chris, and Alison collected a ton of data investigating the effects of artificial thermal selection on demographic thermal performance curves in Drosophila. She graduated from University of Dallas in the Spring of 2012 and will return to K-State as the first Ph.D. student in the Olson lab in the Division of Biology. Jesus Garcia: 2009 - 2011 Jesus was a undergraduate research assistant in the Morgan Lab working. He was supported for multiple summers by the McNair Research Scholars Program at KSU. Jesus worked to quantify the functional genetic variation at Smp-30 (Dca) among populations sampled from North and South America. He graduated in the Spring of 2011 and is now in a postbac/Masters program in biomedical sciences at The University of St. Louis. Susan Hettenbach: 2009 - 2010 Susan was in the Morgan Lab as a tech from August 2009 to August 2010. She was responsible for keeping the place running and keeping all of us in line. She is a native Kansasan and was previously the technician in both the Thorpe and Herman Labs in the Division of Biology at KSU. She recently moved on to a tech position in vet med at KSU. Stephanie Major: 2009 - 2010 Stephanie was in the lab for a year and worked on quantifying the patterns of variation in pigmentation among south american populations of fruit flies. She was interested in testing the relationship between pigmentation and thermal stress tolerance across populations. Stephanie is currently a biology education senior at KSU, working as a part paraeducator at Manhattan High School. Katie Clowers: 2007 - 2009 Katie was a temporary tech/long-term undergraduate research assistant in the Morgan Lab. She graduated with a BS in biology from KSU in the Fall of 2008. Katie left the Morgan Lab in the Summer of 2009 to start graduate school in The Laboratory of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin. Katie worked in the Morgan lab from the Summer of 2007. Katie was supported by the McNair Scholars Program and worked on a project that focuses on linking molecular variation in cold tolerance candidate loci with standing phenotypic variation in nature via candidate gene association mapping (Clowers et al 2010). She has previously conducted ecological genomics research on the genomic response of prairie grasses to climate change variables, this previous work was conducted in the Johnson Lab at KSU. Katie is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Laboratory of Genetics at The University of Wisconsin, Madison, working with Audrey Gasch. Matt Neilsen: Summer 2009 - REU Site Summer Student Matt was a summer REU student in 2009. He came to the Morgan Lab from Grinnell College in Grinell, Iowa. While he was in the Morgan Lab he worked on a project investigating the evolution of cold tolerance phenotypes among Drosophila species using a combination of phenotypic and molecular evolution approaches. Although Matt claims he likes working outside this is where he could be found most of the summer. Matt is a PhD student and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship winner in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Jennifer Arnold: 2009 Jennifer was a junior majoring in Biochemistry who worked on phenotypic analyses for the better part of 2009. Lindsay Creviston: 2009 Lindsay was a senior in majoring in Nutrition Science who also worked on phenotypic analyses for the better part of 2009. Mike Westphal: 2007 - 2008 - Ecological Genomics Postdoc Mike received his BA in Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2007 he completed his Ph.D. in Zoology at Oregon State University. For his dissertation research Mike worked with Steve Arnold on a project investigating the adaptive evolution of morphological traits in garter snakes (genus Thamnophis). Specifically, he investigated the role of selection in promoting among-population divergence in color patterns. His dissertation research combined intensive field studies, molecular genetic analysis, and captive husbandry and provided him with a broad training in ecological and evolutionary quantitative genetics. Mike is supported by an Ecological Genomics postdoctoral fellowship and is coadvised by Ted Morgan and Sam Wisely. Mike's current research at KSU integrates his previous research on the quantitative genetics of color pattern variation with the molecular genetic dissection of the genetic basis of color polymorphism (Westphal and Morgan 2010), as well as the ecological variables that may act as agents of selection on snake coloration in nature. Mike is currently an ecologist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Hollister, California. Jennifer Stegman: 2006 - 2008 Jennifer is a senior in biology at KSU and has broad interests in biology and biochemistry. She joined the Morgan Lab in 2006 supported by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate research scholar award. She worked on a project developing a set of molecular markers based on single feature polymorphism (SFP) data in our artificial selection lines. Jennifer left the Morgan lab in 2008 for a postbac program in Nursing at The KU Medical School. Jo(anna) Bronkema: Summer 2008 - REU Site Summer Student Jo was an REU summer student in 2008 from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. She worked with Mike (black shirt) on the evolutionary genetics of snake coloration across the midwest during the summer of 2008. Here they are somewhere is South Dakota processing a huge pile of snakes Jo found in a den. Jo is currently in Gahna Volunteer for United Nations Population Fund in Ghana working as a volunteer for United Nations Population Fund, before she returns to the states to work as a technician in San Diego, CA before she starts graduate school in 2011. Jo is currently a Ph.D. student in biological anthropology at UCSD. Sailesh Menon: 2006 - 2007 Sailesh was the founding technician for the Morgan Lab. Sailesh received his B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Oklahoma State University in 2002. After the completion of his B.S. he joined the Greenwood Genetics Center in Greenwood, SC. While he was in the Morgan lab he participated in various molecular projects, as well as overseeing and completing the hundreds of DNA extractions that need to be completed in the lab. Additionally, during his time in the Morgan lab he became quite the master of home brews. Sailesh departed in January 2008 to take a new microbiologist position in College of Veterinary Medicine at KSU. Sailesh is currently working on an M.S. in Veterinary Biomedical Science at KSU. Abi Jones: 2007 Abi was a senior biology major at KSU. She joined the Morgan Lab in the Spring of 2007 and worked for the spring and summer with Sailesh, genotyping and sequencing flies in an association mapping study. mailto:tjmorgan@ksu.edu?subject=http://www.k-state.edu/morganlab/Morganlab/openings.htmlmailto:tjmorgan@ksu.eduhttp://www.k-state.edu/morganlab/Morganlab/openings.htmlhttp://www.k-state.edu/morganlab/Morganlab/openings.htmlhttp://www.k-state.edu/morganlab/Morganlab/openings.htmlhttp://www.biology.emory.edu/research/schlenke/http://www.biology.emory.edu/research/schlenke/http://www.k-state.edu/mcnair/http://www.k-state.edu/johnsonlab/mailto:westphal@ksu.edu?subject=http://www.k-state.edu/ecogen/http://www.k-state.edu/wiselylab/http://www.k-state.edu/hhmi/http://www.k-state.edu/hhmi/http://www.k-state.edu/bsanderc/reu/http://www.earlham.edu/http://www.earlham.edu/mailto:tjmorgan@ksu.edu?subject=shapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17
People:

Home




Research




People

       



Publications





Openings





Ecological Genomics


                           

   

EEB at K-State

           


   

Fun outside the Lab

        


   

Life in Manhattan

   




Morgan Lab


Mailing address:

Division of Biology

116 Ackert Hall

Manhattan, KS 66506


Phone Numbers:

Ted’s office: 785-532-6126

Molecular lab: 785-532-6074

Fly lab: 785-532-6416

Fax: 785-532-6653

email: tjmorgan@ksu.edu

Ted’s skype: morganlab.ksu


Physical Location:

Fly Lab: Chalmers 257

Molecular Lab: Chalmers 261

Incubator Lab: Chalmers 263

Ted’s Office: Chalmers 239D


This is where you can find us on the campus map.