Research Mentors

My research interests center on describing and understanding plant diversity through systematics and evolutionary studies, with a particular focus on the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae), a group largely restricted to the American tropics. I use DNA analyses to explore species relationships and study morphological traits to uncover patterns of adaptive evolution. Additionally, I am dedicated to creating tools for species identification, including field guides and innovative identification methods, to make plant knowledge more accessible. My work also involves floristic projects in underexplored regions of Latin America, combining field expeditions and herbarium research to document and expand our understanding of their plant diversity.

The Behavior Lab at the Saint Louis Zoo studies animal behavior in a variety of species and contexts. Eli Baskir focuses on social and reproductive behaviors, as well as animal interactions with enrichment, exhibit use, and activity level, to answer both research and management questions. The Behavior Lab works closely with the Zoo’s Endocrine Lab to correlate live or video-recorded observations with hormone measures.

We study the evolutionary, genetic, molecular, cellular, and behavioral mechanisms underlying the interaction of animals with their physical and social environments. We use the powerful genetic model, Drosophila melanogaster, the European honey bee Apis mellifera, and mammalian models to ask where, when, and how the function of specific genes, cell types, and neuronal circuits affect behavioral plasticity and the behavioral response to specific environmental and social stimuli.

Our lab studies microbial metabolisms and their influence on biogeochemical cycling using an interdisciplinary approach. We apply the knowledge we gain to generate new ways of addressing issues such as the energy crisis, pollution, biofouling and sustainability.

We use an integrative approach to study animal communication and the evolution of sensory processing, using weakly electric fishes as a model system. Our work is unique in its application of detailed neurophysiology within a comparative behavioral framework, and it has implications for our understanding of neural mechanisms for behavior as well as the evolution of behavioral diversity.

My research interests involve the systematics, floristics and ecology of the family Araceae (philodendron family). Despite the great horticultural interest in the philodendron family and its importance as a major component of many tropical forests, the taxonomy of Araceae is extremely poorly known and the family still contains a high proportion of undescribed species. Thus, work at this stage consists primarily of recognizing and describing new species, writing descriptions and identification keys for tropical floras, and intensively studying certain groups.

The Dantas Lab works at the interface of microbial genomics, ecology, synthetic biology, and systems biology, to understand, harness, and engineer the biochemical processing potential of microbial communities. We take a quantitative ecological perspective in our study of diverse microbial communities, with a focus on human associated microbiota and interconnected environmental habitats. Accordingly, one of our major goals is to understand and quantitatively predict the effects of anthropogenic interventions (e.g. antibiotics) on microbial community composition and function.

Sharon has conducted conservation and research projects in 30 countries around the world. A few of her research projects include a health-monitoring program for gorillas in central Africa, health assessments of sea turtles in Africa and the Americas, avian and tortoise studies in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, and studying box turtle health and ecology in Saint Louis. Her interests in wildlife veterinary medicine focus on the spread of disease between domestic animals and wildlife and the health impact of environmental changes and human contact on wild species.

As the Zoo’s Animal Welfare Scientist, Dr. Edes primarily uses behavior and endocrinology to better understand factors that impact animal wellbeing. While Dr. Edes specialized in primatology previously, her role at the Zoo gives her the opportunity to work with a wide variety of other taxonomic groups. Some of the topics studied at the Zoo related to animal wellbeing include understanding how guests, construction projects, or changes in husbandry impact animals, exploring various physiological indicators of welfare, and investigating how experiences throughout life contribute to health in later life. The Animal Welfare Lab works closely with the Zoo’s Behavior and Endocrine labs for a more holistic perspective of animal welfare.

I am a zoo Herpetologist and conservation Biologist interested in husbandry and captive reproduction of rare and endangered species. My field conservation and research interests include Eurasian mountain vipers, venomous snakes and Amphibians of the Neo-tropics, Caribbean herpetofauna, cave ecosystems, and Radioecology.

I work with archaeobotanical remains to answer questions about how people interacted with plants so that they could eat and drink well, manage their landscapes, restore and maintain health, perform rituals, negotiate trade relationships, and enhance many other economic and social activities.  Much of my research focuses on processes of plant domestication and sequences leading to the development of agricultural systems worldwide, especially in North America and Mexico.  General concerns and approaches involve cultural, ecological, and biological aspects of subsistence change and continuity. Recently I’ve become interested in food-ways resulting from interaction between Native Americans and European colonizers.

I am interested in understanding plant evolution on a broad scale, why some species and genera are so successful (sometimes even invasive) and why other closely related taxa are rare or threatened. The plant family Onagraceae is my model system of choice—thanks to the efforts of my mentor Peter Raven and collaborators, we know a great deal about the taxonomy, morphology, anatomy, cytology, embryology, pollination biology, biogeography, molecular systematics, and other aspects of this family. We now are able to ask sophisticated questions about the evolution of the group.

The Multimodal Vision Research Laboratory develops new algorithms for image understanding. The lab uses techniques such as computer vision, remote sensing, machine learning, and reinforcement learning to develop tools for species recognition, biodiversity mapping, and wide-area movement modeling. The research often involves working with diverse data sources including consumer photographs, satellite/aerial/camera-trap imagery, GIS, and GPS trajectories.

We are fascinated by the elegant and diverse forms that plants can take, and we explore the biological basis of this diversity. For some of us, the exploration leads us to look below the surface at the machinery that controls plant shape and structure; this work has been variously described as evolutionary developmental genetics, or evo-devo. For others in the lab, the exploration leads us to investigate the variations on a single morphological theme by studying closely related plants in a single genus; these studies fall into the discipline of systematics.

I have two main research interests: First, what causes people to arrange themselves through time into increasingly complex forms of social organization? Second, how do climate and environment shape human societies through time? Related to this, I am especially interested in the Anthropocene concept, which argues that humans have come to rival nature as a force shaping the earth. My work therefore explores how, when, and to what extent humans have changed climates and especially their environments.

As the Zoo’s Endocrinologist, Dr. Kozlowski’s work focuses on the reproductive status and health of endangered species, both in zoos and in the wild. This is accomplished primarily through measures of gonadal and adrenal hormones in non-invasively collected samples. Corinne has validated hormone assays for more than 70 species and manages one of only three Endocrinology service labs in the country. Her research is driven by an interest in comparative aspects of physiology and behavior, with the goal of assisting in species conservation.

Our lab is involved in a range of research focused on early food-webs. We favor multidisciplinary research, and here in the lab isotope scientists, archaegologists and archaeobotanists work closely to address questions about diet and nutrition, palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment. Our recent projects have included: Eurasian crop plant movement, African terrestrial climate variability, consumption and domestication of small grained grass, environmental context of the food quest in Tibet.

The primary focus of the Losos Lab is on the behavioral and evolutionary ecology of lizards. Major questions concern how lizards interact with their environment and how lizard clades have diversified evolutionarily. Addressing such questions requires integration of behavioral, ecological, functional morphological, and phylogenetic studies. A major focus has been the evolutionary radiation of Caribbean Anolis lizards, but other lizard radiations are also being studied. A newly-developing line of research concerns whether and how species are adapting to urban environments.

My research focuses on animal domestication and the beginnings of food production in Africa. I am currently conducting research on two unlikely domesticates, donkeys and cats. I am currently conducting interdisciplinary research on the domestication of the donkey with archaeological, morphometric, genetic, behavioral and ethnoarchaeological components.  My research and that of my graduate students contributes to understanding human-animal relations, complex interactions among ancient agricultural, pastoral and hunter-gatherer societies in Africa, the history and resilience of livestock and herding ways of life, and the sustainability of use of African grasslands.

We currently have several ongoing endocrine and/or data-driven multi-institutional research projects related to contraception efficacy, reproductive suppression, and/or reproductive health. While, we may not always be in a stage of a project to incorporate an intern, it is worthwhile for interested students to email the RMC to inquire. One project we are hoping to get off the ground (in which we may be able to use some intern help) is investigating the relationship between contraception and diabetes in a few primate species. Another is looking at reproductive suppression in non-contracepted subordinate female callitrichids, when housed with contracepted dominant females.

Dr. Krista Milich is a primate behavioral ecologist and socioendocrinologist with a particular interest in reproductive physiology, sexual selection, zoonotic diseases, community-driven research, and biodiversity conservation. She uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines evolutionary theory and social science practices to address pressing questions in our world.

Our research focuses on patterns and causes of biodiversity at multiple scales, ranging from variation in the diversity of species’ traits to gradients in the assembly, diversity and dynamics of ecological communities across the planet. We explore theories to explain why changes in biodiversity through space and time emerge through the interplay of fundamental processes of community ecology (speciation, dispersal, ecological drift & niche selection). To untangle these processes, we combine field experiments, large-scale and long-term observational studies, ecological modeling, and synthesis of biodiversity data from a wide range of plant communities spanning temperate and tropical ecosystems.

My research focuses on the genetic basis of evolution in plants: how is the genetic variation that we find within a species shaped by natural selection, population history, and other evolutionary forces? One way that I look at this question is by using crop domestication as a model for rapid evolutionary change. The wealth of genetic and genomic information available for crops makes them useful for studying the molecular evolution of genes in response to selection and other forces. In my lab we also study the evolutionary genetics of wild plant species. Topics of interest include the genetic basis of adaptive variation, the forces affecting genome-wide patterns of linkage disequilibrium, and phylogeography.

Perhaps no community is more diverse than the soil microbiome with its predators, parasites, scavengers, cooperators, and symbionts, for ultimately all primary productivity ends up on the ground or in the water. We are interested in social evolution and mutualism. Our team uses a social amoeba as a window on this world. It has a solitary and a social stage, with cooperation, conflict, and cheating. It is also has symbiotic relationships with bacteria which influence its role in the community. It even has its own tiny microbiome. Because this system is microbial, it is amenable to field and laboratory experimentation, genomics, experimental evolution, and understanding at the level of the gene. We have a diverse and dynamic team of undergraduates who also are involved in scientific outreach. We also see to it that they get the big picture with a class dedicated to research methods.

The William L. Brown Center (WLBC) is dedicated to the study of useful plants, understanding the relationships between humans, plants, and their environment, the conservation of plant species, and the preservation of traditional knowledge for the benefit of future generations.

My research focuses on understanding the factors which have led to the emergence and promoted the maintenance of behavioral diversity in primates. I am particularly interested in the variation of social organization and material culture that has been documented among wild chimpanzee populations. This pursuit involves field studies and collaborative projects to examine instraspecific variation in the behavioral ecology of wild chimpanzees. These studies hold important insights for elucidating the role of ultimate and proximate forces in primate evolutionary history, which will aid in constructing valid models of human evolution from our closest living relatives.

I am a paleoanthropologist who studies the fossil record of human evolution. Humans diverged from non-human apes about seven million years ago in Africa, and my research is directed towards trying to understand several key aspects of our evolutionary history. First, I am interested in understanding how and why the various species of early humans (known as hominins) diversified.  Second, I am interested in the evolution of diet and feeding in fossil hominins. Third, I am interested in paleoanthropological fieldwork. In order to better understand human evolution, it is vital to discover new fossils in order to understand their variation, diversity, evolutionary relationships and ecological context.

Perhaps no community is more diverse than the soil microbiome with its predators, parasites, scavengers, cooperators, and symbionts, for ultimately all primary productivity ends up on the ground or in the water. We are interested in social evolution and mutualism. Our team uses a social amoeba as a window on this world. It has a solitary and a social stage, with cooperation, conflict, and cheating. It is also has symbiotic relationships with bacteria which influence its role in the community. It even has its own tiny microbiome. Because this system is microbial, it is amenable to field and laboratory experimentation, genomics, experimental evolution, and understanding at the level of the gene. We have a diverse and dynamic team of undergraduates who also are involved in scientific outreach. We also see to it that they get the big picture with a class dedicated to research methods.

The Topp Lab takes a phenomics approach to study crop root growth dynamics in response to environmental stress such as drought and rhizosphere competition, and as a consequence of artificial selection for agronomically important traits such as Nitrogen uptake. Studying roots requires the development of imaging technologies, computational infrastructure, and statistical methods that can capture and analyze morphologically complex networks over time and at high-throughput. Thus the lab combines expertise in imaging (optical, X-ray CT, PET, etc.), computational analysis, and quantitative genetics with molecular biology to understand root growth and physiology.

Research focus:: Phylogeny and systematics of selected groups of ferns and lycophytes