Daemin Kim joined the lab as a postdoc in Fall 2024. He is interested in speciation in freshwater fishes, specifically darters. During his PhD at Yale University, he studied evolutionary history and species delimitation in North American freshwater fishes, focusing on their systematics and biogeography, and underlying mechanisms in the origin of the North American global hotspot of temperate freshwater biodiversity

Adheeta (Adi) Dongre (they/them) is our Lab Manager. They graduated from TAMU with a Biomedical Science degree before going on to complete a Master of Biological Science at SHSU. Adi has a background in animal behavior and genetics, and a passion for working in academia! When they’re not in the lab, they can be found playing DnD, crafting, and being active in the community. 

Brynn Johnson is a TAMU Biology Master’s student who joined the lab in Fall 2023. She graduated from Texas A&M University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, during which she worked on a Great Plains cyprinid detection study, as well as methods of quantifying an invasive population of Suckermouth Armored Catfish in the San Marcos River. After graduating, she worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, where she spent the field season sampling Colorado River Cutthroat Trout. She is interested in fish behavior, evolution, and learning, and when not in the lab can usually be found fly fishing, hiking, or riding a horse. 

Wynne Radcliffe is a PhD student in Ecology & Evolution at the University of Chicago. She graduated with a BS with Honors from the University of Kentucky where she studied speciation and life history trade-offs in pine sawflies. Wynne’s dissertation work focuses on sex chromosome evolution and speciation in darters. She has studied abroad in Belize, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands and will never stop talking about the time she got to draw blood from a Darwin’s finch!

Mysia Dye was a postdoc in the lab from 2023 – 2024. She is now faculty at Whitman College, but we are excited to continue collaborating! During her time in the lab, Mysia used population genomic approaches to identify the sex determining regions in orangethroat and rainbow darters and to investigate the genetic basis of reproductive isolation in this system.

Peter Dang, undergraduate researcher, worked in the lab 2024 -2025 assisting with fish husbandry and molecular work. He is currently in pharmacy school.

Maya Jones, visiting undergraduate researcher, Summer 2024. Maya is completing her BS at Prairie View A&M University and conducted research in the lab through the PVAMU-TAMU GREAT Genomics UG Research Experience Project (funded by an NIH R25 award). Her future goals are to obtain a PhD in Genetics and pursue research in academia and industry.  

Halle Hagdorn, undergraduate researcher, 2023 – 2024. Halle received her BS in Genetics at Texas A&M and is pursuing a career in genetic counseling.