People

Although most of the work in our lab has involved exercise physiology and locomotor behavior, graduate students have worked on a diversity of other projects, including:

Current Graduate Students

Juliana Base (EEOB M.S.) - started fall 2023 - effects of odors on behavior

Haley Cabrera (EEOB) - started fall 2021 - exercise physiology and early-life effects

Chenkun Jiang (EEOB M.S.) - started fall 2023 - effects of sleep deprivation on voluntary wheel-running behavior

William Lampman (EEOB) - started Fall 2022 - webpage - behavior and personality in the High Runner mice

Lucas Piniero (GGB) - started fall 2021 - genetics and development of the might mini-muscle phenotype

Natalie Whitehead (EEOB) - started fall 2020 - webpage - behavior, lifespan, and life history trade-offs in the High Runner mice 


Some Former Graduate Students

Wendy Acosta (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. fall 2015 - voluntary activity, diet choice, obesity, exercise. Currently teaching at local community colleges.

Ralph Albuquerque (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. summer 2019 and then returned to Brazil where he is a postdoc. Google Scholar  

Mohammed Al-Kahtani - Finished Ph.D. July 2003 and then returned to a position at King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia.  Currently Head of the Department of Biology at King Khalid University.

Kevin E. Bonine - home page - Finished Ph.D. Dec. 2001 and is presently Director, Education and Outreach, Biosphere 2 and Faculty at the University of Arizona, teaching emphasis.

Marcell D. Cadney (EEOB) - Finished fall 2021 - webpage - early-life effects on the adult phenotype.  Currently postdoc at UCSB with Soojin Yi.  Google Scholar

Alberto A. Castro (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. fall 2021 - skeletal evolution and muscle physiology.  Subsequently postdoc with Natalie Holt at UCR.  Currently a Geneticist at PreZero working on selection experiments with black soldier flies.

Gerald C. Claghorn (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. Dec. 2016 - old webpage - vertebrate exercise physiology and neurobiology.  Became a statistical analyst in the health insurance industry; currently Director of Product Management, AI and ML at Clearcover.

Ramon Diaz-Uriarte - home page - Finished his Master's in Biometry at Wisconsin in 1992 and is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM).  Google Scholar

Gabriel E. A. Gartner (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. 2011 - old UCR home page - vertebrate functional morphology and performance; herpetology.  After a postdoc at Harvard with Jonathon Losos, Gabe obtained a faculty position at Santa Monica City College and later moved to Cabrillo College.  Google Scholar

Robert M. Hannon - old UCR home page - Finished in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics graduate program Dec. 2010.  Subsequently faculty at Northern Virginia Community College.  R.I.P.

Sean Harrington (joint doctoral program in Evolutionary Biology with SDSU) - was here at UCR for 2013-2014 academic year - clade diversification, focusing on pit vipers - coadvised by Tim Higham and Tod Reeder

David Hillis (GGB) - Finished in Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics graduate program Fall 2022 - genetic analyses of the High Runner lines of mice.  Currently postdoc at UCSB with Soojin Yi. 

Layla Hiramatsu (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. fall 2017 - webpage  Subsequently postdoc with Frank Chan in Germany.

Jarren C. Kay (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. fall 2017 - muscle physiology.  Subsequently postdoc with Stephen Secor at the University of Alabama.  After that, he worked as a laboratory technician for the frozen embryo and sperm archive (FESA) at the Mary Lyon Centre at the Medical Research Council Harwell Campus in the U.K.  Currently, he is a Features and Reviews Editor at the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Brooke K. Keeney (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. 2011   old UCR home page - neurobiology, endocrinology, and behavior in our selected lines of mice.  Brooke Keeney joins LFHCfS

Scott A. Kelly (Biology) - Finished Ph.D. summer 2008.  old UCR home page  Here at UCR, Scott worked on phenotypic plasticity.  After a postdoc with our collaborator Daniel Pomp at the University of North Carolina, Scott became an Assistant Professor and was tenured at Ohio Wesleyan University.  Subsequently, he was a lecturer at UCR and a Research Assistant Professor at UNC.  Now, he is a Project Scientist with Shouri Lahiri at Cedars-Sinai.  Google Scholar

Rahim Khan (EEOB M.S.) - Finished June 2023. Phenotypic characteristics of the High Runner mice as they reached selection limits.  "Correlated responses to selection for voluntary wheel-running behavior in house mice: do they match the standard models of hierarchical evolution?"  Currently in medical school.

Richard S. King and his study organism, the massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus).

Erik M. Kolb (Biology) - Finished Ph.D. Sept. 2010.  Mammalian physiology and neurobiology.  Became a Lecturer in Kinesiology at USC, and is now on the faculty at Chaffee College.

Guo Li finished his M.S. in August 2002, enrolled in a statistics program at the Univ. of Michigan, and is now a statistician at the University of Washington.  Google Scholar

Jessica Malisch (formerly Bunkers) (Biology) old UCR home page - behavioral endocrinology of mice and lizards.  After a postdoc with another of our collaborators, Creagh Breuner at the University of Montana, Jessica was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Joint Science Department at Claremont McKenna College/Pitzer College/Scripps College.  Subsequently, she became an Assistant Professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland.  Currently, she is the Associate Director of the UC Merced Natural Reserves System.  Google Scholar

Monica P. McNamara (EEOB) - Twitter - Finished Ph.D. June 2022 - microbiome of the High Runner mice.  Currently Assistant Professor at Whittier College.  Google Scholar

Thomas H. Meek (Biology) - evolutionary and exercise physiology.  Tom was a postdoc at the University of Washington and is now Director of Technology and Genomics at Novo Nordisk, Oxford, England.  Google Scholar

Christopher E. Oufiero (Biology)  old UCR home page  home page - ecological and evolutionary physiology, sexual selection and locomotor performance in swordtail fishes.  Chris was a postdoc with Peter C. Wainwright at U.C. Davis and is now Associate Professor at Towson University.  Google Scholar

Enrico L. Rezende (Biology) - webpage - old UCR home page - [Enrico left for a postdoc in Spain in Sept. 2005, but I maintained a home page here for a while] activity physiology of selected lines of house mice, mammalian ecophysiology.  He was later on the faculty at the Universidad Andres Bello (UNAB), Departamento de Ecologi­a, Santiago, Chile, and is now at Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.  Google Scholar

Justin S. Rhodes finished his Ph.D. in Dec. 2002, was then a postdoc with John C. Crabbe at Oregon Health & Science University, and is now on the faculty at the University of Illinois.  Google Scholar

Margaret P. Schmill (Neuroscience) - Finished Ph.D. fall 2021 - behavior and neurobiology of the High Runner mice.  Currently Clinical Research Associate at Medpace.

Nicole E. Schwartz (EEOB) - Finished September 2023. - early-life effects and meta-analysis of the High Runner mice.  "Effects of genetic background and early-life exercise on adult traits related to exercise behavior, morphology, and physiology."  Currently postdoc at Chapman University with Patricia C. Lopes.  Google Scholar

Jennifer M. Singleton (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. Dec. 2018 - webpage - behavioral ecology and physiology of desert iguanas.  Currently working in the animal health division of Texas A&M University.

Ronald W. Sutherland - home page - continued his M.S. in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development with Tim Moermond at U.W. Madison.

Zoe Thompson (Neuroscience) - Finished Ph.D. summer 2017 - neurobiology of exercise.  Currently NIH postdoc at the University of Michigan.  Started faculty position at Utah Valley University in fall 2021.  Google Scholar

Brandon Tan - (Biomedical Sciences M.S.) - Finished June 2023.  "Effects of long-term voluntary wheel running and selective breeding for wheel running on femoral nutrient canals."

Jessica L. Tingle (EEOB) - Finished Ph.D. summer 2021 - webpage - locomotion, morphology, and biomechanics of snakes.  Subsequently postdoc with Henry Astley at the University of Akron.  Google Scholar


Former Postdocs

Jack P. Hayes - 1988-1990 - home page - Currently Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.  Google Scholar

Aurora Martinez de Castilla Munoz - 1990, 1993 - Among various positions, she was employed at the Qatar Foundation. Ted assisted with a biodiversity survey there in October 2012.  Google Scholar

Patrick A. Carter - 1993-1996 - Currently Professor at Washington State University.  Google Scholar

Anne M. Bronikowski - home page - 1999-2002 - Subsequantly Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University.  Currently at Michigan State University.  Google Scholar

Isabelle Girard - 1999-2002 - Subsequently faculty at UW-Stevens Point, then employed in the Research Animal Resources Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Currently Interim Director at the UC Davis Research Core Facilities Program.

Gad Perry - 1999-2002 - home page - Currently Professor at Texas Tech University

Simone P. Blomberg - 2001-2002 - home page - other web page - Currently Senior Lecturer and Consultant Statistician in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland.  Google Scholar

Wendy L. Hodges - 2002-2004 - old C.V.   X-ray CT scans of Phrynosoma cornutum

Fernando Gomes - 2003-2005 - old C.V.  Exercise physiology of the High Runner lines of mice, amphibian ecophysiology

Kevin M. Middleton - 2005-2007 - home page - vertebrate locomotion and bone biology (NIH NRSA postdoc with Sharon M. Swartz at Brown University, cosponsored by TG.  Currently Associate Professor at the University of Missouri.  Google Scholar

Heidi Schutz - 2008-2010 -  home page - the interplay between form, function, selection and evolutionary history. Currently Associate Professor at Pacific Lutheran University

Vincent Careau - 2011-2012 - home page - currently Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa.  Google Scholar


Ted Garland, Wendy Acosta, Jennifer Singleton, Jarren Kay, Gerald Claghorn, Zoe Thompson, Layla Hiramatsu, June 2013

Life during the COVID-19 pandemic (Lab Meeting 5 March 2021). 
  Top Row: Alberto Castro, Ted Garland, Jessica Tingle.
  Middle Row: Brandon Tan, Rahim Khan, Margaret Schmill.
  Bottom Row: David Hillis, Natalie Whitehead.