People

Principal Investigator

Karen Alofs

2025- Associate Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability and Program in the Environment, University of Michigan

2018-2025  Assistant Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability and Program in the Environment, University of Michigan

2016-2017- Research Associate, Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto 

2010-2016 Postdoctoral Research, Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto 

2010 PhD, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Texas at Austin 

2002 BA, Biology with Honors, specializing in Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago 

google scholar   research gate    linkedin    BlueSky: @kmalofs

Current Students and Lab Members

Peter Flood (Postdoctoral Researcher, NSF-EAGER Project then Coregonine Restoration Framework Modelling with Cory Brant), began Feb 2023

Peter's Bio: I am an aquatic population and community ecologist who primarily studies fishes. My research focuses on how fish populations and communities are responding to anthropogenic stressors (e.g., climate change, hydrologic alteration, and invasive species). During my PhD at Florida International University, I investigated drivers of trophic dynamics in space and time with an emphasis on effects of invasive species. My work in the Alofs lab will use museum specimens and a trait-based approach to disentangle the impacts of climate change from other environmental stressors on body-size across species in freshwater fish communities. 

Kelly Hoyer (Postdoctoral Researcher, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, co-mentored with Steve Pothoven), began Sept 2024

Kelly's Bio: I am an aquatic ecologist specializing in fish communities. My primary interests lie in how anthropogenic stressors (i.e. climate change, urbanization, facilitation of invasive species) affect changes in community dynamics and life history strategies of fishes. During my Ph.D. at Central Michigan University, I investigated how metabolism, growth, diet, and vulnerability to predation differed between Lake Whitefish and Cisco, two coregonine (family Salmonidae) species native to the Laurentian Great Lakes. My work in the Alofs lab through CIGLR will use historical museum specimens of larval and juvenile coregonines to determine how growth and diet of these age-0 fishes have changed due to dreissenid mussel invasions throughout the Great Lakes.  

Stephen Jane (Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Global Change Biology, co-mentored with Jake Allgeier), began June 2026.

Hannah Cohen (PhD candidate), began Fall 2024

Hannah's Bio: I am interested in how anthropogenic influences have shaped modern populations and communities of fish and the surrounding environment. Specifically, my interests lie in intraspecific variation over time and species interactions. In the beginning of my scientific journey I earned my B.S. in Biology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. From there, I continued my education to receive a Master's degree from Georgia Southern University. My thesis research focused on local adaptation of Trinidadian Guppies populations and their feeding kinematics. Before joining the Alofs Lab, I spent several years as a lab manager at Rutgers University, maintaining a zebrafish facility and molecular lab. 

Lian Anderson (PhD Student), began Fall 2025. 

Lian's Bio: I am interested in understanding how invasive species interact with native communities in the Great Lakes region and beyond. I combine fieldwork with museum specimens to examine competitive dynamics through fish morphology and diet using stable isotope analysis. Before joining the Alofs Lab as a master’s student, I earned a B.S. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the University of Michigan. My undergraduate research focused on the taxonomy and morphology of blastoids, an extinct group of echinoderms. For my master’s thesis, I investigated the upstream expansion of the invasive round goby in the Rouge River following a dam removal. 

Past Lab Members

Lab Managers/Staff

Andrew Runyon (Lab Manager), Jan 2023-May 2025

Kathleen Quebedeaux (Lab Manager), May 2021-Dec 2022

Postdocs

Katelyn King (Postdoctoral Researcher, CHANGES Project through April 2023 and now Coregonine Restoration Framework Modeling) April 2021-Oct 2024; now Fishery Research Biologist at Institute for Fisheries Research, Michigan DNR

Xiaofeng Liu (Postdoctoral Researcher, USDA-Forest Service McIntire-Stennis Project, Co-supervised with Runzi Wang), June 2023-May 2024.

Andrew Miller (Postdoctoral Researcher, NOAA-CIGLR, Co-supervised with Bradley Cardinale), Oct 2020 - Sept 2023

Viviana Astudillo-Clavijo (Postdoctoral Researcher, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Co-supervised with Hernán López-Fernández and Aline Cotel), 2021-2022

Kelsey Lucas (NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology), June 2019-Aug 2021; now Assistant Professor, University of Calgary

PhD Students

Scott Jackson (PhD Student), Fall 2019 - Fall 2024, PhD title:  Intraspecific Variation: Sources and Implications for Fishes in a Changing Environment; Michigan Sea Grant Graduate Student Research Fellow; now ORISE Fellow with National Climate Adaptation Center.

MSc Thesis Students

Evan Hill (MSc Thesis Student), Fall 2022 - Winter 2025. Thesis Topic: Using museum specimens to validate length-at-age estimates of non-game freshwater fishes.

Lian Anderson (MSc  Thesis Student), Fall 2023 - Winter 2025. Thesis Topic: Using morphological tools to understand the risks associated with fish invasion in the Rouge River Watershed.

Olivia Williams (MSc  Thesis Student), Fall 2021 - Fall 2023, Thesis Topic: Evaluating responses to restoration by fish communities in the Rouge River.

David Rose (MSc Thesis  Student), began Fall 2021 - Winter 2023. Thesis Topic: Intraspecific variation in Walleye (Sander vitreus) thermal preference.

Elise Grabda (MSc Thesis  Student), Fall 2020 - Winter 2022. Thesis Topic: Temporal variation in environment and growth of Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus).

Cameron Leitz (MSc Thesis Student), Fall 2020 - Winter 2022. Thesis Topic: Do traits predict invasion success in stream and lake environments in the Great Lakes?

Jennifer Fuller (MSc Thesis  Student, Michigan Sea Grant Graduate Student Research Fellow, Co-supervised with Johannes Foufopoulos), Fall 2018 - Winter 2021 Thesis Topic: (online portfolio: innej94.wixsite.com/sciartporfolio). 

Ellary Marano (MSc Thesis  Student, Co-supervised with David 'Bo' Bunnell, USGS-GLSC), Fall 2019 - Winter 2021. Thesis Topic: Evidence for the importance of invasive Dreissena veligers as a novel prey item for larval fishes

Natalie Madden (MSc Thesis  Student, Co-supervised with Neil Carter), Fall 2018 - Aug 2020. Thesis Topic: meta-analysis of the impact of noise pollution on avian species.

Sara Prendergast (MSc Thesis , Co-Supervised with Mark Rowe, CIGLR), Fall 2017 - Aug 2019. Thesis Topic: larval Alewife growth and dispersal in Lake Michigan.

MSc Lab Assistants

Emilia Shokoohi 

Evan Jones

Ashley Jones

Alyssa Rausch

Nicholas Hansen

Evyn Ladendorf-Lilly 

Undergraduate Students

Sam Foulks (Undergrad Lab Assistant, Work-Study) Fall 2025 - Winter 2026

Kate Klos (Lab assistant, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Fall 2024 - Fall 2025

Jake Downy (Lab assistant, Earth and Environmental Science), Fall 2024 - Winter 2025

Sandrine Ponnath (Lab assistant, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Fall 2024 - Winter 2025

Jaden French (Lab assistant, Earth and Environmental Science), Fall 2024 - Winter 2025

Tyler Brooks (Lab assistant, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Fall 2024 - Fall 2025

Rebecca Barsky (Lab assistant, Program in the Environment), Fall 2023 - Winter 2024

Meredith Dirkman (Lab assistant, Program in the Environment), Fall 2023 - Winter 2024

Josh Glezman (Lab assistant, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Fall 2023 - Winter 2024

Kaitlin Schiller (UROP Scholar, LSA), Fall 2022 -Winter 2024

Jaime Jacob (UROP Scholar, LSA), Fall 2022 -Winter 2024

Kevin Xhelilaj (Wayne State University, NSF REU Student), Summer 2023

Keira Daignault (UROP Scholar, Program in the Environment), Fall 2022 - Winter 2023

Marissa Reyes (UROP Scholar, LSA), Fall 2022 - Winter 2023

Lauren Reese (UROP Scholar, Earth and Environmental Science), Fall 2022 - Winter 2023

Megan Roe (Lab assistant,  Earth and Environmental Science), Summer 2021 -Summer 2022

Syed Hussain  (Doris Duke Conservation Scholar), Summer 2019

Ryan Dapkus (Doris Duke Conservation Scholar), Summer 2019

Cameron Leitz (Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Program in the Environment), Fall 2019 - Winter 2020; (MSc Thesis Student), began Fall 2020

Calla Beers (Lab assistant, Program in the Environment BA 2020), 2019-2022

Maxwell LaCosse (Lab assistant, Civil and Environmental Engineering), Winter 2018 - Winter 2019

Hannah Miller (Lab assistant, EEB and Program in the Environment), Fall 2018 - Winter 2019

Erika Perez (Doris Duke Conservation Scholar), Summer 2018

Olivia Horwedel (Lab assistant, Program in the Environment), Winter 2018

Michael Hostetler (Lab assistant, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Winter 2018 - Summer 2019

Interested in joining the Alofs Lab in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan?

More information here