Johnson Lab
Trinity University
Lizard behavioral evolution
Dr. Michele Johnson
I am an assistant professor interested in evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, and behavioral neuroscience. I completed my PhD in 2007 with Jonathan Losos and Alan Templeton at Washington University, and conducted postdoctoral research with Juli Wade at Michigan State. Click here to see my CV.
PEOPLE
Anolis evermanni, Puerto Rico
Chelsea Lewis
Chelsea is a senior who is studying the role of prey availability on territorial behavior in anoles. She's interested in all aspects of animal behavior, and is planning to attend graduate school in behavioral ecology.
Interested in joining the lab? I am always looking for motivated undergraduates interested in field- or lab-based research on lizard behavior. If you think this might be you, read the lab website carefully and email me with a description of yourself and why you're interested in the lab.
Johnson Lab HALL OF FAME
Diego Castro
Diego is a senior majoring in Biology. He's working on a thesis in the lab, studying androgen receptor expression in the muscles of Caribbean anoles. Diego is pursuing a career in molecular biology.
Ellee Cook
Ellee is a senior Biology major and Beckman Scholar with broad interests in evolution and ecology, and she's conducting research (in collaboration with Dr. Troy Murphy) on the associations between lizard parasite load and sexually dimorphic coloration. Ellee plans to attend graduate school in biology.
Divina Varghese
Divina is a senior Religion major, planning to pursue a career in the health professions after graduation. Divina was part of Trinity's Integrated Research in Biomathematics program in 2011, working on a collaborative project to mathematically model the impacts of parasites on lizard metabolism.
Terrin Blackmon
Terrin is a junior McNair Scholar majoring in Biology, and she is studying the relationship between behavior and temperature in Texas spiny lizards (Sceloporus olivaceus). Terrin plans to pursue a Master's in Public Health after graduation.
Michael Patton
Michael is a senior Neuroscience major studying brain laterality in green anole lizards. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in neuroscience or animal behavior.
Chris Robinson
Chris is a junior Biology major, and he's working on a project to study associations between the modes of lizard communiation and the evolution of their brain morphology. He plans to attend graduate school in evolutionary biology after graduation.
Jordan Bush
Jordan is a junior double-majoring in Biology and Mathematics, and she's working through the Integrated Research in Biology and Math program to develop a model of lizard metabolism, and conducting a thesis on dominance ranking. Jordan is our resident specialist on coding in R!
McKenzie Quinn
McKenzie is a sophomore planning to major in Biology, and she is a part of the Integrated Research in Biology and Mathematics program. She's working to determine a model of lizard metabolism, and is the lab expert on bomb calorimetry. She plans to attend medical school after graduation.
Adam Silva
Adam is a high school student at the International School of the Americas who completed an internship with us in summer 2012. Adam worked in both the field and the lab on a variety of projects, and he plans to study marine biology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
Bonnie Kircher
Bonnie is our lab technician extraordinaire. She graduated from Grinnell College with degrees in Biology and Music in 2012, and after arriving at Trinity in November, she quickly became involved in all the projects in the lab! Bonnie ultimately plans to attend graduate school in evolutionary genetics.
Jamal Murray
Jamal is a first year student at Trinity, planning to major in Biology. Jamal has just started working in the lab, but he's already become an important part of the group. He's considering attending medical school after graduation.