Lab Members
MARTIN TURCOTTE - (he/him) - ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Martin Turcotte
Dept. of Biological Sciences, 203 Clapp Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260-3929
turcotte@pitt.edu
Twitter: @Exp_EvoEco
I am fascinated by evolutionary change. The extent and complexity of adaptions as well as the speed at which evolution can occur is truly remarkable. My research experimentally test how such evolution is driven by and is a driver of ecological dynamics and species interactions.
My scientific career began at McGill studying adaptation in green algae and on stickleback gene flow in British Columbia. I then joined David Reznick and Daniel Hare at the University of California Riverside for my Ph.D. There using experimental evolution in the field, I showed that rapid aphid evolution significantly alters concurrent population dynamics. In 2011, I began a postdoc with Marc Johnson at the University of Toronto at Mississauga working on plant-herbivore interactions and plant domestication. In 2014, I joined Jonathan Levine’s lab as an independent ACE postdoc at ETH in Zurich Switzerland working on the impacts of phenotypic plasticity and species coexistence. There I began working on Duckweed as a model system for Evolutionary Community Ecology. In 2017 I joined Pitt as an Assistant Professor where I intend to share my love of evolutionary-ecology with the current and next generations.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Briante Lewis Najev (she/her)
Briante joins us from the University of Iowa where she worked on polyploid snails with Drs. Maurine Neiman & Amy Krist. She is working on what impacts the competitive outcomes among diploid and polyploid duckweed.
research Technician
Elizabeth Lawrence
Elizabeth is helping with our Duckweed Polyploidy research program
Reagan Hamilton
I am a research technician in the Turcotte Lab, where I assist with graduate research, image analysis and, conduct pilot experiments. I recently graduated from Pitt with a B.S. in Biology. My research interests include sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and understanding the human impact on the environment. I love to travel, shop and play soccer.
Graduate Students
Trapper Hobble (he/him)
Email: TRH66@pitt.edu
From a young age, I have always had a fascination in the diverse organisms that inhabit our planet. This curiosity led me to Dickinson College where I received my B.S. in Biology and completed a study exploring the implications of domestication on wild yeast evolution. I am predominantly interested in the ability of organisms to evolve and adapt to changing ecological stimuli and am eager to investigate such questions further utilizing duckweed and species coexistence. With the increasing threat of biodiversity loss, our ability to understand an organism’s capability to respond to a changing environment is critical in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Hannah Assour (she/her)
Hannah is a 3rd year graduate student interested in invasion and urbanization. She is co-advised with Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman. For my thesis work, I am broadly interested in exploring the ecological and evolutionary consequences of plant polyploidy, particularly within the context of anthropogenic change. I completed my B.S. in Biology with Teaching at the Temple University. During my undergraduate career, I was fortunate enough to complete research within the fields of population/community ecology, invasion biology, and climate change biology, primarily using plant and insect study systems. Further, I am passionate about combining my work with education and conservation.
Email: HRA19@pitt.edu
Rose DiPaolo
Rose is part of the Hot Metal Bridge program and is conducting research on duckweed bioremediation.
Undergraduate Researchers
Former Lab Members
Postdocs
Dr. Lacey Rzodkiewicz (2025-26): Assistant Professor, Ashland U.
Dr. Eric Yee (2024-25)
Dr. Cara Faillace (2021-24): USDA Forest Service, Research Aquatic Ecologist
Dr. Thomas Anneberg (2021-23): Former NSF PRFB, now USDA Data Analyst
Dr. Jiaqi Tan (2018-20): Associate Professor at Louisiana State U.
Dr. Sergio Ramos (2019-21): Postdoctoral Research at U. of Zurich
Graduate Students
Mujeeb Balgun (2024-26)
Dr. Lacey Rzodkiewicz (2019-25): Postdoc Pitt
Dr. Taylor Zallek (2018-24): U. of Minneapolis Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Rachel Reeb (2022-23): (mostly advised by Dr. Kuebbing), now postdoc at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Technicians
Audrey Burr: (2021-23): Ph.D. with Joel Sachs at U.C. Riverside
Jae Kerstetter (2018-22): Ph.D. at Rutgers with Ceasar Rodriguez-Saona
Joshua Armstrong (2017-19): now PhD at Virginia Commonwealth U. with James Vonesh
Undergraduates
Swapna Subramanian (2017-20): PhD at U. of Connecticut with Dan Bolnick
Lillian Leak (2017-20):
Ashley Morris (2017-18): now doing a PhD at Stony Brook University with Jessica Gurevitch
David Conover (2017-18): Former undergrad now in the U.S. Navy
Julie Everett (2018-19); Shourya Mukherjee (2018-19);
Erin Fullerton(2019-21); Olivia Alfe (2019-21); Pooja Jacob (2019-21); Jared Goga (2020); Anna Kelly (2020-21); Kevin Mulcahy (2021-22); Elijah Cordrey (2021-22); Stephanie Cano (2021-22); Liangge Lydia Yu (2021-22), Selin Aygen (2021-22); Olivia Glacken (2021-22); Rebecca Alvarez (2019-22); Kelvin Tieu (2021-22)
Tatiana Cannizzaro (2020-23); Alexander Sessock (2020-23); Emily Sweat (2022-23); Suze Ferguson (2022-23); Maddison Nguyen (2021-23); Dominique Kline (2022-23); Karuna Baral (2021-23); Lucia Miller (2022-23)
Ivan Guo (2022-24); Hannah Wetzel (2023-24); Gyan Kanhai (2022-24); Lillian Dun (2022-24); Emma Paci (2021-24)
Brandon Achey (2023-25); Barrak Wali (2023-25); Charley Wan (2024-25); Micheal O’Brien (2024-25); Heather Doughtery (2024-25); Olivia Carson (2023-25); Dominic Aiello (2022-25); Santiago Churion (2022-25)