Becca Young
principal investigator
she/her
Becca is fascinated by the diversity of forms, functions, and behaviors evident across the tree of life and is curious about how these differences arise. In her spare time, she likes to cook, see live music, and spend time with her family and friends, preferrable outdoors.
Morgan Muell
Postdoctoral Fellow
she/her
https://morganmuell.wixsite.com/home
Morgan is interested in the processes that generate biodiversity. She studies amphibians and reptiles to understand how patterns of phenotypic variation emerge across space and time. Outside the lab, you can find Morgan watching anime, planning her next international trip, and enjoying time outdoors.
Fabian Salgado-Roa
Stengl – Wyer Postdoctoral Scholar
https://fcsalgado.github.io/
Fabian is interested in how phenotypic and genetic diversity change at large geographical scales and the factors influencing the presence of multiple phenotypes within a single population. To answer his research questions, Fabian has studied multiple animals, but he’s particularly interested in spiders with multiple colors.
Anika Mahmood
ILS Graduate Student
Anika is majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology in the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences program at UT Austin. She is interested in studying E. coqui skin gene expression patterns, with a focus on polymorphism and melanophore distribution during development. In her free time, Anika enjoys painting, reading, traveling, and exploring new coffee shops.
Clara Zhou de Magalhaes
Lab manager
Clara received a Bachelors degree in Biology at Hamilton College. As lab manager, Clara perfoms experiments, ordering and organizing supplies, and caring for the many frogs. She greatly enjoys hiking and sightseeing, and during lazy days at home, she can be found reading or folding origami.
Parker Allen
undergraduate researcher
EvoDevOmics peer mentor
Parker is a Biology major pursuing a certificate in programming and computation. He is interested in discovering how gene expression changes across different environmental and selective effects. Outside the lab, he enjoys reading, playing violin, and going out on his bike.
Natalie Grater
undergraduate researcher
Natalie is a Biology major with a focus in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. She loves animals and has always enjoyed learning about their behaviors and adaptations. For fun, she enjoys hiking and traveling to new places where she can explore nature.
Meera Nair
undergraduate researcher
Meera is a Biochemistry major at UT Austin. She is interested in gene expression, development, and the ways these processes differ across species. Outside the lab, she plays the piano and violin, builds Legos, and enjoys reading comics and science fiction.
Sidharth Ramu
undergraduate researcher
Sidharth is a biochemistry major pursuing a certificate in Elements of Computing. His research uses comparative genomics and structure to determine the origins of a putatively amphibian-specific, developmentally-important gene.
Hemanth Vangala
undergraduate researcher
Hemanth is a biology major at UT. He is interested in using R programming to find a standardized way of categorizing Coquí frog phenotypes. In his free time, he enjoys working out, cooking, basketball, and trying new foods in the Austin area
Lab Alumnae
Undergraduate Researchers:
- Jax Schellenberger ’26 — Biochemical Engineering
- Abby Beman ’25 – Quantitative & Computational BioSciences PhD program at Baylor College of Medicine
- Anouka Saha ’25 – EEB PhD program at Washington University in St Louis
- Noé Reyna ’24 – Genetics and Genomics PhD program UCLA