People

Current Members

R. Alexander Pyron, PhD

Alex is the Robert F. Griggs Professor of Biology at GW, and a Research Associate in the Division of Amphibians & Reptiles at the NMNH. He studies diversification from speciation to global biodiversity, and the moral philosophy of conservation ethics. Google Scholar Profile

Max Seldes, PhD student

Max is a salamander systematics studying phylogeography and speciation genomics in plethodontid salamanders. His dissertation focuses on lineage divergence in Desmognathus and the Plethodon glutinosus complex, with a museum-based taxonomic component focused on natural-history collections.

Daniel Biggs, PhD student

Daniel is co-advised with the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology and Bernard Wood. He studies the phylogeny of early hominids.

You

Join us for a variety of projects ranging from salamander speciation to environmental ethics. The Weintraub Program at GW partners with the Smithsonian NMNH for world-class training in evolutionary biology.

Previous Postdocs

Kyle O’Connell

Kyle was a postdoc from 2019 - 2020, working on speciation genomics in Desmognathus. He now works at Deloitte.

S.P. Vijayakumar

Vijay was a postdoc from 2018-2019, working on systematics and biogeography of Indian frogs. Check out his publications.

Tim Colston

Tim was a postdoc from 2017-2018, working on the VertLife project. He’s now an Assistant Professor at UPR - Mayagüez.

Lilian Gimenes Giugliano

Lilian was a postdoc (visiting Asst. Prof.) from Universidade de Brasilia in 2013, studying diversification in Brazilian lizards (Teiidae).

Previous Students

PhD Students

Catriona R. Hendry (2011-2019)

João F. R. Tonini (PhD, 2017) - now a postdoc at the University of Richmond

Ian Wilenzik (PhD, 2025) - now a Visiting Assistant Professor at GW

Sarah E. Green (2013-2015)

Sarah K. Rhodig (2016-2017)

Visiting Doctoral Students

Renan Janke Bosque (UnB, 2012)

Jéssica Fenker Antunes (UnB, 2012)

Rogério Benevides de Miranda (UnB, 2019-2020)

Master’s

Taylor Hains (2017-2018)

GW Undergrads

Ariel M. Stein (2011-2013), Sheri Reid (2011-2012), Amanda C. Horne (2012-2013), Vincent Chou (2012-2014), Felisa W. Hsieh (2012-2015), Mehak Chawla (2014), Arcadia Trvalik (2014), Alexis Elliott (2015-2017), Alexa Lowe (2016-2018), Shreyansh Budhia (2018-2019), Rachel Ornstein (2019), Benjamin Barger (2019-2020), Tyler Cholankeril (2020), Christian Pecoraro (2021), Chloe Shaw (2021-2022), Marlee York - now at Arizona State, the Ogle Lab

K-12

Pallavi Kulkarni (Herndon High School, 2018) - now at UVA

Sophie C. Duncan (Holton-Arms School, 2021) - now at Stanford

Anvith Kakkera (TJHSST) - now at Dartmouth