Members of Our Research Group
Message to Prospective Students & Post-docs
The focus of our research is biological diversity, ranging from the ecological and evolutionary processes that generate and maintain a wide variety of phenotypes and life-history strategies to the mechanisms that create and maintain temporal and spatial patterns of organismal distribution, relative abundance, and species richness. Members of our research group strive for mechanistic understanding of organismal traits and species interactions, per se, and to provide explanations for the structure and dynamics of populations and communities, primarily within tropical and sub-tropical latitudes.
Students and post-docs interested in joining our research group may contact Kyle (or other current members of our group) for more information via e-mail. Although our principal subjects of investigation are tropical and sub-tropical plants – often including their interactions with other organisms – Kyle encourages students and post-docs to develop projects that are tailored to and motivated by their own taxonomic and geographic interests.
Current Ph.D. Students
Ezekiel Martin
emar162@lsu.edu
Maggie C. Vincent
mvinc33@lsu.edu
Former Graduate Students & Post-Docs
Carrie A. Barker
Ph.D. 2022, LSU
Dissertation: Understanding community assembly processes of foundation species within hyper-diverse
ecosystems
Current position: Botanical Team Manager, U.S. Geological Survey, Reno, NV
Adriana Bravo
Ph.D. 2009, LSU
Dissertation: Collpas as activity hotspots for frugivorous bats in the Peruvian Amazon
Jane E. Carlson
Ph.D. 2007, LSU
Dissertation: Natural & sexual selection in the hummingbird-pollinated herb, Chrysothemis friedrichsthaliana
Current position: U.S. National Park Service Ecologist, Lafayette, LA
Paul R. Gagnon
Post-doc 2007-2008, LSU
Current position: Ecologist & Social Scientist, Institute for Water Resources, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, Alexandria, VA
Sandra P. Galeano
Ph.D. 2016, LSU
Dissertation: Ecological assembly of leaf-litter anuran communities across a Neotropical land-bridge
archipelago
Current position: Líder Colecciones Anfibios y Reptiles, Instituto de Investigación
de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Colombia
Katherine A. Hovanes
Ph.D. 2019, LSU
Dissertation: Spatial patterns of dominant bunchgrass species in pine savanna groundcover plant
communities
Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology, Washington College, Chestertown,
MD
Robert John Chandran
Post-doc 2004-2006 with Dr. Jim Dalling, U. Illinois (Kyle was a co-advisor)
Current position: Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education & Research,
Kolkata, India
Metha M. Klock
Ph.D. 2015, LSU
Dissertation: The role of rhizobial mutualisms in the establishment and colonization of exotic Acacia
species in novel ranges
Current Position: Conservation Science Manager, Pepperwood Preserve, CA
Scott L. Kosiba
Ph.D. 2019, LSU (Kyle was a co-advisor with principal advisor Dr. Bruce Williamson)
Dissertation: Dynamics of resprouting and forest regeneration following anthropogenic land use in
the central Amazon Basin
Current position: Executive Director, Friends of the Bridger-Teton, Jackson Hole,
WY
Jonathan A. Myers
Ph.D. 2010, LSU
Dissertation: Ecological assembly of high-diversity pine savannas
Current position: Professor, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
C. E. Timothy Paine
Ph.D. 2007, LSU
Dissertation: Ecological factors affecting the diversity of tropical tree seedlings in the western
Amazon
Current positions: Ecology Team Manager, Succession Ecology, Adelaide, Australia;
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Heather A. Passmore
Post-doc 2005-2008, LSU
Current position: Senior Data Scientist, GreatSchools, Oakland, CA
Jamie Phelps
Graduate student who began her degree program in our research group in 2019,
but then transferred to Dr. Morgan Kelly's LSU research group in 2022
and defended her dissertation in 2024
Ellen M. Reid
M.S. 2010, LSU
Thesis: Patterns and mechanisms of the exploitation of mutualisms
Current position: Undergraduate Program Manager, EECS, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, MA
María N. Sánchez de Stapf
Maestría 2001, Universidad Santa María la Antigua, Republic of Panama
(Kyle was a co-advisor with principal advisor Dr. Cecilia Guerra)
Thesis: Ecology and functional morphology of a litter-trapping tree, Capparis antonensis (Capparaceae)
Current position: Professor & Herbarium Director, Universidad de Panamá, Republic
of Panama
Luis Y. Santiago-Rosario
Ph.D. 2022, LSU
Dissertation: Sodium mediates developmental plasticity in plants and herbivores
Current position: National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department
of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Yi-Hs Tsai
NSF Bioinformatics Post-doc 2010-2012 with Dr. Bryan Carstens, LSU (Kyle was a co-advisor)
Current position: Data Scientist, Boulder, CO
Charles E. Zartman
Post-doc 2004-2005, Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) & Biological Dynamics
of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP)
Current position: Research Curator of Cryptogams, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas
da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil
Current & Former LSU Undergraduates
Mohamed Algamal
Pupal color polymorphism in Chlosyne lacinia (assistant to Jamie Phelps)
2022
Natalia Aristizábal
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity, 2007-2009 &
Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar: Avian morphological variation along the principal
Amazonian productivity gradient, 2009-2010
Jordan Bantuelle
Improving local energy-use efficiency
2009
Claire Brescher
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity (assistant to Carrie Barker)
2021
Andrew Browning
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity
2006
Sarah Colosimo
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity
2007
Melissa Day
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity
2005-2006
Felicia Emery
Seed dispersal in a Louisiana pine savanna
2004-2005
Michelle Flores-Acosta
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity (assistant to Carrie Barker)
2021
Mia Foster
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity (assistant to Carrie Barker)
2021
Zachary Goodnow
Chancellor's Future Leader in Research Scholar
2012-2014
Brooke Dubansky, neé Hopkins
Geographic distributions of Neotropical trees
2002-2003
Morgan Kerns
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity (assistant to Jonathan Myers)
& biology of invasive acacias in California (assistant to Metha Klock)
2009-2011
Ally Lazar
Phytochemical landscape of sodium (assistant to Luis Santiago-Rosario)
2018-2019
John-Michael May
Regeneration of longleaf pine & savanna biodiversity
2004-2005
Stephanie Norman
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity
2005-2006
Ikenna Onyenekwu
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity
2007
Kahle Perret
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity (assistant to Carrie Barker)
2021
Getorian Reed
Gender-biased nectar production (assistant to Jane Carlson)
2006
Christian Savoie
Factors affecting regeneration of longleaf pine
2004
Phuong Truong
Louisiana pine savanna biodiversity
2005-2006
Abigail Vinson
President's Future Leader in Research Scholar: Ecology of Louisiana pine savannas
2016-2017
Colleen Wallace
Seed dispersal in a Louisiana pine savanna
2004-2006
Pamela Weisenhorn
Dispersal- and establishment-limitation of rainforest trees in Peru (assistant to
Tim Paine)
2004
Elizabeth Weltman
Chancellor's Future Leader in Research Scholar: Ecology of Louisiana pine savannas
2012-2014
Rachanda Wilson
Seed dispersal in a Louisiana pine savanna
2004
Sara Zare
Pupal color polymorphism in Chlosyne lacinia (assistant to Jamie Phelps)
2022
Our Research Group
Ezekiel, Kyle, Luis, Maggie, Ana
(clockwise from upper left)
Highland Coffees, Baton Rouge, LA
Spring 2024
Luis, Kyle, Maggie, Carrie, Jamie
(clockwise from upper left)
COVID-era Zoom lab meeting
Fall 2020
Katherine, Carrie, Luis, Kyle
The Nature Conservancy's Lake Ramsay Preserve, LA
Spring 2019
Photo © Eddy Perez, LSU
Carrie, Kyle, Katherine, Luis
The Nature Conservancy's Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve, LA
Spring 2018
Sandra, Zach, Metha, Kyle, Katherine
(back row)
Elizabeth
(front row)
LSU
Fall 2013
Amanda, Christina
(Eglin field team)
Eglin Air Force Base, FL
Winter 2013
Katherine, Paul, Kyle, Susan
Blackwater River State Forest, FL
Spring 2012
Photo © J. A. Myers
Natalia, Jonathan, Metha, Kyle, Sandra
(back row)
Adriana
(front row)
Baton Rouge, LA
Winter 2009
Adriana, Ellen, Kyle, Heather, Paul, Jonathan
Baton Rouge, LA
Summer 2008
Adriana, Jonathan
Camp Whispering Pines, LA
Spring 2007
Photo © J. A. Myers
Heather, Jonathan
Camp Whispering Pines, LA
Summer 2006
Kyle, Adriana, Tim, Jane, Jonathan
Annual LSU Department of Biological Sciences Crawfish Boil
Spring 2006
Tim, Jane
Panama
2003