Graduate Students
James Erdmann
PhD Student
I have a broad background in biology, but over the years my research interests have homed in on amphibian behavior and ecology. I did my master’s thesis at Southeastern Louisiana University on feeding behavior in toads (Incilius nebulifer) and have several ongoing herp-related projects. I first became interested in bioacoustics during my graduate research, which had an important vibrational/sensory dimension. Last summer I worked with the Wyoming Department of Game & Fish to develop automated call recognizers using a handy R package (monitoR) to assist with amphibian population monitoring efforts. Check out my website to learn more about me and some of my research at muddynaturalist.com.
Jain PK
PhD Student
I did my combined BS/MS program in biological sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali. The conservation-oriented internships which I did during these five years shaped my interests in the field of ecology. My master thesis was on the effect of anthropogenic noise in a tropical female field cricket. This was done under the direction of Dr. Manjari Jain. My current research interests are in the field of bioacoustics and animal cognition.
Jonathan Albers
MS Student
My interests in biology are in Animal Behavior, but especially in the fields of cognition and communication. I did my undergrad at North Dakota State University where I did research in Dr. Dochtermann’s Lab. In between my time as an undergrad and grad school I did work out in the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma. There I primarily worked with Prairie Mole Crickets and the American Burying Beetle. Through the field jobs and Dochtermann’s Lab I have gained an interest in working with invertebrates.
Courtney Byrd
MS Student
I graduated with a B.S. in Biology from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2020, where I studied the influence of hybridization and multimodal cues on male aggregation behavior in Plains (Spea bombifrons) and New Mexico (Spea multiplicata) spadefoot toads as part of the K. Pfennig lab. I’m interested in animal behavior, specifically neuroethology, as well as utilizing a combination of behavioral assays and laboratory techniques to understand sound localization in tree frogs.”
(co-advised with Dr. Liz McCullagh)
Research Assistant
Dr. Iván de la Hera Fernández
Research Assistant
Iván has a degree in Biology (2003) from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), where he also completed his PhD in 2009 under the supervision of José Luis Tellería and Javier Pérez-Tris. Shortly afterwards, he was awarded with a postdoctoral grant that allowed him a 2-year stay (2010-11) within Marcel Visser’s Lab at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), plus one additional year (2012) at Universidad del País Vasco (UPV-EHU). Since January 2013 he was employed as a temporary research assistant in different institutions (e.g. UCM, NIOO-KNAW and various NGOs dedicated to birds). He was a research assistant at University College Cork from 2015-2019 before coming to Oklahoma State in April 2020.
Undergraduate Researchers
Madisen Brown
Undergraduate researcher
Madisen is interested in studying temperature, aggression and cognition in crickets, and is a former Freshman Research Scholar
Rachel Atherton
Undergraduate researcher
Rachel is a former HHMI Life Sciences Freshman Research Scholar studying the effects of temperature on the response to competition in frogs.
Jacinda Berokoff
Undergraduate researcher
Jacinda is a former HHMI Life Sciences Freshman Research Scholar studying whether photos can be used to identify individual treefrogs.
Lab alumni
Undergraduates: Nicole Clapp (2018-2020) – Former Wentz Scholar, currently medical student at the University of Oklahoma.
Cheyenne Smith (2019-2020) – Former OK-LSAMP scholar studying whether male frogs are responsive to female chemical cues.
Click here for more information on how to join us.
