Previous PhD students

  • 2011–present
  • •Stewart Edie. Postdoctoral researcher, University of Chicago. Thesis: “Integrating fossils and molecules to trace ecological divergence and convergence in marine bivalves” (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Madeline Marshall. Assistant Professor, Colorado College. Thesis: “Effects of hiatal type and nutrient enrichment on marine macrofossil abundance and preservation, Permian Phosphoria and Park City Formations” (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Marites Villarosa Garcia Bariș. Thesis: "The morphological diversity of coccolithophores across environments, geographic space, and geologic time" (Co-Advisors: Boyce, Foote)
  • •Peter D. Smits. Postdoctoral researcher, University of California, Berkeley. Thesis: "Remodeling the fossil record: Analysis of emergent evolutionary and ecological patterns" (Co-Advisors: Angielczyk, Foote)
  • •Nicole Bitler Kuehnle. Environmental Consultant, Bain & Company, Chicago. Thesis: “The consequences of natural and anthropogenic geographic range expansion” (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Kristen Jenkins Voorhies, Biologist, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Chicago. Thesis: “Variability in marine molluscan communities: Historical versus modern drivers across local and regional scales" (Co-Advisors: Kidwell, Wootton)
  • •David Bapst, Lecturer, Texas A & M University. Thesis: “Phylogenetic trees in the fossil record: Resolution, temporal scaling, and uncertainty” (Advisor: Foote)
  • •Mara Brady, Assistant Professor, California State University, Fresno. Thesis: Carbonate sequences from cratonic interior versus continental margin settings: a comparative stratigraphic and taphonomic analysis of the Devonian of Iowa and Nevada (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Hilary Christensen, Visiting Assistant Professor, Moravian College (Biology). “Mammalian adaptation to herbivory in the aftermath of the KT extinction” (Advisor: Boyce)
  • •Kathryn Larson-Johnson, post-doctoral researcher, Stanford University. Thesis: “Evolution, function, and biogeography of fruit form in the Fagales” (Co-Advisors: Boyce, Crane)
  • •Christina Belanger, Assistant Professor, Texas A & M University. Thesis: From the individual to the community: Biotic responses to Early Miocene warming and continental shelf dysoxia (Astoria Formation, Oregon) (Co-Advisors: Kidwell, P. Martin)
  • 2000–2010
  • •Andrew Leslie, Assistant Professor, Brown University. Thesis: "Forms follow functions: exploring the evolution of morphological diversity in seed plant reproductive structures" (Advisor: Boyce)
  • •Melanie Hopkins, Assistant Curator, American Museum of Natural History, New York. Thesis: "Species-level variation, its geographic structure, and the relationship between variation and duration, with examples from Cambrian trilobites and fiddler crabs" (Advisor: Webster)
  • •Annat Haber, Postdoctoral Fellow, Michigan State University. Thesis: "Morphological integration in the ruminant skull: macroevolutionary aspects" (Advisor: Webster)
  • •Joshua Miller, Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati. Thesis: "The large mammal death assemblage of Yellowstone National Park: Historical ecology, conservation biology, paleoecology" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Paul Harnik, Assistant Professor, Franklin & Marshall College. Thesis: "Macroecological drivers of extinction risk in early Cenozoic mollusks" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Rebecca Terry, Assistant Professor (Zoology), Oregon State University. Thesis: "Raptors, rodents, and paleoecology: recovering ecological baselines from Great Basin caves" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Surangi Punyasena, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Thesis: "The relationship of neotropical forests to climate: Late Quaternary and modern biogeographic gradients" (Advisor: McElwain)
  • •Philip Anderson, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Thesis: "Biomechanical and ecomorphologic evolution of Late Devonian fish faunas" (Advisors: LaBarbera, Westneat)
  • •Lee Hsiang Liow, Researcher, Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo. Thesis: "Oddities, wonders, and other tall-tales of 'living fossils' " (Advisor: Lidgard)
  • •Carl Simpson, Assistant Professor and Curator, University of Colorado, Boulder. Thesis: "Species selection and morphological trends in camerate crinoids" (Advisor: Foote)
  • •Bjarte Hannisdal, Researcher, Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen. Thesis: "Inferring evolutionary patterns from fossil records using Bayesian inversion: an application to the Miocene of the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •David Sunderlin, Associate Professor, Lafayette College. Thesis: "Permian phytogeographic patterns on Northern Pangea with new data from the Alaska Range" (Advisors: Ziegler, Rowley)
  • •Thomas Rothfus, Director, Therkildsen Field Station at Emiquon, University of Illinois, Springfield. Thesis: "Taphonomic damage, taxonomic identifiability, & preservational quality: implications for bias in paleoecogical data" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Emily Greenfest-Allen, Research Associate, Computational Biology and Informatics Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. Thesis: "New perspectives on a classic macroevolutionary trend: Complexity, extinction selectivity, and the evolution of Paleozoic ammonoid suture morphology" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Yael Edelman-Furstenberg, tenured Research Geologist, Geological Survey of Israel. Thesis: "Macrobenthic paleoecology of high-productivity marine environments, Cretaceous of Israel and Recent of Namibia" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Rebecca Price. Associate Professor, University of Washington (Bothell). Thesis: "Function, ontogeny, and history of columellar folds in fasciolariid gastropods" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Shanan Peters, Professor, University of Wisconsin. Thesis: "Evolution of community structure in early Paleozoic benthic macroinvertebrates" (Advisor: Foote)
  • •Alistair McGowan, Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Fellow, University of Glasgow. Thesis: "Macroevolutionary dynamics of Triassic ammonoids" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Matthew A. Kosnik. Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University. Thesis: "Ecological response of benthic communities to the Mesozoic marine revolution" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Gene Hunt, Curator, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Thesis: "Micro- and macroevolution of morphological covariance in ostracodes" (Advisor: Foote)
  • •Francesca (Smith) McInerney, Future Fellow, University of Adelaide (Earth Sciences), Australia. Thesis:"Biogeography of Neogene C3 & C4 grasses: C-isotopic signatures of phytoliths" (Co-Advisors: Kidwell, J. White (U Colo Boulder))
  • •Karin Goldberg, Assistant Professor, Kansas State University. Thesis: "Paleoclimatic evolution of the Permian Parana Basin, southern Brazil" (Advisors: Rowley, Zeigler, Humayan)
  • •Kate Lyons, Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Thesis: "A quantitative assessment of the community structure and dynamics of Pleistocene mammals" (Advisor: Foote)
  • •Rowan Lockwood, Professor, College of William and Mary. Thesis: "Extinction and rebound: evolutionary patterns in Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic bivalves" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Mairi Best, Consultant on Ocean Observing and Environmental Sensor Systems, Ontario, Canada. Thesis: "Fates of bivalve skeletal carbonate in tropical siliciclastics and carbonates, Caribbean Panama" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Melinda Brady. Thesis: "Patterns of morphogenesis in angiosperm flowers" (Advisors: Crane/Foote)
  • •Hallie J. Sims, Assistant Professor, University of Iowa. Thesis: "Evolutionary patterns in late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic seed morphology" (Advisors: Crane/Foote)
  • 1990s
  • •Susana Magallon, Professor, Universita Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico City). Thesis: "Early diversification of eudicot floral morphology" (Advisor: Crane)
  • •Daniel Miller, Collections Manager, Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan. Thesis: "Large-scale temporal and biogeographic patterns of evolution in muricine gastropods: the role of predation" (Advisor: LaBarbera)
  • •Richard Lupia, Associate Curator, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Thesis: "Cretaceous angiosperm diversity, paleoecology & paleobiogeography" (Advisor: Crane)
  • •Gunther Eble, Researcher, CNRS, University of Burgundy, Dijon. Thesis: "The macroevolutionary history of diversity and disparity in disasteroid, holasteroid, and spatangoid heart urchins" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Michael Hulver, Geologist, Saudi Aramco. Thesis: "Post-orogenic evolution of the Appalachian mountain system and its foreland" (Advisor: Rowley)
  • •Paul Markwick, Consultant, Robertson Research, U.K. Thesis: "Late Cretaceous to Pleistocene climates: nature of the transition from a 'hot-house' to an 'ice-house' world"(Advisor: Ziegler)
  • •Raymond Rogers, Professor, Macalester College. Thesis: "Sequence stratigraphy & vertebrate taphonomy of Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine & Judith River Fms, Montana" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Peter Wagner, Associate Professor, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Thesis: "The generation and maintenance of morphologic and phylogenetic diversity among Early Paleozoic gastropods" (Advisor: Sepkoski)
  • •Jane Masterson, Lecturer, Columbia College, Chicago. Thesis: "The evolutionary history and significance of polyploidy in angiosperms" (Advisors: Crane/Jablonski)
  • •Elizabeth LeClair, Professor, DePaul University. Thesis: "Invertebrate vertebrae: evolutionary morphology and experimental biomechanics of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata)" (Advisor: LaBarbera)
  • •Yao Ji-Ping, Software Engineer, Malagan Partners. Thesis: "Approaches to paleoclimatic reconstructions with examples from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic of Eurasia" (Advisor: Ziegler)
  • •Sherman Suter, Book Review Editor, Science (retired). Thesis: "Phylogenetic analyses of cassidulid echinoids: Morphology, homoplasy, and stratigraphic data" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Kaustuv Roy, Professor, University of California, San Diego. Thesis: "Taxonomic, morphologic & biogeographic change in stromboidean gastropods and their macroevolutionary implications" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •John Alroy, Associate Professor, Macquarie University. Thesis: "Quantitative mammalian biochronology and biogeography of North America" (Advisor: Raup)
  • •Jay A. Schneider. Thesis: "Evolutionary patterns of cardiid bivalves" (Advisor: Jablonski)
  • •Mark E. Patzkowsky, Professor, Pennsylvania State University. Thesis: "Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of the Ordovician radiation of articulate brachiopods" (Advisor: Sepkoski)
  • •Eric D. Gyllenhaal, Senior Scientist, Selinda Associates Museum Evaluations. Thesis: "How accurately can paleo-precipitation and paleoclimatic change be interpreted from subaerial unconformities?" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Nie Shang-You, Shell International (Houston). Thesis: "Constraints on the Paleozoic plate reconstruction of China" (Advisor: Ziegler)
  • •Daniel W. McShea, Professor, Duke University. Thesis: "Complexity and evolution" (Advisor: Raup)
  • •Conrad C. Labandeira, Curator, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Thesis: "Use of a phenetic analysis of Recent hexapod mouthparts for hexapod food resource guilds in the fossil record" (Advisor: Raup)
  • •Mark A. Horrell, Faculty, Illinois Math & Sciences Academy. Thesis: "A global scale reconstruction of Late Cretaceous (Maestrichtian) climate" (Advisor: Ziegler)
  • •Steven M. Holland, Professor, University of Georgia. Thesis: "Distinguishing eustasy & tectonics in foreland sequences: Upper Ordovician Cincinnati Arch & Appalachian Basin" (Advisor: Kidwell)
  • •Tomasz K. Baumiller, Professor, University of Michigan. Thesis: "Crinoid functional morphology and the energetics of passive suspension feeding" (Advisor: LaBarbera)
  • 1980s
  • •Charles R. Marshall, Professor, University of California, Berkeley. Thesis: "DNA:DNA hybridization, morphology and the fossil record of sand dollars (Echinodermata: Clypeasteroida): phylogeny and rates of single-copy DNA evolution" (Co-Advisors: Raup, Hewson Swift)
  • •Michael Foote, Professor, University of Chicago. Thesis: "Morphological evolution of Cambrian and Ordovician trilobites" (Advisor: Raup)
  • •George E. Boyajian, Private sector (biotechnology). Thesis: "Taxon aging and its role in models of background and mass extinction" (Advisor: Sepkoski)
  • •Arnold I. Miller, Professor, University of Cincinnati. Thesis: "Spatio-temporal development of the class Bivalvia during the Paleozoic era" (Advisor: Sepkoski)