Included here are postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students, visiting researchers, and staff affiliated with the Crawford Lab.
Postdoctoral fellows
Mikael Mokkonen
Postdoctoral fellow, Crespi Lab
Research Interests: My experimental, theoretical and applied research work all seek to understand the evolutionary ecology of conflicts by focusing on the genetic, physiological and behavioral differences between individuals. This integrative research is encompassed in five broad themes that address how genetic variation is maintained in the face of adaptation and maladaptation to the environment.
Email: mika[at]sfu.ca
Website: https://mammalialab.wordpress.com/
Kimberly Plomp
Postdoctoral fellow, Collard Lab
Research Interests: Kim uses 3D geometric morphometric techniques to analyze skeletal samples from Viking period sites in the British Isles.
Email: kimberly_plomp[at]sfu.ca
Dr. Mana Dembo
Postdoctoral fellow, Mooers and Collard Labs
Research Interests: Dr. Dembo was awarded a SSHRC post-doctoral position to expand the seminal work she did here at SFU on Bayesian hominin phylogenetics. She completed her Ph D at SFU in 2016, and is now a postdoctoal fellow in the Department of Archaeology.
Email: mana.dembo[at]sfu.ca
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mana_Dembo
Graduate students
Emma Kominek
MSc Student (since 2020), Mooers Lab
I am a part of the NSERC ReNew Zoo Program. My research focusses on evolutionary originality patterns across insects, and how Zoos might prioritize certain species for public display and conservation programs. I will explore these patterns using insect phylogenies and taxonomies.
Email: emma_kominek[at]sfu.ca
Miranda Dennis
MSc Student (since 2020), Mooers and Hart Labs
My research focuses on the phylogeography and speciation events of West Coast nudibranchs, specifically the Hermissenda species complex. I will be using a variety of phylogenetic methods to learn about their demographic history.
Email: miranda_dennis[at]sfu.ca
Ruth Linsky
PhD Student (since 2019), Mooers Lab
She is part of the NSERC ReNewZoo Program. She studies and work to protect orangutans in Indonesian Borneo. Her research thus far has focused on conservation genetics of orangutans and she has interests in orangutan population assessments and orangutan rehabilitation assessment.
Email: ruth.linsky[at]gmail.com
Philippe Fernandez-Fournier
PhD Candidate (since 2018), Mooers Lab
Research Interests: Philippe is investigating the effect of human activities on the evolutionary history of species assemblages. He is focusing on the change in phylogenetic diversity through time and how it varies across taxa and biomes. He is also the co-founder of a nonprofit doing coral restoration in West Papua (Wide Open Projects).
Email: philippe_fernandez[at]sfu.ca
Website: philfernandezf.com
Natalie Dinsdale
PhD Candidate (since 2017), Crespi Lab
Research Interests: Natalie is a PhD student working with Dr. Crespi to explore how evolutionary dynamics shape sex differences, personality variation, and health and disease in the human lineage. She is particularly interested in how evolution simultaneously acts on the mind-body – especially with respect to the unsolved mystery of the female orgasm – and is currently exploring how the pleiotropic oxytocin system jointly impacts female sexuality, reproduction, and personality.
Email: natalie_dinsdale[at]sfu.ca
Website: www.nataleo.com
Olga Vasilev
PhD Candidate (since 2013), Psychology
Research Interests: I am broadly interested in human development and the evolution of language, communication and social cognition in humans. My current PhD work focuses on the evolutionary implications of early communicative development, specifically looking at the developmental trajectories of infants’ early communication and how they correspond to the time course of brain lateralization. I have recently developed a course on the Evolution of Human Cognition and Language.
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Olga_Vasileva
Vanessa Guerra
PhD Candidate (since 2015), Hart Lab
Research Interests: Next generation sequencing techniques have provided us with new tools to help us expand our understanding of evolutionary processes that lead to population isolation and speciation. My research uses NGS techniques to characterize the transcriptomes of gametes and gamete recognition genes in sea stars with varied life histories to deepen our understanding of mating system evolution. Email: vguerra[at]sfu.ca
Twitter: @vguerracanedo
Jayme M.M. Lewthwaite
PhD Candidate (since 2013), Mooers Lab
Research Interests: Jayme Lewthwaite is an NSERC scholar and PhD student who is combining spatial ecology and phylogenetic information to help evaluate the biodiversity impacts of anthropogenic change in order to prioritize conservation actions. She is currently examining these patterns in Canadian butterfly species and at the Smithsonian.
Email: jlewthwa[at]sfu.ca
Twitter: @jaymelewthwaite
Brea McCauley
PhD student (since 2019), Archaeology
Research Interests: My project involves looking at what factors influence tool-kit variation within small-scale food producing groups. I am broadly interested in applying evolutionary theory to the archaeological record to explore the evolution of culture.
Email: bmccaule[at]sfu.ca
Philippe Aubin
MA student (since 2016), Archaeology
Research Interests: I am interested in the effect the morphology of points has on their penetration and wound characteristics. To explore this I will be using computer simulations and comparing those with experimental data.
Email: paubin[at]sfu.ca
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Philippe_Aubin2
Undergraduate students
Staff
Silven Read
Lab Manager, Crespi Lab
Research Interests: Silven has a wide rage of interests, studying mammalian behavioural ecology as an undergrad, then moving on to intertidal invertebrates for her Master’s. As a career research technician, she has enjoyed working with amphibians in Oregon, Dicty in Texas, codling moths in California, and now evolution in British Columbia. She has a secondary career as a copy editor / proofreader, for both fiction and non-fiction publications.
Email: info[at]SilvenRead.com
Websites: www.SilvenRead.com www.researchgate.net/profile/Silven_Read
Crawford Lab 