Principal Investigator
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Dan Speiser
Dan is a graduate of East Lansing High School ('99) and Carleton College ('03). He earned a PhD as a member of Sonke Johnsen's Sensory Ecology lab at Duke University ('10) and was a post-doc in Todd Oakley's Evolutionary Biology lab at U.C. Santa Barbara (2011-14). Dan started his current position as an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina in 2014. He's not exactly sure when mollusks became his muse, but it probably dates back to childhood battles with marauding garden slugs and gruesome attempts at homemade calamari. |
Post-doctoral Scholar
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Alex Kingston
Alex got her BS from Arizona State University. She received her PhD from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she studied extraocular photoreception with Tom Cronin. Alex joined the Speiser lab in the Fall of 2015 where she began studying the molecular, structural, and functional complexities of dispersed visual systems in chitons and scallops. Alex also studies the co-evolution of weaponry, armor, and vision in snapping shrimp. Alex enjoys (studying, not eating) crayfish, molecular biology, coffee, making messes, and logic. |
PhD Student
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Dan Chappell
Dan got his B.S. from Ohio University. He is currently working on his PhD at USC. studying the neurobiology of eyed chitons. He is interested in the neurobiology underlying dispersed visual systems. Dan enjoys rock climbing, injecting chitons with fluorescent dyes, and being another Dan in the lab. |
MSc Students
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Natalie Sanchez
Natalie is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania ('16). She majored in Biology (with interest in conservation biology and ecology) and minored in psychology. As a PhD student at USC, she is studying the effects of environmental stress on the visual systems of pollinators and on how the same stresses may affect visual pollination syndromes, i.e. the nectar guides and pollen guides of flowers. She is also interested in how these changes subsequently affect interactions between pollinators and plants, as well as the abilities of pollinators to recognize mates, predators, and food sources. |
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Jamie Clark
Jamie graduated recently from USC with a B.S in Marine Science (with an emphasis in biology). She is continuing her studies at USC as a Master's student in the Marine Sciences program. For her graduate research, Jamie is studying the function and regeneration of the eyes of the Florida fighting conch. Jamie enjoys SCUBA diving, traveling, and dissection. |
Research Specialist
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Luke Havens
Luke got his BS in biology from USC in 2016. As an undergraduate he studied the neural processing associated with the distributed visual system of scallops; now he designs and builds equipment for the lab. Labs that do comparative research have highly varying needs, so Luke has built custom computers, specialized optical devices, and automated electrophysiological systems. Along with adding to his research toolkit, learning to speak machine has helped Luke hone his questions about processing in our non-silico subjects. Luke appreciates food, dance, and when spec sheets are more than aspirational. |
Undergraduate Researchers
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Olivia Harris
Olivia is a senior in the USC Honors College. She is majoring in Biology with a minor in Psychology and is hoping to pursue a PhD in Ecology somewhere on the West Coast. She is currently doing electron microscopy image analysis and mathematical modeling to study structural color and anti-glare mechanisms in scallop eyes. For her Honors Senior Thesis, she is asking how changes in turbidity may impact vision in Cleaner Shrimp. She enjoys large microscopes in dark rooms, looking at things in tanks, and ordering tea at coffee shops. |
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Taylor Hollingsworth
Taylor is a senior at USC majoring in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. She is particularly interested in neurological and visual systems, with the ultimate goal of becoming an Opthamologist. In lab, Taylor is studying the comparative neuroanatomy of scallops and their relatives through dissection and immunohistochemistry. Taylor enjoys hiking, evolutionary biology, and The Office. |
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Lauren Kunselman
Lauren is a junior at USC majoring in Marine Science with a minor in Neuroscience. She is interested in the neurobiology of marine organisms. Her current research focuses on the neural morphology of the Florida fighting conch. Lauren studied abroad for a semester at Swansea University in Wales and plans to pursue a master's degree in biology. |
