A man wearing a red shirt with the number 34 and plaid shorts is holding a dark snake near a wooded area, standing on a gravel path next to a bench.

Matthew S. Atkinson (UCF PhD 2023)

Matt completed his dissertation on Perkinsea and Ranavirus disease in Florida amphibians in 2023. Matt is now a full-time instructor in the UCF Biology department where he teaches Herpetology among many other courses.

A person wearing a headlamp and a hoodie holds a frog in their hand, posing for the camera in a dark setting.

Nicholas Christodoulides

Nick completed his dissertation on amphibian transcriptomics in summer of 2024. He is now a Senior Bioinformatician at Echinobase where he manages Echinoderm genomics resources.

Jacob LaFond (UCF M.Sc. 2021)

Jacob received his M.Sc. degree in the Savage Lab in 2021. His project investigated MHC immunogenetics and invasion biology of American bullfrogs. He is currently working in the University of Tampa Biology Department as a laboratory coordinator.

Dr. Kevin P. Mulder

@kEvo_Gen

Kevin’s web page

Kevin was co-advised by Guillermo Velo-Antón, Rayna Bell, and Anna Savage, and received his PhD from the Research Center for Biodiversity and Genetic Resources of the University of Porto (CIBIO) in 2020. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at CIBIO studying the evolution of viviparity in clades of Salamandra.

A person with long, braided hair smiles while holding an owl on their gloved hand indoors.

Faith Morgan

Faith completed a non-thesis Master’s in 2022 on Florida Scrub-Jay malarial infections. She currently works as a biology consultant.

Johnathan Napier (UCF M.Sc. 2018)

Johnathan received his MSc in the Savage lab in 2018. He is currently a mathematics graduate student at Eastern Michigan University.

Joanne Saldanha (UCF Biology 2018)

Joanne was an undergraduate Honors in the Major thesis student. She’s currently a PhD student at SUNY Stonybrook.

Emily Karwacki (UCF Biology 2018)

Emily was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab for over three years. She currently works for the USGS studying marine pathogens using eDNA techniques.

Brenda Rivera (UCF Biology 2018)

Brenda was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab for several years. She studied Batrachochytirum dendrobatidis and Ranavirus infections in various species of frogs in Jekyll Island, GA and published a resulting paper in EcoHealth in 2020.

Emma Sutton (UCF Biology 2018)

Emma was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab for two years. She worked on DNA sequence variation in genes of the sea turtle-associated herpesvirus lineage CFPHV5, so-authoring a paper in 2017.

Libby Abney (UCF Biology 2018)

Libby was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab and in the Marine Turtle Research Group (Mansfield Lab). She assisted with a project on the immunogenetics of green sea turtle susceptibility to fibropapillomatosis. She hopes to one day be involved with Rising Tide Conservation and focus on bringing back healthy populations of coral reef fishes.

Kiernan Oknefski (UCF Biology 2018)

Kiernan was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab for over a year. He worked on mitochondrial DNA sequencing and analysis. He is currently earning a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health.

Matthew Lawrance (UCF M.S. 2016, Savage lab manager 2016-2017)

Matt was the Savage Lab Manager from 2016-2017. He is currently a PhD student in the Storfer lab at Washington State University.

Sanabel Mahmoud (UCF Biology 2017)

Sanabel was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab for over a year, working on stress gene characterization in frogs.

Tyler Stuck (UCF Engineering 2017)

Tyler was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab for two years. He graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree with a minor in Bioengineering.

Taina Torres ((UCF Biology 2017)

Taina was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab for over a year. She graduated with a Biology degree and a minor in Environmental Studies. She used GIS to model the distribution of disease in amphibian species and co-authored one lab publication.

Andrew Letter (UCF Biology 2016)

Andrew was an undergrad researcher in the Savage Lab. He recently completed his Master’s degree at Eastern New Mexico University.

Zach Rivas (UCF Biology 2016)

Zach did an Honors in the Major undergraduate thesis in the Savage Lab. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Jeremi McRae (UCF Biology 2016)

Jeremi was an undergraduate researcher and field work expert in the Savage Lab. He is applying to graduate programs in wildlife management and still helps out with field work when he’s not fishing.

Yasmine Akhiyat (UCF Biology 2016)

Yasmine was an undergraduate researcher in the Savage Lab. She is currently in medical school.