Principal Investigator
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Anat M. Belasen, PhD (she/her) is an incoming Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. She is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin and research affiliate at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Conservation Genomics. Her research interests center on how genomic variation mediates responses to global change in wild vertebrates, with a particular focus on responses to land-use change and disease in amphibians and reptiles. Dr. Belasen received her BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Tulane University, and her MSc in Conservation Ecology and PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan. She also received a David H. Smith Conservation Research Postdoctoral Fellowship which she completed at Cornell University, and a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology which she completed at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Graduate Students
We are recruiting graduate students through the Biology (MS and PhD) and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (PhD) programs for Fall 2026! Please reach out if you are interested in working with us, and be sure to check out the SBS grad programs application page. (if reaching out, you may find this blog post helpful
Postdocs
We are recruiting postdocs to begin sometime in 2026, check back here for updates!
I am always happy to work with prospective postdoc on fellowship applications such as the Smith Fellowship. please reach out if you are interested in working together.
I am always happy to work with prospective postdoc on fellowship applications such as the Smith Fellowship. please reach out if you are interested in working together.
Postdog
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Mochi is a very good girl. What she lacks in technical research skills, she makes up for in finding herps (and doing happy leaps when she does).
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Past Undergraduate Mentees
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Ryan Arnott (he/they) worked with Dr. Belasen in the Zamudio lab at UT in Fall 2022. His primary research project focuses on molecular detection of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in swab samples from historical museum specimens of Black-spotted Newts (Notophthalmus meridionalis) collected in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Collaborators on this project include Maia Rogers, previous REU student Clarissa Bustamante Lopez, and Drew Davis.
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Maia Rogers (she/they) worked with Dr. Belasen in the Zamudio lab at UT as an REU student through the UT InSTInCT Program in Summer 2022. During her REU she completed pilot studies and groundwork for the Black-spotted Newt project, and also began a project on secondary contact zone species dynamics in Patchnose Snakes (Salvadora spp.) under the mentorship of Kelly Zamudio and Travis LaDuc.
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Clarissa Bustamante Lopez (she/her) worked with Dr. Belasen in the Zamudio lab at UT as an REU student through the UT InSTInCT Program in Summer 2022. During her REU Clarissa became interested in the amphibian-Bd system, and piloted molecular work for Bd assays on swabs collected from museum specimens. She tested an optimized extraction and qPCR protocol on an initial subset of Black-spotted Newt swabs. She also collaborated on the Patchnose Snake (Salvadora spp.) contact zone project under the mentorship of Kelly Zamudio and Travis LaDuc.
Clarissa is completed her Bachelor's degree at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN. |
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Rebecca Clemons (she/her) completed a UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) with Dr. Belasen in the James Lab at the University of Michigan and continued working with them for an additional 2+ years. Her UROP project focused on how habitat fragmentation impacts infection prevalence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in Brazilian amphibians. Rebecca continued on in the James Lab as the lab manager and then as a Master's student. Her MSc thesis included a fascinating study of mycoviruses that infect Bd. Rebecca is now a PhD student in the Zamudio Lab at UT Austin and is researching how host and pathogen genetics affect disease outcomes in the amphibian-Bd system.
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Nick Farrugia completed a UROP independent research project at the University of Michigan in the James Lab with Dr. Belasen. Nick's UROP project focused on non-fungal eukaryotic pathogens in frogs from different habitat types (preserved Atlantic rainforest vs. actively managed agroforest) in Bahia, Brazil. Nick is now a fashion stylist and art director in New York, NY.
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