We are working to build an inclusive research group that pushes the boundaries of scientific understanding and makes science accessible to everyone.

Through our research and science communication, we are working to make science a fundamental part of everyday conversation. We want to introduce a broad and diverse audience to science and scientists that dedicate their life to understanding the natural world, while providing clear examples of why science plays such an important role in our past, present and future.

Principal investigator

Shane Campbell-Staton

Shane is interested in how human history, culture, technology and politics influence life, biological stress and evolution of species around the world. He uses physiology, gene expression, genomics and experimentation to identify genes and traits that allow animals to rapidly adapt to new environmental pressures faced in a human-dominated world.

Shane also has a deep passion for sharing science with the public. His own passion for science was kindled through television as a child. Growing up in a small town in South Carolina, he was not exposed to much nature or the outdoors. But watching nature documentaries and TV shows featuring passionate presenters, like Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin, he developed a love for the natural world. Now Shane is sharing his own passions and the wonders of science with a diverse audience through his research as well as visual and audio media. Explore some of his recent and ongoing SciComm projects here.

meet the team

Members of the Campbell-Staton Group

Our team gallery

Princeton Vaughn

Graduate student (Ph.D)

Princeton is interested in how animal populations, specifically lizards, respond to urbanization. Utilizing approaches that integrate functional morphology, genomics, and phenotypic plasticity, he hopes to better understand how these organisms respond to these novel environments.

Cara Love

Postdoctoral Researcher

Cara explores the ecological and evolutionary consequences of anthropogenic stressors in a variety of species worldwide. She incorporates elements of ecotoxicology, disease ecology, immunology, gene expression, and genomics in her work to identify mechanisms of stressor response and resilience.

Find Cara on Google Scholar and her website

Andrea Rummel

Postdoctoral Researcher

Andrea is interested in how muscle physiology, thermal physiology, and biomechanics contribute to the locomotor performance of moving animals, and what mechanisms enable or constrain physiological adaptation to temperature in skeletal muscle in the face of short- and long-term changes in environmental temperature.

Find Andrea on Google Scholar and her website

Yeraldi Loera

Graduate Student (Ph.D)

Yeraldi combines ecotoxicology, functional genomics, behavioral assays and field-based recapture experiments to understand the impact of environmental contaminants of form and function and how evolutionary adaptation may allow wild populations to reliably survive and reproduce in contaminated environments.

Albert Chung

Graduate Student (Ph.D)

Albert is broadly interested in understanding the genomic basis of phenotypic diversity. With the Campbell-Staton group, he is studying the underlying genomic and physiological bases of phenotypic divergence between forest and urban-adapted created anole lizards (Anolis cristatellus) in Puerto Rico.

Madison Lichak

Graduate Student (Ph.D)

Madison is interested in the evolution of tusklessness in African elephants and the ways in which this trait may alter elephant behavior and the savanna ecosystem. She is also passionate about using writing as an effective and engaging means of science communication.

Ishani Sinha

Senior Research Specialist

Ishani manages our lab, oversees our animal colony, and conducts research at the intersection of genetic and molecular biology to understand the mechanisms by which genetic variation can influence performance and adaptation in the wild.

Arien Darby

Director of Brand and Strategy Awareness

Arien is a Marketing and Brand Manager at Warner Bros. Entertainment group. He is driven to inspire people to do the things that cultivate a sense of enthusiasm and joy within, and teach them how to connect with others to share their gifts with the world. He has partnered with the Campbell-Staton Group to help rethink science communication as a process and product. He is also a co-host of The Biology of Superheroes Podcast with PI Shane Campbell-Staton.

Kika Tuff

Science designer

Kika is a scientist and visual storyteller, deeply rooted in the ecological community. Here in the Campbell-Staton group, she uses media, strategy, and design to help the lab celebrate their work and share their discoveries with others. Outside of work, Kika practices her craft by inventing stories around campfires and leading quests in a long-standing game of Dungeons & Dragons. Storytelling-as-play remains a driving philosophy of her life and work.

Tatanka

Ambassador of Artificial Selection

Tatanka’s thesis work focuses on training and the psychology of Pavlovian response in humans, with a special emphasis on how long he has to stare at you and sigh passive aggressively before you will give him food. He is completely devoted to this research.

Meet past lab members