Lab members
Principal Investigator
James T. Stroud, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
James is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the Elizabeth Smithgall-Watts Endowed Faculty at Georgia Tech. Originally from London, he completed his undergraduate (Zoology) and Master's (Ecology) in the UK, before moving to Miami, Florida, to earn his PhD (Ecology and Evolution) at Florida International University in 2018. Following that, James completed a postdoc with Dr. Jonathan Losos at Washington University in St. Louis before starting the lab at Georgia Tech in 2023. He founded the Lizard Island long-term eco-evolutionary field study in 2015.
stroud@gatech.edu Google Scholar ResearchGate CV Full profile
Research staff
Jon Suh
Lab Manager
Jon runs the lab: field logistics, permits, equipment, and all aspects of the long-term Lizard Island database. Anything collected on Lizard Island (or in the lab in general) passes through him!
Postdoctoral researchers
Guillermo Garcia-Costoya, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Guille joined the lab in June 2026, and will be working with us to integrate mechanistic biophysical models into our studies on the evolution of thermal ecophysiology in lizards, as well as to tackle some of the big outstanding Lizard Island analyses.
PhD students
Taylor Cooper
PhD Student, Bioinformatics · Fall 2024
Taylor started in Fall 2024 and works at the intersection of bioinformatics and ecology and evolution. Taylor's PhD is focusing on understanding the transcriptomic responses of ectotherms (lizards) to extreme thermal stress, and the genomic signatures of selection on Lizard Island.
Taylor is supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Emma Glenn
PhD Student, Biology · Fall 2025
Emma started in Fall 2025 and is exploring the physiological mechanisms that lizards employ to survive extreme thermal stress, specifically extreme cold (sub-CTmin) conditions.
Emma is supported by a Simons Foundation Graduate Fellowship in Ecology and Evolution.
Sam Clay
PhD Student, Biology · Fall 2027
Sam deferred a Fall 2026 start to take up a Fulbright Fellowship in Ecuador, and will officially start in the lab in Fall 2027.
Sam is currently in Ecuador, supported by a Fulbright Scholar Program Award.
Graduate and Undergraduate Research Assistants
Camdyn Gates
Undergraduate Researcher · Summer 2026-present
Tessa Allers
Undergraduate Researcher · Spring 2026-present
Katie Stone
Undergraduate Researcher · Spring 2026-present
Ashlyn Willis
Undergraduate Researcher · Spring 2025-present
Matthew Anderson
Master's Researcher · Fall 2025-present
Elle Garman
Undergraduate Researcher · Fall 2025-present
Loan (Rita) Tran
Undergraduate Researcher · Fall 2025-present
Brynne Hobart
Undergraduate Researcher · Fall 2024-present
Haelin Lee
Undergraduate Researcher · Fall 2024-present
Alumni
The lab has mentored 29 undergraduates at Georgia Tech, five undergraduates at other universities, 32 Master's students, and four high school students through the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden internship program. Several have published lab research as lead or co-authors, and several have presented it at international meetings.
Larkin Wynn
Lab Alumni · Fall 2024-Spring 2026
Katie Griffin
Lab Alumni · Spring 2024-Spring 2026
Miles Appleton
Lab Alumni · Spring 2024-Spring 2026
Eli Vazquez
Lab Alumni · Spring 2024-Spring 2025