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People

Principle Investigator

Dr. Daniel Noble – I try to steer the group towards cool ideas, but often find they end up taking them in even cooler directions! You can check out more about my research interests here

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Ondi Crino – (2021 – Present) Lizard endocrinology and mitochondrial metabolism expert! Ondi started as a postdoc on our newly funded ARC Discovery Grant. Dan was able to bring her over from the dark side (studying birds) to study lizards. I guess they are all just reptiles anyway!

Kris Wild (2022-2023) – Kris just finished his PhD at the University of Canberra with Stephen Sarre and Arthur Georges. Kris’s research focuses on understanding the ecology, conservation, and life-history of amphibians and reptiles. He’s especially interested in integrating energetic, demographic, and genomic approaches to understand population processes.

PhD Students

I’m currently looking for PhD students to start in 2023! If you’re interested please get in touch with me. 

Naomi Laven – (2023 – Present) I’ve moved to Canberra after an undergrad, honours and lots of field assistant work in the Australian tropics. My research here at ANU will focus on the implications of sex-reversal in a local alpine skink species, including looking at the ways sexual phenotypes or genotypes might impact behaviour, cognition, and mating traits. Understanding how sex-reversal impacts fitness is vital for predicting the future directions of populations prone to this phenomenon
Pablo Recio – (2022 – Present) My research focuses mainly on the evolution of animal behaviour, using reptiles as a model species. During my PhD I aim to unravel how maternal condition together with early environment affect cognitive abilities of the delicate skink. I am highly skilled at catching lizards with a fishing rod. You can find out more about my research here.
Dalton C. Leibold – (2022 – Present)  Evolutionary ecologist by passion, physiologist by profession. I use reptiles as a system for identifying relationships between the environment, physiological processes, and fitness and all of its associated phenotypes. During my PhD I aim testing the programmatic effects of early-life experiences (i.e., maternal effects and the developmental environment) on physiological biomarkers of fitness (mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, and DNA damage), life-history tradeoffs, and lifetime reproductive success.

MSc Students

If you’re interested in a MSc we have lots of projects on the go, please get in touch with me. 

Anthony Ward (2020-Present – Part-time) – Anthony is doing his MSc studying how resources and density impact female reproduction. Unfortunately, due to COVID, his studies are delayed.

Undergraduate / Honours Students

If you’re interested in a Honours we have lots of projects on the go, please get in touch with me.

Lab Alumni

Postdocs

Dr. Essie Rodgers (2019–2020) – Ecophysiology and Conservation Physiology of all things big (crocodiles to be exact) and small (lizards, fish and insects!). Now runs her own physiology lab at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand!!

Dr. Julia Riley – (2018) – University of New South Wales – Julia did a short postdoc stint with Lisa Schwanz and I at UNSW as an Endeavour Fellow. She then landed a South African postdoc, followed by a prestigious NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship before landing a job at Mount Allison University in Canada!

PhD

Fonti Kar – 2016 – 2021 – University of New South Wales – Co-advised with Prof. Shinichi Nakagawa – Phenotypic plasticity and pace-of-life in a widespread lizard, Lampropholis delicata. Fonti is now a postdoc at the University of New South Wales.

Birgit Szabo – PhD 2016 – 2019 – Macquarie University – Co-advised with Dr. Martin Whiting – Comparative cognition accross in lizards with diverse social structure. Birgit is now a postdoc at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Kirke Munch – PhD 2014- 2018- University of Tasmania – Co-advised with Dr. Geoff While – Sociality, personality and learning in a family living lizard, Egernia whitii. Kirk is now working as a Grants Review Officer at the University of Tasmania.

MSc

Ophia Zhang (2019–2021) ANU – Co-advised with Dr. Megan Head. Ophia also did a short-term Research Assistant stint in the lab.

Xuechen Liu (2022) ANU – Co-advised with Prof. Sasha Mikheyev.

Honours

Eoin Noble (2019) – Hons – Australian National University

Emily Rayner (2017) –  Hons 2017 – University of New South Wales

Kyleen Lopez  – Hons 2017 – University of New South Wales

Fonti Kar – MSc 2015 – Macquarie University – Co-advised with A/Prof. Martin Whiting

Kerrie Wechmann – Hons 2012 – Macquarie University – Co-advised with A/Prof. Martin Whiting

Ben Clark – Hons 2012 – Macquarie University – Co-advised with A/Prof. Martin Whiting