Gregory Thom
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University
Curator of Genetic Resources, Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science
Main hobbies: aquascaping, birdwatching, and fishing.
Andre Moncrieff - Postdoc
Andre is an ornithologist and evolutionary biologist primarily focused on studying the speciation process in Andean and Amazonian birds. His research broadly falls within the fields of systematics, phylogeography, and population and landscape genomics. In the Thom lab, Andre is using whole-genome resequencing data of Amazonian birds to better understand why different portions of the genome provide different patterns of diffusion of alleles across the landscape.
Main hobbies: birding, running, and playing violin.
Juliana Damasceno - Ph.D. Student
Juliana is a Biologist, with a master's degree in Zoology. Her previous studies were mainly focused on biogeography and speciation of Neotropical birds. In the Thom Lab, she is developing projects that investigate the evolutionary underpinnings of the army-ant-following behavior in Neotropical birds with a focus in the genus Gymnopithys
Luca Micheli - Ph.D. Student
Luca is an ornithologist interested in neotropical birds. His research experience involved the systematics, taxonomy, biogeography, evolutionary biology, and population genomics of South American birds. In Thom Lab, he aims to continue studying the speciation process of neotropical birds with novel genomic techniques.
Main hobbies: Running, birdwatching, hiking and wild-life photography
Gustavo Martins - Ph.D. Student
Gustavo is an ornithologist fascinated by Neotropical birds, especially Amazonian species. He has experience in studies of natural history and community ecology. In the Thom Lab, his research explores how woodpeckers have adapted to myrmecophagy (ant-eating). He is investigating the physiological, genomic, and ecological mechanisms that underpin dietary specialization in ant-eating birds, focusing on species like Celeus flavus.
Main hobbies: Soccer, running, birdwatching.
Natalia Pérez-Amaya - Visiting Scholar
Natalia is a Ph.D. candidate in Biological Sciences at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Her research is focused on the phylogeography and ecomorphology of Neotropical birds. In the Thom Lab, she is evaluating phylogeographic and demographic patterns between disjunct populations of Hemitriccus striaticollis.
Main hobbies: birdwatching, painting, and knitting.