revoir et bon chance
It is with a bit of sadness and a lot of gratitude that we say goodbye to four lab members as they move on to new and better endeavors.
Sean Sterrett completed his Ph.D. in Spring 2014 and is starting a postdoc with the USGS Northeast ARMI Program under the direction of Evan Grant. After a decade working on turtles, Sean has seen the light and will be working on salamander landscape ecology and public education.
Kevin Fouts finished his masters thesis on the impacts of fire restoration on reptiles and amphibians in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Kevin continues to be active in developing a citizen science program within the park to continue his work, and he is actively looking for his dream position. So if your hiring….
Albert Mercurio also finished his masters thesis on the impacts of Hydrilla and an associated cyanotoxin on freshwater turtles. Albert already has a publication in PLoS One.
Finally, Todd Pierson, who arrived as a freshman, is starting his Ph.D. with Ben Fitzpatrick at the University of Tennessee. Todd did an amazing number of things while part of our lab including extending the known range of Urspelerpes brucei, developing innovative eDNA techniques for stream salamanders, traveling everywhere to see everything and making us all very jealous, and serving as a dedicated leader of the Herpetological Society and finally bring home the golden hemipenes for our first ever victory in the UGA-Auburn Bioblitz. We wish them all well and great success.
