Principal Investigator
Doc Brock
E-mail: kmbrock@sdsu[dot]edu Pronouns: she/her
Assistant Professor & Curator of Herpetology (2024)
Biology Dept. San Diego State University
Biodiversity Museum San Diego State University
NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology (2021-2024)
UC Berkeley & Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
National & Kapodistrian Univ. of Athens
Ph.D. Quantitative & Systems Biology - EEB Concentration
University of California, Merced
M.S. Conservation Ecology
University of Michigan
B.S. Program in the Environment
University of Michigan
B.A. Art & Design
University of Michigan
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
MATIAS FRASER
High Tech High School
Matias is a super star high schooler who is assisting us in animal behavior research and local fieldwork with lizards ! Right now his primary duties consist of assisting Amber with her lizard colony and testing out behavioral experiment protocols. He is interested in many things and we are fortunate to be able to honor his curiosity and mentor him through research.
SAVANNAH MERCER
Undergraduate - Biology
Savannah is a SURP scholar researching the effects of urbanization on the hydrophysiology and behavior of Western Fence Lizards across southern California. This is a collaborative project with the labs of Dr. Bree Putman (Cal State Long Beach) and Dr. Emily Taylor (Cal Poly SLO).
PACO CHRISTMAN
Undergraduate - Biology
Paco is interested in many things ! Right now he is researching the effects of urbanization on the physiology and thermoregulatory behavior of several species of lizards throughout San Diego County. Paco is working with both native and introduced species of lizards and comparing them to understand if trait shifts in urban landscapes happen similarly or differently from species to species.
SAM WILSON
Masters Student - Evolutionary Biology
Sam completed his B.S. in Biology at Oklahoma State University where he worked on introduced urban Mediterranean House Geckos in the lab of Dr. Guin Wogan. Sam is continuing and expanding his work on urban geckos in collaboration with research teams from Europe and the Middle East to understand how integrated behavioral and morphological syndromes evolve in their native range and introduced across the urban-rural gradient.
ALYSSA HEAD
Masters Student - Evolutionary Biology
Alyssa has a wide range of interests including functional morphology, sexual dimorphism, and what determines the success of an introduced species. She is continuing her research that she started back in Ohio (in the Gangloff Lab) on wall lizards in Los Angeles and San Diego. She is currently studying morphological and genomic changes in CA introduced urban populations of Italian wall lizards (Podarcis siculus) has gone through since they were introduced about 30 years ago and comparing these changes to the source populations in Italy.
TUCKER HEPTINSTALL, M.S.
Doctoral Student - Evolutionary Biology
Tucker got his M.S. from the Parkinson Lab at Clemson University where studied venom evolution and its relationship to diet in garter snakes. He is broadly interested in herpetological conservation, ecology, and evolution. Specifically, Tucker is interested in uncovering how snake evolution and ecology may differ in anthropogenically altered ecosystems when compared to more undisturbed environments.
AMBER SINGH, M.S.
Doctoral Student - Evolutionary Biology
Amber got her M.S. from the Ensminger Lab at San Jose State University where she studied maternal effects of stress on hatchling habitat choice in western fence lizards. She is interested in the behavior and cognition of lizards, specifically how human interference has affected the evolution of lizard cognition through urbanization and the introduction of non - native/invasive species. She firmly believes in making herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians, accessible to everyone. Outside of research, her hobbies include knitting, hiking, and taking care of all her (many ! ) pets.
