Revell Lab

Quick Info

PI Revell's research is concentrated on phylogenetic methods, evolutionary biology, and evolutionary ecology. Lab PI Revell is the developer & maintainer of the popular R phylogenetics package phytools.

Other past & present lab members work on related projects, such as the phylogeny inference software phangorn & the new web application for phylogenetic analysis Guane.

Finally, PI Revell is also very active in teaching workshops on phylogenetic analyses in the R environment.

Quick Links

• Liam Revell GitHub page
• R phylogenetics: phytools blog; phytools.org
• Web interfaces for teaching population genetics (learnPopGen R package)

Links to collaborators

• Dahiana Arcila & Ricardo Betancur
  (University of California, San Diego)
• David Collar
  (Christopher Newport University)
• Andrew Crawford
  (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia)
• Luis De León
  (University of Massachusetts Boston)
• Alex Gunderson
  (Tulane University)
• Luke Harmon
  (University of Idaho)
• Cristián Hernández Ulloa
  (Universidad de Concepción)
• Jason Kolbe
  (University of Rhode Island)
• Manuel Leal
  (University of Missouri)
• Jonathan Losos
  (Washington University in St. Louis)
• Luke Mahler
  (University of Toronto)
• Alberto Puente-Rolón
  (UPR - Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez)
• Graham Reynolds
  (University of North Carolina - Asheville)
• Klaus Schliep
  (Graz University of Technology)
• Lars Schmitz
  (Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Pitzer Colleges)
• Kristin Winchell
  (New York University)

People in the Revell Lab

Principal Investigator

Liam J. Revell Email: liam.revell@umb.edu Curriculum Vitae (pdf) My Citations (Google Scholar) My GitHub

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Current Lab Personnel

		Myriam Ramirez-Herranz Myriam is a FONDECYT (Chile) supported postdoctoral researcher based at the University of Santísima de Concepción whose research focuses on understanding avian behavioral evolution through the lense of phylogenetic comparative methods. Her current work focuses on the relationship between cavity nesting and diversification, trait evolution, and biogeographic history.
		Viviana Romero Alarcon Viviana has been a Ph.D. student at UMass-Boston in the Revell lab since Fall of 2023, but previously worked as a FONDECYT (Chile) supported research assistant. Viviana earned her M.S. degree at the Universidad Industrial de Santander in Colombia. She's interested in how phylogenetic inference methods can be sensitive to parameter estimates and model selection, and how this in turn affects subsequent analyses in diverse areas such as paleontology, historical biogeography, diversification, and conservation biology.
		THIS COULD BE YOU! Please contact me about opportunities for undergraduate research experience, graduate study, or postdoctoral research in my lab.

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Lab Alumni

		Kevin Avilés-Rodríguez Kevin joined the lab in September 2015 & successfully defended his Ph.D. (co-advised by Dr. Luis De León) in April 2021. Kevin's research is focused on how human-induced environmental change can affect animal ecology & evolution, particularly in reptiles. Kevin earned a prestigious NSF postdoctoral research fellowship in biology, and recently started a faculty position as Assistant Professor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.
		Derek Briggs Derek was a University of Massachusetts Boston undergraduate who began working with Kristin Winchell in the lab in 2014 and completed a senior research project on injury rates and dewlap size in urban lizards. This project ultimately resulted in a publication in the Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society. Derek is interested in wildlife conservation and hoped to pursue this interest in graduate school.
		Tiara Butler-Smith Tiara was a University of Massachusetts Boston undergraduate student who worked with former post-doc Graham Reynolds on the genetics of Caribbean boas. After working in the Revell lab, Tiara transferred to North Carolina State University where she planned to study biochemistry and run for their women's track & field team.
		David C. Collar Dave was a postdoc in the lab from August 2014 to July 2015. Dave uses phylogenetic methods to test hypotheses about morphological evolution in lizards & teleost fish. After finishing in the Revell lab, Dave accepted a faculty position at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. For more information, please visit the Collar lab website.
		Cleo Falvey Cleo was a University of Massachusetts Boston undergraduate student who started working with Kevin & Kristin in January 2018 studying urban adaptation and evolution in Anolis. Cleo defended her senior thesis & graduated with honors from UMass-Boston at the end of spring semester, 2021. Before graduating, Cleo won a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship that she's presently using to pursue her Ph.D. in the Geneva Lab at Rutgers.
		Javier Fernández-López Javier was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab from 2021-22. He is broadly interested in how evolutionary processes shape species ranges at different scales. Javier's also involved in methodology development using the R language. For more information, check out his blog or Google Scholar page. Javier is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE-CNRS) in France.
		Jason Fredette Jason completed his senior thesis in the lab, focused on the molecular phylogenetics and species diversity of Puerto Rican dwarf geckos (Sphaerodactylus). After graduating from UMass-Boston, Jason went on to become territory manager at Eppendorf.
		Karen Kolodzaike Karen was a University of Massachusetts Boston graduate who conducted research in the Revell lab from 2012 to 2014. She worked with Graham on the genetics of Puerto Rican boas. Karen now works as a registered nurse.
		Ellen Lapuck Ellen was a second degree student at UMass Boston majoring in biology. She worked in the lab from 2013 to 2014, taking care of the lizard colony and assisting in the molecular lab. After working in the lab, she was accepted to Veterinary School at the University of Pennsylvania.
		Fabio A. Machado After earning his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology at the Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil, Fabio was a member of the lab as a postdoc in from 2018-2020. Find out more about Fabio's research during his time at UMass-Boston via his Google Scholar page. Fabio is now a postdoc in Josef Uyeda's lab at Virginia Tech University, and will start a faculty position at Oklahoma State University in January 2023.
		Jillian C. Newman Jill was a Northeastern University undergraduate student who worked in the lab from summer of 2011 until the fall of 2013. Jill went on to obtain a Master's degree at Clemson and now works as a research analyst in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Kentucky.
		Kathrin Nye Kathrin was a University of Massachusetts Boston undergraduate student interested in marine ecology and lionfish. During her time in the lab Kathrin worked with Graham in the lab during spring 2013 to learn methods in molecular ecology, such as DNA isolation and PCR. She is now a middle school science teacher.
		Sofia Prado-Irwin Sofia was a Barnard College undergraduate who was an REU student in the lab during the summer of 2012. Sofia went on to earn her Ph.D. at Harvard University in 2022, and is now the Graduate and Adult Programs Coordinator at the Denver Zoo.
		Quynh Quach Quynh began as Master's student in January of 2014. She is from Oregon and her interests include ecology, evolution, behavior and conservation. Quynh successfully defended her Master's thesis entitled "Historical allopatry and secondary contact or primary intergradation in the Puerto Rican crested anole, Anolis cristatellus, on Vieques Island" in July of 2016. Quynh presently works as a research technician at Tulane University
		R. Graham Reynolds Graham's research is on the evolutionary, population, and quantitive genetics of tropical reptiles and amphibians. Graham first started in the lab as a postdoc in August 2011, after which he also worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University with Jonathan Losos. In December 2015 Graham started a faculty position at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.
		Siedeh Rezaei-Kamalabad Siedeh was a University of Massachusetts Boston undergraduate student who worked in the Revell lab in spring semester 2013. She is interested in plant genetics and transgenics and trained with Graham to learn about what we do and to improve her molecular lab skills. She now owns a business called the Alternative Horticulturalist.
		Klaus P. Schliep Klaus started in the lab as a postdoc in September 2014. Klaus is a statistician and biomathematician who earned his Ph.D. from Massey University in New Zealand. In his research, Klaus develops and applies mathematical and computational models to solve biological problems, mainly in evolution. Klaus is also the maintainer and principal developer of the phangorn R package. For more information, see Klaus's website. As of Fall 2019 Klaus is a Senior Scientist at Graz University of Technology in Austria.
		Tanner Strickland Tanner was a Harvard undergraduate from the Losos lab who conducted a large portion of his senior thesis research in the Revell lab. Tanner was awarded the Hoopes prize for his senior thesis. He's now a senior manager at Bain & Company in Sydney, Australia.
		Yoel E. Stuart Yoel was a Ph.D. student in the Losos Lab at Harvard University and Revell lab affiliate who ran a common garden experiment with Anolis carolinensis in collaboration with our lab. Since 2019, Yoel has been a faculty member at Loyola University Chicago. For more about Yoel, check out his website.
		Maia Titcomb Maia was a UMass-Boston second degree student majoring in biology, with plans to apply to veterinary school. She began working in the lab in September 2013, and assisted Kristin with husbandry and research in the lizard colony. After completing her DVM, Maia now works as a veterinarian for the Oregon Humane Society in Portland, Oregon.
		Kirsten Tyler Kirsten was a UMass-Boston undergraduate biology major who successfully completed a senior thesis project on tail autotomy in the Revell lab that resulted in a first-author publication (Tyler et al. 2016). After graduating from UMass-Boston, Kirsten went on to pursue her Ph.D. at the University of Vermont which she successfully defended in 2021.
		Kristin M. Winchell Kristin started in the lab as a graduate student in September 2011 & successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation in March of 2018. She studies urban ecology and adaptation - primarily in reptiles. After two postdoctoral appointments, Kristin accepted a faculty position at NYU, starting there as an Assistant Professor in 2022. For more information Kristin or her research, please visit her website.

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