People

Dr. Samridhi Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor

Samridhi is an evolutionary biologist interested in studying the genomic basis of evolutionary change in nature. Her research integrates evolutionary biology, ecology, genomics, and interspecific interactions to characterize the evolutionary processes shaping patterns of variation across the genome through space and time. Samridhi earned her Ph.D. with Dr. Zach Gompert at Utah State University. Then she did a postdoc with Dr. Robin Hopkins at Harvard University and Dr. Noah Whiteman at UC Berkeley before moving to New Orleans as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Samridhi also serves as an Associate Editor for Molecular Ecology.

Ph.D. Students

Lakshmi Vineesha Digumarthi

Vineesha is interested in spatio-temporal patterns of local adaptation. She completed her Bachelor’s in agriculture and Master’s in Genetics and Plant breeding, where she pursued research on genetic diversity among black gram varieties to identify the best cultivars that can be used as parents in future breeding programs and develop molecular profiles of these varieties using DNA fingerprinting. With a background in agricultural breeding and genetics, Vineesha in the Chaturvedi Lab aims to investigate the effects of climate change on genetic variation in natural populations and their evolutionary responses to climate change on both spatial and temporal scales.

Garima Setia

Garima is a Lab Technician in the Chaturvedi Lab. Her interests lie in evolutionary biology, specifically exploring the genomic aspects of co-evolutionary arms races in nature. In the Chaturvedi Lab, Garima aims to study the co-evolution between Battus and Aristolochia at chemical, microbial, genomic, and transcriptomic levels. She held a research role at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she studied the rapid evolution of meiotic drivers and their hpRNA-class RNAi suppressors in Drosophila. Garima’s Master’s thesis at Louisiana State University focused on investigating termite microbiomes and their potential impact on ironwood trees in Guam. She completed her Bachelor of Science at Punjab Agricultural University in India. Garima is interested in evolutionary genetics, computational biology, and whole-genome scale analysis. Previously, she held a research role at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she studied the rapid evolution of meiotic drivers and their hpRNA-class RNAi suppressors in Drosophila. She completed her Bachelor of Science at Punjab Agricultural University in India. Garima’s Master’s thesis at Louisiana State University focused on investigating termite microbiomes and their potential impact on ironwood trees in Guam.  In the Chaturvedi Lab, Garima aims to study the role of transposable element dynamics in speciation and hybridization. 

Michaela Butler

Michaela is interested in using molecular and genomic approaches to study co-adaptation. She attended the University of Houston, where she completed her Bachelor of Science in biology. Following her bachelor’s, she began a year of post-baccalaureate research at Rice University as part of the STEGG-Interact program. During her research, she identified evidence of hybridization in two distinct species of live oak trees in Texas. She used targeted DNA sequencing and bioinformatics to determine the microbial community structure of the soil and found that the fungal microbes exhibited a novel community structure. In the Chaturvedi la,b Michaela aims to study the genomic basis of co-adaptation of plants and herbivorous insects.

Lab Technician

Juj Sullivan

Juj is interested in ecology as a whole, with special interest in disturbance ecology, microevolution, and ecological conservation in the face of climate change. He got his bachelor’s degree in Wildlife with a minor in Fisheries & Aquatic Science from Purdue University. During his undergrad, Juj worked in the Forestry & Natural Resources Genetics Lab on research projects that were investigating gene expression & gene flow in black walnut (Juglans nigra) trees. Before joining the Chaturvedi Lab, Juj was a lab manager for the Ferris Lab, where he worked for several years on projects investigating the genetic basis of local adaptation and reproductive isolation in the Mimulus species complex. Juj is excited to continue working in evolutionary biology research and to learn more about using Battus and Aristolochia as a model system.

Undergraduate Researchers

Macy Taylor, 2024-present

Postdoctoral Scholars

I currently do not have any funding for postdoctoral positions in my lab. However, if you are interested in applying for fellowships, please get in touch, and we can discuss possible research ideas and opportunities. Below is a list of possible sources of funding: 

Alumni

Jack Sherley, Undergraduate researcher, 2024-2025