People — Smith Lab at Mississippi State

Megan L. Smith

I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mississippi State University.

I was previously a NSF postdoctoral fellow in Matthew Hahn’s Lab at Indiana University. I received my PhD in Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology from The Ohio State University, where I was a member of the Carstens Lab, in 2020.

I am originally from Mississippi, and I received my Bachelors of Science in Biology and Bachelor’s of Arts in English from the University of Mississippi in 2015.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Kerry Cobb

I completed my PhD in Biological sciences with Jamie Oaks at Auburn University
in 2023. My PhD work focussed on understanding speciation in North American toads
as well as evaluating the performance of statistical methods used in evolutionary
biology. I am originally from Kansas where I earned my Bachelor's and Master's
degrees at the University of Kansas.

I am currently working on developing new machine learning methods for inferring
evolutionary history.

Graduate Students

Ashlyn Silliman

Ashlyn completed her B.S. in Biology from the University of Mississippi in 2024, and joined the lab as a Master’s student in August 2024. Her Master’s project will focus understanding species limits and diversification in Philomycus slugs from the southeastern US.

Audrey Bales

Audrey completed her B.S. in Biology from Mississippi State University in 2023, and joined the lab as a Master’s student in August 2024. Her Master’s project will focus investigating relationships among Arion slugs.

Join us? I am recruiting graduate students to start in Fall 2025. Please reach out if you are interested!