People
We are looking for independent, motivated scientists to join our group. Please contact Dr. Fierst for more information (jfierst at fiu dot edu). Include a brief description of your previous research experience as well as current and future research interests.
Our research covers a wide variety of topics but our successful trainees usually:
1) Love evolution and genetics
2) Are eager to learn computing and bioinformatics
3) Are interested in reading and discussing scientific literature
4) Are responsible and self-motivated
5) Are excited about collaborating with other students
6) Are committed to contributing to our lab community
Janna Fierst
Associate Professor
I grew up in Seattle, Washington and completed my BA in Biology at Pomona College in California. After teaching high school for a couple of years I pursued an MS in Marine Ecology at California State University, Northridge and discovered a love of theoretical biology. I finished my PhD at Florida State in evolutionary theory and computational modeling and started studying genomics and bioinformatics during my postdoctoral training at the University of Oregon. From 2015-2021 I was faculty at the University of Alabama and moved to FIU in 2022.
Postdoctoral researchers
Karolina Willicott
Karolina finished her PhD at the University of Alabama in 2024 in the lab of Guy and Kim Caldwell. She developed substantial expertise in nematode genetics with an eye to neurodegenerative disease, at the same time diving deeply into bioinformatics and transcriptomic analyses. She joined the Fierst lab in 2026 to use genome large learning models for evolutionary sequence modeling.
Rohit Kapila
Rohit became an expert in Drosophila experimental evolution during his PhD at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research under the direction of NG Prasad. He joined the Fierst lab in 2022 and he's currently using his experimental evolution expertise to examine mutational patterns in Caenorhabditis. His personal website is here:
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Christina Burns
Christina finished her PhD in forensic sciences at FIU in 2024. Her dissertation research focused on molecular characterization and mating system evolution in Laurel Wilt, a dangerous plant pathogen. For her postdoctoral research she's moved to metazoa and is investigating host-virus co-evolution in the Drosophila melanogaster - Flock House Virus system.
Michelle McCauley
Michelle completed her PhD in 2024 in Levi Morran's laboratory at Emory University. Her dissertation research focused on using experimental evolution to test the pluralism hypothesis in Caenorhabditis, that multiple factors are necessary for the maintenance of sex. In the Fierst lab she's pursuing two main projects. In the first she's using genomics and population modeling to further investigate the pluralism hypothesis and in the second she's developing Rhabditina resources to study patterns of genome evolution across this group of worms.
Graduate researchers
Tori Eggers
Tori completed an NSF-funded postbaccalaureate research year in the Fierst lab and started her MS at FIU in 2022, transitioning to a PhD in 2023. She's studying the evolution of worm genomes, particularly how they've been shaped by transposable elements over different evolutionary scales.
Johnathan Spaulding
Johnathan started his PhD at FIU in 2023, funded by an NSF Bridges to the Doctorate fellowship. He's developed bioinformatic analyses to identify horizontally transferred bits of genome sequence and is using these to identify horizontal transfers in nematodes. Recently he's also focused on AI methods for evolutionary sequence analysis and modeling.
Florence Onifade
Florence finished her Bachelors and Masters degrees in her home country of Nigeria and started her PhD in the Fierst lab in 2025. She's developing skills in statistical analyses for high-dimensional data and applying these skills to analyses of host-virus systems.
Shanjida Afrin
Shanjida finished her Bachelors degree in her home country of Bangladesh before moving to Poland for a Masters degree and Czech Republic for a research internship. She's interested in the relationship between species boundaries and differential protein degradation at the Maternal-to-Zygotic transition. In the Fierst lab, she's studying these factors in Caenorhabditis species complexes.
Operations managers
Jasbelle Sosa
Lara Arbex Herden
Pooja Lad
Jasbelle, Lara and Pooja keep the Fierst lab running! In addition to fundamental lab operations they're developing expertise in genomic sequencing and analysis while they work towards graduate school and future careers.
Lab Mission and Member Expectations
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Our lab mission is to produce exciting scientific discoveries in an interactive, supportive intellectual community.
My mission as the lab head is to: 1) produce high-quality research; and 2) provide excellent training and intellectual development for early career researchers in scientific research, computation and evolutionary genetics.
I expect lab members will:
1) Respect one another! Treat other people's time, space, energy and stuff as though they were yours.
2) Participate in lab meetings, seminars, discussions and social events. We build and create our community and we can only do that by showing up. Don't worry if you feel like you don't have anything to say. It takes a while to get comfortable and process scientific communication.
3) Help each other. Similarly, don't be afraid to ask for help. We can often clear up problems and misunderstandings quickly by addressing them directly.
4) Establish goals and keep written records of daily activities. Progress in science and graduate school is often incremental. Written records help you keep track of your progress towards small and large goals.
5) Practice empathy. Some days everything is going great, other times you feel stuck. Being kind to each other helps a lot during the stuck times.
6) Take responsibility. Graduate school and postdoctoral research are periods of intense personal and professional development. Where you end up and how you get there is up to you.
7) Communicate. Open and consistent communication is key to maintaining a smoothly running, happy lab environment.
Lab & alumni
