Dr. Benjamin Titus
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Biological Sciences
University of Alabama
Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Lausanne 2020-21
Postdoctoral Fellow, American Museum of Natural History 2018-2020
PhD – The Ohio State University, 2017
MSc – Auburn University, 2011
BSc – Otterbein University, 2008
I am an evolutionary biologist interested in understanding how biodiversity evolves in tropical marine mutualisms. I combine extensive field research with systematics and genomic approaches to understand symbiosis at all levels of biological organization. My work spans from broad order-level phylogenetics to phylogeography, species delimitation, population genetics, full genome sequencing, and behavioral ecology. Organismally I mostly focused on tropical sea anemones and their symbionts on coral reefs in the Indo-West Pacific and Caribbean regions.
Dr. Catheline Froehlich
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD – University of Wollongong, Australia
MSc – Univ of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
BSc – University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Catheline is a marine ecologist specializing in how animal behavior is an important aspect of marine environments and particularly symbioses. She started her career in south Texas studying fish communities and movements of red snapper on artificial reefs before moving to Australia and completing her PhD at the University of Wollongong studying coral dwelling gobies and anemonefishes. She is now a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Titus Lab studying the adaptive function and behavioral ecology of clownfish color patterns. You can find out more at her webpage: https://CathelineFroehlich.github.io/ and follow her on twitter (@gobyprincess).
Dr. Aurelien De Jode
Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD- Aix Marseille University
MSc- AgroParisTech
Aurelien is an evolutionary biologist working on marine organisms. He is particularly interested in the processes of speciation, local adaptation and connectivity in the marine world and how we can infer the relative contributions of these process to the genomic pattern we observe. In his previous research he worked on a wide range of organisms such as pico eukaryotes, brown and red algae, bryozoans and mollusks. Aurelien has developed expertise in a variety of different fields ranging from metabarcoding to populations genomics and genome/transcriptome assemblies. For his postdoctoral research in the Titus Lab, Aurelien investigates the genomic basis of the symbiosis between clownfishes and sea anemones by comparing pairs of hosting and not hosting sea anemone genomes at different stages of divergence.
Miranda (Randi) Gibson
PhD Student
BA- University of Florida
Miranda is a PhD student interested in the evolution and diversity of sea anemone venom. She joined the Titus Lab as an NSF RAMP post-baccalaureate fellow studying the species delimitation and phylogeography of the clownfish-hosting sea anemone Radianthus magnifica before pursuing her PhD. Prior to that Randi researched the effects of anthropogenic factors on the righting ability of the sea star Asterias rubens at the University of Florida. In the future, Randi hopes to bridge the gap between the marine sciences and medicine, using anemone venom to produce human therapeutics for a variety of diseases and disorders.
Nina Luckas
PhD Student
MSc- University of Gothenburg, Sweden
BSc – Ludwig Maximilians University, Germany
Nina is a PhD student studying the systematics, species delimitation, and phylogeography of the clownfish-hosting sea anemones. Her research combines morphological and multiple genomic approaches (e.g. full genome, bait capture, and RAD sequencing) to disentangle sea anemone species boundaries. She is particularly focused within the clownfish-hosting clade Heteractina where combinations of phenotypic characters makes accurate field identification challenging. Nina’s prior research background includes tropical and cold-water coral reef ecology and conservation.
Matthew Freiler
PhD Student
MSc- University of Alabama
BSc- Kennesaw State University
Matthew is a PhD student with interests in comparative genomics, phylogeography, and marine ecology. Matthew aims to use whole-genome data to explore the mutualistic relationship between clownfish and their host anemones, as well as examine the genomic distinctions between host and non-host sea anemones. Prior to joining the Titus Lab, he studied the organellar genomes of red marine macroalgae (Rhodophyta, Florideophyceae) at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
Korrie Brown
MSc Student
BSc- University of West Florida
Korrie is a Master’s student focused on applying underwater video cameras to study animal behavior, specifically the mutualistic relationship between Pederson’s cleaner shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni) and Caribbean reef fish. Her goal is to effectively utilize video technology to gather comprehensive and accurate behavioral data. Before her time at the Titus Lab, Korrie researched the prevalence and concentration of microplastics in Coquina clams (Donax variabilis) along the Gulf Coast of northwest Florida at the University of West Florida.
Adelaide Tomerlin
NSF Post-bac researcher
BSc- University of Hawaii
Titus Lab Alumni
Tommaso Chiodo
MSc (2022-2024) Systematics and species delimitation of Entacmaea quadricolor
Undergraduate Researchers
2024-present Allison Donald, Univ. of Alabama
2024-present Karlie Sims, Univ. of Alabama
2024-present Zach Schroder, Univ. of Alabama
2024-2025 Ava Gordon, Dauphin Island Sea Lab
2024-2025 Evelyn Brackebush, Dauphin Island Sea Lab
2023-2024 Josie Pry, Dauphin Island Sea Lab