Our Research Team

Andrew T. Taylor, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

I am an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of North Georgia, where I specialize in the study of Fisheries Ecology and Management. I earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in fisheries from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in fisheries and aquatic ecology from Oklahoma State University. At UNG, I lead an undergraduate-centered research lab, mentor, and teach courses like Vertebrate Zoology and Ichthyology.

Current Students

Sydney Griffith

Undergraduate Researcher

Sydney joined the lab in Spring 2024, bringing aboard experience in molecular techniques. She is spearheading our bioinformatics work on native fishes. She was awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship and eventually plans to pursue a graduate degree.

Kim Nguyen

Undergraduate Researcher

Kim was one of the first students to join the lab at UNG in Fall 2022. She is leading our efforts to monitor fish community composition changes in local watersheds, and she has lent her time and skills to updating our Ichthyology and Vertebrate Zoology teaching collections. She is also our resident fish artist.

Indiana Hawkins

Undergraduate Researcher

Indiana joined the lab in Fall 2023. She has helped with field collections and maintaining our Vertebrate Zoology teaching collections. She is now co-leading an effort to examine the phenotypes of native fishes.

Cory Brooks

Undergraduate Researcher

Cory joined the lab in Fall 2023. He has contributed to several field collections, including putting his angling skills to work for black bass genetic samples. He is now co-leading an effort to examine the phenotypes of native fishes.

Lab Alumni – M.S. Students

Briant Nguyen

M.S. Research Assistant

Briant joined the lab at UCO in Fall 2019. As an undergraduate, his research focused on quantifying fish community change in urbanized prairie streams. He also was instrumental in maintaining the UCO Museum of Natural History’s Ichthyology Collection. Briant completed his M.S. thesis research on the distribution and habitat associations of Bluntface Shiner in 2023, and he was awarded the E.C. Hall Graduate Scholar Award for his scholarly achievements. In 2025, Briant began working with the Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

Kobe White

M.S. Research Assistant

Kobe joined the lab in Spring 2021 and worked as an undergraduate field technician in our lab. Kobe’s M.S. thesis research investigated the role of genetic identity on population dynamics of Neosho Bass and non-native Smallmouth Bass in a hybrid zone. He graduated in 2023 and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Lab Alumni – Undergraduate Students

Celia Smith

Undergraduate Researcher

Celia joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2023 and graduated with her B.S. degree in Spring 2024. Celia used GIS and local surveys to quantify the effects of land disturbance on in-stream habitats.

Sarah Cochran

Undergraduate Researcher

Sarah joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2023 and graduated with her B.S. degree in Spring 2024. Sarah was instrumental in coordinating field sampling for native stream fishes and planning genomic studies of nativity and stream capture.

Morgan Hill

Undergraduate Researcher

Morgan joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2023 and graduated with her B.S. degree in Spring 2024. Morgan was active with UNG’s Environmental Leadership Center, and she also led a study in our lab to examine water quality trends at the confluence of two local watersheds of interest. She is currently employed with a private fisheries management company.

Sydney Silver

Undergraduate Researcher

Sydney joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2023 and graduated with her B.S. degree in Spring 2024. She was an active contributor to UNG’s Environmental Leadership Center, where she contributed to water quality monitoring across the region. In our lab, she co-led a study examining water quality trends at the confluence of two local watersheds. She is currently employed with GADNR’s Environmental Protection Division in their Watershed Protection Branch.

Austen Kuhlmann

Undergraduate Researcher

Austen joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2023 and graduated with his B.S. degree in Spring 2024. He worked as a VertZoo Lab TA and also assisted on many field sampling efforts. He began a seasonal internship with GADNR in Spring 2025 and will be starting an MS program in Fall 2025.

Amelia Akins

Undergraduate Researcher

Haley joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2022 and graduated with her B.S. degree in Spring 2023 while taking a pre-veterinarian track. Her research explored the role of genetics in angler catch in a black bass hybrid zone. She is currently a student in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Haley Ellis

Undergraduate Researcher

Haley joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2022 and graduated with her B.S. degree in Spring 2023. She explored the role of genetics in angler catch in a black bass hybrid zone.

Kelly Popp

Undergraduate Researcher

Kelly joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2022 and graduated with her B.S. degree in Spring 2023. She examined how genetic identity may influence angler catch in an area with ongoing black bass hybridization.

Atticus Leithner

Undergraduate Researcher

Atticus joined the lab at UNG in Fall 2022 and graduated with his B.S. degree in Spring 2023. He developed field collection study designs for upcoming projects in North Georgia.

Landon Smith

Undergraduate Researcher

Landon joined the lab at UCO in Fall 2021. He estimated age of Smallmouth Bass, including back-calculating length-at-age and learning to code in the R programming language. He is also a member of the UCO Bass Fishing Team.

Alexis Peeper

Undergraduate Researcher

Alexis joined the lab at UCO in Spring 2020 and graduated with her B.S. in Fall 2021. She investigated angler choice among modern tag-reporting methods, and how data quality varies across reporting methods. See her publication here: https://doi.org/10.1002/nafm.10738

Britton Daniels

Undergraduate Researcher

Britton joined the lab at UCO in Spring 2020. He investigated variation in morphology and patterning across distinct genetic lineages of Smallmouth Bass.

Abbey Biard

Undergraduate Researcher

Abbey joined the lab at UCO in Spring 2022. She investigated the influences of natural and anthropogenic riverscape factors on the distributions of prairie stream fishes. Abbey graduated UCO with a degree in Biology Education and is now a middle school science educator and athletics coach.