Our People

The PI

Antonis Rokas

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences

B.Sc., Univ. Crete

Ph.D., Edinburgh Univ.

PostDoc, Univ. Wisconsin

Welcome to our website! Our lab's interests are quite diverse and largely center around two major areas of comparative biology; understanding the evolutionary relationships among living organisms, and elucidating the molecular origins and evolution of genetic pathways and morphological traits. We are working with a variety of different eukaryotes, such as fungi, mammals, and insects.

Lab Alumni

• John G. Gibbons, Grad, '07-'12
• Matt Campbell, Undergrad, '11-'12
• Han Zhang, Undergrad, '11-'12
• Ioannis Stergiopoulos, PostDoc, '11
• Natalie Christian, Undergrad, '10
• Chelsea Hamilton, Undergrad, '10
• Richard Minford, Undergrad, '10
• Pad Mahadevan, PostDoc, '09-'10
• Doug Denniston, Undergrad, '09-'10
• Melissa Bridy, Undergrad, '09
• John T. Tossberg, RA III, '08-'09
• The Rokas Lab Hall of Fame

Joining the Lab

• Undergrads / Grads / PostDocs
• Undergraduates excited about research and who have experience in evolutionary biology, molecular biology, or computational biology are encouraged to apply for a position in our lab. A minimum commitment of 10 hours per week during academic terms (for course credit) and full-time during summers (for pay), is expected. It is also expected that undergraduates will be willing to apply to the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program (for their summer stipends) and to complete their honors thesis in our lab. Candidates interested in joining our lab should email Antonis with a brief statement that explicitly states why they want to join our lab, CV and the contact details of two course instructors / evaluators.
• Candidate graduates interested in conducting their work in our lab are encouraged to apply either to the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) or to the Biological Sciences Program (BSP). Students in the IGP rotate through 4 different labs in the first year, thus gaining a diversity of research experiences and evaluating the goodness-of-fit of several different labs. Students in the BSP rotate through 3 different labs but typically commit to joining a particular lab upon acceptance to the program. Candidates interested in joining our lab through either of these programs should email Antonis with a cover letter that explicitly states why they want to join our lab, statement of research interests, CV and the contact details of three evaluators.
• Talented and motivated postdoctoral candidates with relevant experience in evolutionary biology, molecular biology, computational biology, genomics, bioinformatics and related fields interested in joining our lab should email Antonis with a cover letter that explicitly states why they want to join our lab, statement of research interests, pdf reprints of published papers, CV and the contact details of three evaluators. A track record of high-quality publications, excellent communication skills, enthusiasm for basic research, and a collaborative approach to science is expected.

Our Research Team

The Rokas Lab, Summer 2012

Back row: Kris / Ken / Jason / David

Middle row: Antonis / Patricia / Xiaofan

Front row: Leonidas / George / Holly / Mara

Jason Slot	Kris McGary
PostDoctoral Fellow	PostDoctoral Fellow
B.A., Boston Univ.	B.Sc., Bryan College
M.A.T., Boston Univ.	Ph.D., Univ. Texas-Austin
Ph.D., Clark Univ.
Xiaofan Zhou	Your name here?
PostDoctoral Fellow (jointly with Zwiebel lab)
B.Sc., Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ.
Ph.D., Pennsylvania State Univ.
Patricia Soria	Ken Polzin
Graduate Student	Graduate Student
B.Sc., Univ. Florida	B.Sc., Henderson State Univ.
Leonidas Salichos	David Rinker
Graduate Student	Graduate Student(jointly with Zwiebel lab)
B.Sc., M.Sc., Agricultural Univ. Athens	B.A., William & Mary College
M.Sc., Katholieke Univ. Leuven
Mara Kim	Holly Elmore
Undergraduate Researcher	Undergraduate Researcher
George Greene	Your name here?
Undergraduate Researcher