CURRENT MEMBERS
Principal investigator
Dr. Robert Reisz
Robert's two true callings are vertebrate paleontology and fine coffee. The former began when he completed all three of his degrees at McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Robert Carroll, and the second is the result of his globetrotting in pursuit of early tetrapod fossils. Robert has been a professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga since 1975 (!), where he has since supervised over 20 graduate students. When not looking at fossils with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in hand, Robert also teaches two courses at UTM: BIO354 (Vertebrate Form and Function) and BIO356 (Major Features of Vertebrate Evolution).
Email: robert.reisz[at]utoronto[dot]ca
Twitter: @ReiszRobert // ResearchGate // Google Scholar
Robert's two true callings are vertebrate paleontology and fine coffee. The former began when he completed all three of his degrees at McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Robert Carroll, and the second is the result of his globetrotting in pursuit of early tetrapod fossils. Robert has been a professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga since 1975 (!), where he has since supervised over 20 graduate students. When not looking at fossils with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in hand, Robert also teaches two courses at UTM: BIO354 (Vertebrate Form and Function) and BIO356 (Major Features of Vertebrate Evolution).
Email: robert.reisz[at]utoronto[dot]ca
Twitter: @ReiszRobert // ResearchGate // Google Scholar
Lab technician & illustrator
Diane Scott
Diane graduated from UTM back in 1980 when it was still Erindale College, during which she became involved with Robert's lab, where she has remained since, providing high quality preparation, illustration, photography, and instruction on all of the above to students. Having worked with Robert for a long time, Diane helps to mitigate his tendency to move fossils around the lab without telling anyone else and helps keep the students in line while Robert's halfway across the world. She is also the primary caretaker for the diversity of lab pets that have kept the overworked grad students company and currently maintains a large guppy colony.
Email: diane.scott[at]utoronto[dot]ca
ResearchGate
Diane graduated from UTM back in 1980 when it was still Erindale College, during which she became involved with Robert's lab, where she has remained since, providing high quality preparation, illustration, photography, and instruction on all of the above to students. Having worked with Robert for a long time, Diane helps to mitigate his tendency to move fossils around the lab without telling anyone else and helps keep the students in line while Robert's halfway across the world. She is also the primary caretaker for the diversity of lab pets that have kept the overworked grad students company and currently maintains a large guppy colony.
Email: diane.scott[at]utoronto[dot]ca
ResearchGate
Graduate students
Bryan Gee (Ph.D. candidate)
Bryan is a native Californian (B.A. from Pomona College) who made the accident of coming to Canada for his Ph.D., where he has so far survived three winters and dodged the humid summers by fleeing to Arizona. He works mostly on the temnospondyls from Richards Spur for his dissertation but sometimes ventures over to other Paleozoic tetrapods in order to appease Robert for being the only non-coffee-drinker in maybe the entire history of the lab. In his "free time," Bryan usually works on a group of Mesozoic temnospondyls, the metoposaurids, which have been independently certified by at least three experts to be his one true love.
Email: bryan.gee[at]mail.utoronto[dot]ca
Twitter: @Koskinonodon // Personal website // ResearchGate // Google Scholar
Bryan is a native Californian (B.A. from Pomona College) who made the accident of coming to Canada for his Ph.D., where he has so far survived three winters and dodged the humid summers by fleeing to Arizona. He works mostly on the temnospondyls from Richards Spur for his dissertation but sometimes ventures over to other Paleozoic tetrapods in order to appease Robert for being the only non-coffee-drinker in maybe the entire history of the lab. In his "free time," Bryan usually works on a group of Mesozoic temnospondyls, the metoposaurids, which have been independently certified by at least three experts to be his one true love.
Email: bryan.gee[at]mail.utoronto[dot]ca
Twitter: @Koskinonodon // Personal website // ResearchGate // Google Scholar
Kayla Bazzana (Ph.D. student)
Kayla got her honours B.Sc. at UBC's Okanagan campus, where she studied psychology and tried to figure out why really sick people get sad and make their spouses sad too. Eventually, she realized that this was exceptionally depressing and that studying old dead things was way more fun and totally not morbid or depressing at all. She is working primarily on Paleozoic tetrapod braincases via the growing library of CT data that the lab has been building through our collaboration with ANSTO for her project, which is fueled by extensive caffeine consumption.
Email: kayla.bazzana[at]mail.utoronto[dot]ca
Twitter: @sumouria
Kayla got her honours B.Sc. at UBC's Okanagan campus, where she studied psychology and tried to figure out why really sick people get sad and make their spouses sad too. Eventually, she realized that this was exceptionally depressing and that studying old dead things was way more fun and totally not morbid or depressing at all. She is working primarily on Paleozoic tetrapod braincases via the growing library of CT data that the lab has been building through our collaboration with ANSTO for her project, which is fueled by extensive caffeine consumption.
Email: kayla.bazzana[at]mail.utoronto[dot]ca
Twitter: @sumouria
Sigi Maho (M.Sc. student)
Sigi just finished her HBSc at UTM studying Comparative Physiology. Having already graduated from OCAD University with Bachelor's in Design, she just couldn’t get enough of school and decided to move into biology. Although now pursuing her passion of studying animal anatomy and physiology, the animal she remains most passionate about is her puppy. Sigi did a summer ROP in 2018 where she prepared some varanopid material and then did a BIO481 in the 2018-2019 academic year on some undescribed varanopid specimens from Richards Spur.
Email: sigi.maho[at]mail.utoronto[dot]ca
Sigi just finished her HBSc at UTM studying Comparative Physiology. Having already graduated from OCAD University with Bachelor's in Design, she just couldn’t get enough of school and decided to move into biology. Although now pursuing her passion of studying animal anatomy and physiology, the animal she remains most passionate about is her puppy. Sigi did a summer ROP in 2018 where she prepared some varanopid material and then did a BIO481 in the 2018-2019 academic year on some undescribed varanopid specimens from Richards Spur.
Email: sigi.maho[at]mail.utoronto[dot]ca
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Denise Maranga (M.Sc. student)
Denny graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc major in biological sciences and a minor in earth sciences. It was in her final year of undergrad that she realized she loved palaeontology way more than med school, and, in a vain bid to stay another year to do even more research, attempted to cancel her graduation application (the university refused; apparently they didn't want any more of her sweet student loan money). Undeterred, she graduated and came right back in September to do a full extra year of research. Denny loves theropod dinosaurs and is currently working on a diminutive dromaeosaurid named Microraptor - a perfect demonstration of the saying "you are what you love" considering the fact that she, too, is vertically challenged. Denny loves to draw in her free time; ironically, however, she is somehow incapable of drawing dinosaurs. Email: d.maranga[at]mail.utoronto[dot]ca Twitter: @dieciaem |
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Jade Atkins (Ph.D. candidate, based at Carleton University)
Jade came all the way from Nova Scotia primarily to freeze all winter and miss the ocean all summer. When she’s warm, she works on her PhD blending developmental biology and palaeontology to study how the unique lissamphibian cranial morphology has evolved. Jade works primarily with living salamanders and frogs, and spends much of her time keeping the Maddin Lab’s amphibians happy and breeding. Jade is co-supervised with Dr. Hillary Maddin and is based out of Ottawa at Carleton University. Twitter: @jadeinottawa // ResearchGate // Google Scholar |
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Undergraduate students
Adam Synder (BIO481 student)
Following an ROP in the summer of 2018; Adam will be joining the lab this summer as the recipient of the University of Toronto Excellence Award (UTEA). Applying CT techniques to some of the Richards Spur tetrapods, he is excited for the skills he can acquire before entering his 4th year at UTM studying Paleontology and Earth Science. |
Tea Maho (ROP student)
Tea is in her fourth year of HBSc at UTM studying Comparative Physiology. Primarily interested in animal anatomy and physiology, she spends most of her time exploring these topics through her course load, volunteer initiatives and watching "Planet Earth”. Tea will be analyzing histological thin sections of small limb bones for her ROP. |
Rebecca Lahosky (ROP student)
Rebecca is a 3rd year ROP student who spends most of her time collecting unread books and pretending to be funny. She loves the study of humans both living and dead, which has lead her to pursue majors in Biology for Health Science and Anthropology. If she isn’t napping in the library you can find her getting up close and personal with Palaeozoic tetrapods in the Reisz lab this year. |
ASSOCIATED MEMBERS
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Sanja Hinic-Frlog (UTM)
Sanja received her M.Sc. from UofT under the supervision of Hans-Dieter Sues (then at the ROM) on the cranial osteology of the sauropodomorph Massospondylus, followed by her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, before returning to teach at UTM in the Biology department. Her research focuses on functional morphology and locomotion in birds, as well as pedagogical aspects of science education. Email: sanja.hinic.frlog[at]utoronto.ca |
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Michael deBraga (UTM)
A former Ph.D. graduate of the lab, Michael currently works in the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre (RGASC) at UTM where he is involved with pedagogical skills and curriculum development in STEM disciplines. He is in the process of writing an updated textbook on vertebrate paleontology for university-level courses and maintains active research interests in the morphology and systematics of early Permian reptiles. Email: michael.debraga[at]utoronto.ca |
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David Mazierski (UTM)
A former M.Sc. graduate of the lab, Dave currently teaches in Biomedical Communications (BMC) at UTM and often involves his students with paleontology projects in our lab. He maintains active research interests in the morphology and systematics of Permo-Carboniferous synapsids. Email: d.mazierski[at]utoronto.ca |
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Jun Chen (Jilin University)
Jun is Research Director at the Dinosaur Evolution Research Center at Jilin University in Changchun, China. His research is primarily centered around Cretaceous dinosaurs from northeastern China. |
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Timothy Huang (Jilin University)
Timothy is a Tang AoQing Chair Professor at Jilin University. His research is primarily centered around dinosaur embryology and the use of cutting-edge technologies such as neutron tomography, laser mass spectroscopy, and fluorescence imaging to study aspects of fossils. |
Lab Alumni |
Prospective Students |
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Interested in joining our lab? Robert is always looking for enthusiastic, driven students at all levels of secondary education. Even if you are unsure whether your interests align precisely with the focal areas listed on this website, Robert dabbles in virtually anything that sounds vaguely interesting to him, so don't hesitate to contact him (or anyone else in the lab)! Links to additional information on undergraduate research at UTM and graduate studies at UofT can be found here.
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