The Convergence Lab Members

  • Dr. Ford standing on a boat and wearing a hard hat. She is holding a chimaera/ratfish.

    Dr. Kassandra Ford (PI)

    Dr. Ford is a recent hire in the FWCB department at UMN and the curator of Fishes and Mollusks at the Bell Museum. Her research has focused on the evolution of craniofacial shape in two groups of tropical electric fishes.

    PC: Sarah Karnas

  • Faith holding a jar of fish while standing in the middle of the fish/ichthyology collection

    Faith Kelly (Lab Manager)

    Faith is the Convergence Lab Manager and coordinator for curatorial assistants. Her scientific work examines the connection between the public and the scientific community, especially in regards to non-game fishes.

    PC: Sarah Karnas

  • RC Hoover giving two thumbs up while wearing a UMN sweatshirt

    RC Hoover

    RC is a PhD candidate examining head, skull, and tooth shape in a group of elongate fishes from the Pacific Northwest. His work uses CT scans, geometric morphometrics, and diet to explore the evolution of morphology.

  • Kassi Price holding a fossil in a box

    Kassi Price

    Kassi is a masters student to the FWCB Conservation Science Program! Her research interests include ecomorphology of electric fishes.

  • Brian smiling while holding a large redhorse fish\

    Brian Whelan

    Brian is a fourth year undergraduate in Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Biology BS program. He is working in the lab as a undergraduate researcher focused on dentition wear in prickleback fishes.

  • Sarah smiling with a winter landscape in the background

    Sarah Adelson

    Sarah is a senior in the Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Science BS program. She is doing an Honors Thesis on wolffish teeth and completed an REU program at Friday Harbor Labs in Summer 2024. Her work at FHL examined social behavior in gunnels.

  • Lucas at an paleontology dig site

    Lucas Florsheim

    Lucas is a post-baccalaureate Curatorial Assistant, working in the Vertebrate Paleontology and Ichthyology collections. He is also working on a pilot project examining tuberculation in minnows native to Minnesota.

  • Owen Stephenson holding a large brown trout.

    Owen Stephenson

    Owen is a post-baccalaureate Curatorial Assistant who will be working in the Ichthyology collection.

Fish Identification Collective

Aidan Tonidandel

Brady Broking

Brian Whelan

Cristian Hernandez

Kaitlyn Johnston

Emelia Wieber

Jacob Wilson

Jonathan Wilson-Thieroff

Sean Rolstad

Lab Alumni

Undergraduates

Ethan Haefner

Owen Stephenson