People

Principal Investigator

Charles Randklev, PhD is the Principal Investigator of the NRI Mussel Conservation Lab. His primary research is focused on understanding how endangered species are impacted by human activities. Recent research centers on freshwater unionid mussels, which are globally imperiled, to determine how they respond to changes in water quality and quantity with the goal of providing guidance to support their ecological needs and those of humans.

Email: crandklev@ag.tamu.edu

CV: Here | ResearchGate: Here | GoogleScholar: Here

Graduate Students

Alex Kiser is a Graduate Research Assistant pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management. He graduated with a B.S. degree in fish and wildlife from the University of Georgia, focusing on mountain stream restoration for brook trout with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Following his B.S. Alex obtained a M.S. degree from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff with an emphasis on the economic benefits of the ecological restoration of wetlands through government programs. His current research focus on habitat suitability, spatial modeling and species distribution of rare, threatened and endangered mussels in Texas and Mexico.

Donovan Patterson is a Hatchery Biologist for TPWD pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries program at TAMU. His research focuses on life-history and propagation potential of rare mussel species in East Texas.

Amanda Goldsmith is a Graduate Research Assistant pursuing a Master’s in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management. She graduated with a B.S. degree in marine biology and minors in chemistry, coastal management, and environmental science from Eckerd College in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Her research interests include studying the impact of environmental stressors on the physiology of organisms and their ecosystems as well as helping to develop associated conservation policies. Her current research focuses on understanding the effects of dewatering and thermal tolerance limits of freshwater mussels to help develop best management practices and inform environmental flow recommendations.

Mike DeMoulpied is a Graduate Research Assistant pursuing a Master’s in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management. Mike grew up in upstate New York and attended SUNY Cobleskill where he received his Bachelor’s in Fisheries and Aquaculture in 2020. During his time as an undergrad, Mike worked under two USGS biologists on a variety of projects ranging from backpack electrofishing surveys in streams to benthic macroinvertebrate sampling in large rivers. Mike’s undergrad research focused on temporal changes in abundance and distribution of a freshwater mussel community in an impounded river system. He began his M.S. in the Fall of 2020 here at Texas A&M and will continue to work on evaluating changes of freshwater mussel assemblages in Texas using the life-history theory and the natural flow paradigm. In his free time, Mike enjoys fly fishing for trout and upland bird hunting.

Xenia Rangaswami is a Graduate Research Assistant pursuing a Master’s in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management. She graduated with a B.A. degree in organismal biology from Scripps College in Claremont, California where she conducted research on the thermal performance of barnacles. She also researched zebrafish thermal performance at the University of Sydney in Australia. After completing undergrad, Xenia conducted fieldwork in the Puerto Rican rainforest and developed environmental science curriculum for students in rural India. She joined the Mussel Conservation Lab in Summer 2020 and began her M.S. in Spring 2021. Her current research focuses on the thermal and salinity tolerance of mussels in relation to climate change and river modification.

Sarah Shadle is a Graduate Research Assistant pursuing a Master’s in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management. She graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2020 with a B.S. degree in environmental science with a biology concentration. Sarah did environmental toxicology research as an undergrad and assessed the biological effects of environmental contaminants on aquatic organisms. She also conducted seagrass and invertebrate research at the School for Field Studies Center for Marine Resource Studies in 2019. Sarah joined the lab in March 2021 and will work on ecotoxicology projects, including investigating the effects of salinity on host-fish metamorphosis success.

Lab Alumni

Jack Dudding completed his Masters through the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries program at TAMU. Jack's research focused on identifying host fish for several threatened mussel species from central Texas. He is now a fisheries biologist with the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

Michael Hart was a Senior Research Associate and laboratory manager with the Texas Mussel Conservation Lab. He now works with a Natural Resource group in Alabama.

Kentaro (Ken) Inoue was an Assistant Research Scientist and evolutionary and conservation biologist with the Texas Mussel Conservation Lab. Dr. Inoue is now a research biologist with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, IL.

Jennifer Khan was a Senior Research Associate with the Texas Mussel Conservation Lab. She recently graduated from the TMAU Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Her thesis project focused on assessing the upper thermal limits and of several threatened freshwater mussel species. Jen is now a biologist with USFWS in Arlington, Texas.

Eric Tsakiris was an Assistant Research Scientist with the Texas Mussel Conservation Lab. He completed his PhD research via our Lab in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Conway. His research focused on popualtion performance of mussels from central Texas and evaluating the efficacy of translocation as a conservation tool. Eric is now a course leader with USFWS at the FWS National Training Center.