Dr. Katherine Toll

I am a plant ecologist, evolutionary biologist, and geneticist interested in adaptation and speciation. I completed my Ph.D. in 2017 at Duke University, and was a post-doctoral researcher at Michigan State University. As of January 2024, I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina.

Contact: [email protected]

Graduate Students

Masters students

Genevieve Triplett, B.S. (Fall 2024 - present)

My research so far has explored a variety of topics in plant biology, but all of them have focused on plant adaptation, especially with regards to their functional traits. For my master’s thesis, I’ll be investigating the adaptive significance and phenotypic selection of trait divergence in serpentine-tolerant populations of Mimulus guttatus and the specialist species M. nudatus. I hold a Bachelor of Science with honors in Botany from the University of Hawaii.

Research Technicians

Sarah Uher, B.S. (Spring 2024 - present)

Sarah graduated from Tulane University in 2023 where she double majored in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology. While at Tulane, she completed an honors thesis on tropical tree root traits across a land-use gradient under the mentorship of Sunshine Van Bael, Jordan Karubian, and Mareli Sanchez-Julia. Broadly, her research interests include plant-insect-microbe interactions, especially in the context of anthropogenic change and agricultural systems. 

Since joining the Toll lab as a research technician in 2024, she has been working on a project that uses the Mimulus guttatus species complex as a study system to investigate the ecological and genetic basis of divergent adaptation to flooded and dry serpentine regimes, with the larger goal of understanding the maintenance of species and spatial segregation. She enjoys learning how to leverage molecular techniques to address questions regarding species ecology and conservation.

Field Research Technicians

Jacob Mull, B.S. (Spring 2025)

Gabby Gagnon, Senior at UofSC (Spring 2023 - Fall 2023)

My research interests include spatial and temporal distribution of species, estuarine fish ecology, and plant defenses and evolution. For my senior thesis, we did a chamber experiment to examine the differences in how coastal perennial and inland annual populations of monkeyflowers respond to herbivory.