Welcome to Laurie's Website

Although born in Texas, I grew up just outside of New Orleans, LA where I attended Grace King High School and graduated in 2001. I then went to Centenary College in Shreveport, LA where I majored in Biophysics. Although I loved physics, it was evolutionary biology that really caught my attention, so I pursued a master's degree in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Department at Rice University. There I worked in the lab of Dr. Michael Kohn.

My master's project focused on the analyzing introgression between the rhesus and cynomolgus macaques of Southeast Asia (read pubs listed in my cv if you want to get a feel for this research). While I learned a lot during my time at Rice, I continued on to Duke University where I am currently pursuing a PhD in the Biology Department in the Noor Lab. My research is broadly focused on the causes and consequences of recombination rate variation in Drosophila. Feel free to explore my research interests to learn more about that or read some of my latest pubs.

Other than graduate school, I enjoy time with my two wonderful cats Charlie and Theo (see pictures!). I also enjoy cooking, outdoors and volunteering through Girl Scouts. Though I'll never shy away from a day in the water, whether it be a pool, a beach or just a nice flowing stream as pictured above! If you are wondering about the main picture up and to the left, I happen to be quite a random person (though delightfully so, I'd like to think), and somehow an apple became the symbol of my randomness in college. There it stays as a reminder. If you want to know more about me, feel free to shoot me an email.