Past Student/Postdoc Spotlights

Lindsey Becker grew up in North Carolina, where she continues to reside. Lindsey is a Master’s student in Dr. Marc Cubeta’s lab at North Carolina State University where she works on a plant growth promoting fungus in a floriculture system. Lindsey is analyzing foliage area, plant tissue nutrient composition, biomass, and flower counts of Calibrachoa…

Abigail Courtney grew up just outside of Manhattan in New York. She moved to New Jersey for her undergraduate education, where she got her B.S. in bioinformatics from Ramapo College of New Jersey. While there, she worked on an undergraduate research project titled Responses of growth, antioxidants and gene expression in smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora)…

Laura Tipton is at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in Nicole Hynson’s lab where she is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Microbiome of the Built Environment Postdoctoral Fellow. She works on the longest aerobiota study and one of the longest microbial time-course studies known, looking at fungi captured in air filters over a 13-year…

J. Alejandro Rojas is currently a post-doctoral research scientist working with Rytas Vilaglays at Duke University. His postdoctoral research is focused on plant-fungal interactions, with a specific focus on symbiotic fungi associated with the Populus rhizosphere. The aim is to understand the functional role, diversity, and population structure of dominant fungal species in this system…

Samuel T. David grew up in Stoughton Wisconsin, a small town just south of Madison. Sam received his BS in Biology from University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He then worked for three years doing habitat restoration and wildlife management on Fort McCoy military base before returning to UW-La Crosse. While in grad school he continues to…

Eric Morrison grew up in Claremont, New Hampshire, which has the peculiar distinction of being NH’s smallest city. Eric earned a B.S. Environmental Conservation with a focus in Conservation Biology from the University of New Hampshire, May 2009. He also holds a M.S. Microbiologyfrom University of New Hampshire. His thesis research was published in Morrison…

Edward Barge is from Bozeman, Montana. Ed received a BS in biology, and MS in plant science under Dr. Cathy Cripps at Montana State University, in Bozeman. His Master’s thesis focused on systematics and biogeography of Lactarius in the Rocky Mountain alpine zone (above treeline). This project allowed Ed to do field work in some…

Andi Bruce is from Santa Ana, California. She received her BA in Environmental Studies (Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice concentration) at San Francisco State University. Currently she is working toward a Master’s in Biology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in the labs of Todd Osmundson and Tom Volk. Andi is researching the synergistic effects…

Laura Bogar is from Seattle, Washington. She received a Bachelor of Arts, Biology from Lewis & Clark College, located in Portland, OR in 2012. She currently resides in San Francisco and is working toward her PhD with Kabir Peay at Stanford. Laura thesis research focuses on how ectomycorrhizal plants and fungi choose their symbiotic partners,…

Caitlin Looby grew up in a small, rural town in New Jersey. She received her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a minors in Chemistry and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. While an undergrad, Caitlin studied abroad in Costa Rica through the Council on International Educational Exchange. This was her…