4/15/22
We are excited to welcome Uyên Nguyễn to the lab as a new MS in Biology student for Fall 2022! Uyên comes to us from Vietnam, where she graduated from Nong Lam University with a Bachelor in Engineering, Food Technology. After graduating she was part of the founding cohort of Teach for Vietnam, working in underserved communities and running STEM clubs. In addition to her interest in inclusive STEM education, Uyên has a deep passion for Evolution, even starting an Evolution blog at age 17! She also has a talent for painting as demonstrated by the monkeyflower she painted (see below) for our first correspondence. We aren’t sure what Uyên will research yet, but we are pretty sure she’ll be slayin’ it (Zorro style!).
10/1/21
Paul Lab alumni (undergraduate researcher) Patrick Woods (PhD candidate, Colorado State University) just got the cover article in the prestigious journal Genetics! And it’s on Cannabis! This article, which is a QTL genetic map of many of the biochemical traits in Cannabis sativa, is his first dissertation chapter from his research in John McKay’s lab in the Department of Agricultural Biology at Colorado State University. Congratulations to Patrick for a great start to publishing your PhD – you’re totally dope!! Check out Patrick’s article here!
5/20/21
Congratulations to Alec Chiono, Master of Science! 😃 Alec successfully defended his thesis on testing the Temperature Variability Hypothesis in coastal and inland populations of Mimulus guttatus aka Erythranthe guttata/grandis. We were lucky to have Alec in the lab for three years thanks to his National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship! Alec will move just east of the Rocky Mountains this Fall to start his PhD in Nancy Emery’s lab in Ecology and Evolution at University of Colorado, Boulder!
5/6/21
Graduate student Nicole Ibañez has been granted a Special Award of Merit from the Marin Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (Marin CNPS) for her thesis work on the wiry snapdragon!! Congratulations Nicole! Thanks to Marin CNPS for supporting student research!
5/1/21
Graduate student Alec Chiono was awarded Best Lightening Talk at the 28th Annual California Botanical Society Graduate Student Meeting! Great job!!
4/26/21
Lab alumni Nila Le (Conservation Geneticist at the California Botanic Garden) is the narrator of a new video promoting the Thrive Act! Go Nila! The observant will catch a glimpse of Nila in the video as well!
2/25/21
BIG NEWS – Graduate student Alec Chiono will be joining Nancy Emery’s lab for a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Colorado, Boulder!! So excited for you Alec! We are jealous of you heading to Colorado and will have to come crash your PhD for some hiking to 13,000′ peaks and fly fishing! Alec will start at Boulder in August 2021.
A view of one of the many epic hikes Alec will be able to do just outside of Boulder! (Pawnee Pass)
1/20/21
Hope for democracy and a more just World have been restored!! Not to mention empirical reality, which continues to be tested…And John relocated a rare (for the West Coast in January) Black-and-White Warbler to celebrate!!
1/19/21
Final sunset on a disturbing era of our nation’s history…never happier to see a sun set – here over the Farallones.
1/11/21
Graduate student Alec Chiono presented a talk on his Masters research at the American Society of Naturalists Virtual Asilomar 2021 meeting!
1/1/21
John is officially on sabbatical until January 2022!!
10/18/20
Undergraduate Honors researcher Alex Palacios is a Department of Biology Chihara Award recipient for academic achievement in the pandemic Spring 2020 semester – way to go Alex!!
8/6/20
Graduate student Alec Chiono (virtually) presented a poster on his Masters research at the Ecological Society of America’s 105th Annual Meeting!
6/18/20
Graduate student Alec Chiono has been awarded an Ecological Society of America (ESA) Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability program (SEEDS) travel grant to virtually attend ESA’s annual meeting in August 2020! Alec established the first SEEDS chapter at USF in 2019.
5/31/20
Graduate student Alec Chiono has been awarded a Northern California Botanists 2020-2021 Research Scholarship for his work on the thermal niches of Mimulus guttatus! Thanks to the Northern California Botanists for supporting student research! Nice job Alec!!
5/20/20
Graduate student Nicole Ibañez has been awarded a 2020 USF Whitehead Summer Research Fellowship!! This fellowship supports Nicole’s research on the divergence of serpentine and non-serpentine populations of the wiry snapdragon (Antirrhinum vexillocalyculatum). Thanks to USF College of Arts and Sciences and Dr. Whitehead for his generous support of student research at USF! Way to go Nicole!
3/18/20
Global coronavirus pandemic begins to pick up steam…all USF classes for Spring 2020 have been moved online.
2/1/20
Graduate student Alec Chiono’s second publication from his time in Jennifer Gremer’s lab has been published! You can find the article here.
1/1/20
Graduate student Alec Chiono’s first publication from his time in Jennifer Gremer’s lab has been published! You can find the article here.
12/12/19
Congratulations to Tiffany Kho, Master of Science!😀 Tiffany successfully defended her thesis on Psychotria mariniana! After a brief trip to Paris, she will be pursuing her teaching credential. Great job Tiffany and best of luck moving forward!
8/21/19
Congratulations to Nila Le, Master of Science! 🤓 Nila successfully defended her thesis and gave a great talk. She was a founding member of our lab and has been through it all – it won’t be the same without her. 😢
But we are so excited for all your successes and the next steps in your career! And we’ll come visit you at the California Botanic Garden!!
8/13/19
Master’s student Nila Le has been hired as the new Conservation Geneticist at the California Botanic Garden in Claremont, California! Congratulations Nila on landing your dream job! Woo-hooo!!! We wish you much joy discovering, describing, and saving the western US’s rare and endangered plant species!
7/18/19
Master’s student Alec Chiono was awarded a 2019 Paul Silva Student Research Grant from the California Botanical Society for his thesis work on thermal niches in Mimulus guttatus (aka Erythranthe guttata/grandis) – way to go Alec! Thanks to the California Botanical Society for supporting student research! (Pictured at field site with field assistant Starry aka Sparklehorse)
7/12/19
Master’s student Tiffany Kho presented her research on the phylogeography of Psychotria mariniana at the 26th Hawai’i Conservation Conference! Some conferences have better locations than others…just saying…
5/20/19
Congratulations to Tiffany and Alec!! They are both recipients of 2019 USF Whitehead Summer Research Fellowships!! Thanks to USF College of Arts and Sciences and Dr. Whitehead for his generous support of student research at USF! Tiffany and Alec are SUPER EXCITED to start working on their microsatellites!
5/18/19
Some of our finishing MS students walked today for Graduation, including Tiffany from our lab! Congratulations!!…Now you all just need to finishing writing your theses… 🙂
5/13/19
Alec is now on the hunt for thermally divergent Erythranthe guttata populations…he will collect your progeny – you have been warned! (but always < 5% per population!!)
5/7/19
Joshua Eggold (Cancer Biology 4th year PhD student, Stanford University) and John completed their Preparing Future Professors mentee-mentor relationship for Spring 2019. Thanks Josh for being a part of the lab this semester, and best of luck on your important research on ovarian cancer.
5/4/19
May the 4th Be with Us – Some folks were able to attend the Paul Lab end of the year party…
5/3/19
It’s been a long time coming…but Nila just received > 300 million reads of Illumina next-generation sequencing data for dozens of Arabis blepharophylla individuals! That should keep her busy this summer…
4/26/19
Our lab presented two posters at USF’s Creative Activity and Research Day this year.
Hayat, Alex, and Tiffany’s poster on phylogeography of Psychotria mariniana.
Alec’s poster on thermal niches in Erythranthe guttata.
4/22/19
Nicole Ibañez (B.S., Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo 2016) will be joining the lab as a new MS student in Fall 2019, co-advised by Dr. Suni. Since graduating from SLO she has been working at an environmental consulting firm in Sacramento. Welcome Nicole – we look forward to you joining us in the Fall!
4/6/19
Alec presented a poster of his proposed thesis and some preliminary analyses on climate niche evolution at the California Botanical Society at the 27th Graduate Student Symposium at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
3/21/19
John has been awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, effective Fall 2019! So now he’s just chillin’.
3/14/19
John successfully collected from Psychotria mariniana populations on Kauai, completing the sampling for Tiffany’s research!
2/25/19
The whole lab got to experience the joy of sowin’ seed! We helped Alec plant two populations of Erythranthe guttata for a pilot study on thermal niche breadth.
2/20/19
John and field assistant ZK found a rubber boa (Charina bottae) while scouting for a Botany field trip near Montara Mountain!
1/7/19
Tiffany has completed a successful field season collecting Psychotria mariniana samples from Maui and the Big Island, as well as herbariums samples from the Bishop Museum! She’s was really macking on that non-native bromeliad too…
8/23/18
Nila, John and April Randle (USF Assistant Professor – Environmental Science) all presented at the II Joint Congress in Evolutionary Biology in Montpellier, France – USF represent!!! Oui Oui!
John and April both presented posters, and Nila gave a talk! She was honored to be the most junior member of the “Evolutionary Management of Wild Populations” symposium – and she killed her talk – way to go Nila!!
8/21/18
Alec Chiono has officially started as a Master’s student in our lab – welcome to USF Alec!
8/20/18
Paul Lab alumni and former undergraduate researcher Patrick Woods has started his Ph.D. in John McKay’s lab at Colorado State University! Go get ’em Patrick!!
7/24/18
Tiffany is hard at work, running around Oahu and Maui searching for populations of Psychotria mariniana! A taste of success:
6/20/18
Paul Lab alumni Masters student Elaine Zhang has been hired as a research associate at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley! She will be working on using genomic engineering to save cacao crops (that’s chocolate people!!!) from climatic change – save the chocolate for us Elaine – our lab wouldn’t be the same without it!
4/10/18
Alec Chiono (B.S., University of California, Davis 2015) will be joining the lab as a new Master’s student in Fall 2018 – yeah! Welcome Alec!
8/22/17
Tiffany Kho has officially started as a Master’s student in our lab – welcome to USF Tiffany!
7/1/17
A paper in which John collaborated with USF Professor Juliet Spencer and USF Biology Honor’s student Jessica Scarborough has been published in Infection, Genetics, and Evolution! Way to go Jessica!!
6/24/17
Recently graduated Master’s student Elaine Zhang and current Master’s student Nila Le both presented at their first national meeting – Evolution 2017 in Portland, OR. Elaine gave a talk and Nila presented a poster. Way to go!
6/12/17
OMG! Master’s student Nila Le was awarded one of five inaugural USF Whitehead Summer Research Fellowships ($10,000!!!!!) for her thesis work on Arabis blepharophylla. Thanks to Dr. Jim Whitehead for his generous support of student research at USF!!
THIS STUDENT’S ON FIRE!!!!!!!
6/12/17
Master’s student Nila Le was awarded a 2017 Paul Silva Student Research Grant ($600) from the California Botanical Society for her thesis work on Arabis blepharophylla – way to go AGAIN Nila! Thanks to the California Botanical Society for supporting student research!
5/3/17
Master’s student Nila Le was awarded the 2017 Ken Howard Marin California Native Plant Society Scholarship ($1000) for her thesis work on Arabis blepharophylla – way to go Nila! A great accomplishment, especially for a first semester graduate student! Thanks to the Marin CNPS for supporting student research!
4/28/17
Our lab presented three posters at the 7th annual USF Creative Activity and Research Day (CARD)!
4/27/17
Tiffany Kho (B.A., Occidental College, 2017) will be joining the lab as a new Master’s student in Fall 2017 – yeah! Welcome Tiffany!
12/22/16
Elaine Zhang has been awarded a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research for her Hawaii field work – congratulations Elaine!!
12/19/16
Elaine Zhang has landed a position a Taxa, a Biotechnology company making glowing and fragrant GMO mosses! Congratulations to Elaine for landing a job 11 days after graduating with her Master’s!
12/8/16
Elaine Zhang successfully defended her Master’s degree today!! Congratulations to Elaine – now a MASTER OF SCIENCE!
10/26/16
Undergraduate researcher and USF senior Nila Le has been accepted into the Master’s of Biology program in my lab. Yay!
8/7/16
Master’s student Elaine Zhang, undergraduate researcher Nila Le, and John completed a successful research trip to Hawaii!
4/29/16
Master’s student Elaine Zhang won the ‘Best Oral Presentation’ award at USF’s Creative Activity and Research Day (CARD) 2016! Congratulations Elaine!