Nowreen Sarwar

Nowreen is an international student from Bangladesh pursuing a Neuroscience major and Chemistry minor. But, she is also interested in plant evolution! In the lab, Nowreen is working on imaging and measuring stomata from L. tridentata leaf peels to examine differences between ploidies in areas of sympatry vs. areas of allopatry. She plans to pursue medical school after Rhodes to investigate and treat genetic neurodegenerative diseases. While not participating in data analysis and research, Nowreen loves to read books, cook, or cuddle cats!

BRIAN CHRISTMAN

Brian was a Biomathematics major who worked with Zoe on creating a demographic model for extant populations of American chestnut (Castanea dentata) in west Tennessee and north Mississippi to better understand population health and the long-term prospects for restoration of this once-common icon of eastern forests. He also assisted with conducting controlled pollinations between different ploidies of L. tridentata in the greenhouse to assess reproductive isolation. While not participating in research, Brian founded and served as the inaugural president of "Roots," the Botany Club at Rhodes College and student chapter of the Botanical Society of America. Brian graduated from Rhodes College in 2021 and is now pursuing graduate studies in Biostatistics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Zoe Brookover

Zoe was a Biomathematics major who worked with Brian on creating a demographic model for extant populations of American chestnut (Castanea dentata) in west Tennessee and north Mississippi to better understand population health and the long-term prospects for restoration of this once-common icon of eastern forests. She also assisted with conducting controlled pollinations between different ploidies of L. tridentata in the greenhouse to assess reproductive isolation. Zoe graduated from Rhodes College in 2021.

William Weaver

William graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2017 with a double major in environmental studies, and ecology and evolutionary biology. As an undergraduate, he helped collect bees on diploid and polyploid L. tridentata. Will also worked on testing hypotheses related to community invasibility using phylogenetic approaches, which resulted in a co-authored paper in Diversity and Distributions. He also developed LeafMachine, an autonomous machine learning approach to phenotypic trait extraction from digitized herbarium specimens (available on GitHub). Will is an experienced conference attendee, having presented his research at Botany meetings (2016, 2019) and Ecology meetings (2017, 2018). He is now a graduate student in Stephen Smith's lab at the University of Michigan and will continue collaborating on LeafMachine.

Michelle Gaynor

Michelle investigated the importance of polyploidy in structuring Brassicaceae and Rosaceae communities across the United States as part of a NSF-REU in 2016. By combining species occurrence information from the National Ecological Observatory Network, DNA sequence data, and cytogenetic data from primary literature, she found that polyploid species tend to be more distantly related to co-occurring species than diploid. She presented these results at the Botany meetings in 2016 and 2017, where she won best poster and oral presentation awards, and co-authored a paper in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Shelly earned a degree in Biology at the University of Central Florida in 2018 (featured on the UCF College of Science pages!), and is continuing to pursue her interests in polyploidy and evolutionary biology as a graduate student with Pam and Doug Soltis at the University of Florida.

Vivianna Sanchez

Vivianna investigated how drought-adaptation traits shape Fagaceae and Ericaceae communities as part of a NSF-REU in 2016 using a combination of species occurrences from the National Ecological Observatory Network, DNA sequence data, trait measurements, and climate information from online databases. She presented her findings as a BSA PLANTS Fellow at the Botany meetings in 2016. In 2015, she conducted REU research in the California Channel Islands on bioluminescent bacteria. Vivianna earned a degree in Biology at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles in 2017 and is continuing to pursue her interests in microbiology as a graduate student in the Hendry Lab at Cornell University.

Khoa Nguyen

Khoa conducted research into the relationships between L. tridentata and its South American sister species, L. divaricata, using chloroplast DNA sequences obtained from herbarium vouchers with the aim of identifying source populations for intercontinental long-distance dispersals. As a University of Colorado Biological Sciences Initiative Fellow in 2016 and 2017, Khoa presented his research to peers and the science community at University of Colorado research symposia. He is now conducting independent cancer biology research at the University of Colorado Medical Center.

Jessica Persinger

Jessica participated in research on the phylogenetic community structure of plant species at sites surveyed by the National Ecological Observatory Network to investigate Darwin's Naturalization Conundrum pertaining to species invasions (are invasive species distantly or closely related to resident species?). In 2016 she was awarded a NSF-REU fellowship to work with Mitch Cruzan at Portland State University, where she recently defended her thesis focusing on hybridization and species delimitation in Ranunculus species.