Luis

Luis Allende

Graduate Student
Luis completed his Master's in 2020, which focused on molecular evolution of rubisco. He's continuing this research while on the hunt for jobs in evolutionary genomics!
AlexisA

Alexis Assante

Undergraduate Researcher
Alexis spent the summer of 2018 as an undergraduate researcher in the BSI Scholars Program studying flavonol production across plant tissues. She is now conducting pulmonary research at CU Anschutz.
Erica

Erica Au

Undergraduate Researcher • she/her/hers
Erica worked with Chelsea from 2021 to 2022 on studies of self-incompatibility in the Sharpleaf Groundcherry ( Physalis acutifolia) . Here's an article she wrote about that research! She is now a technician with Ardent Mills.
Alice

Alice Backes da Rosa

Visiting Researcher
Alice, a graduate student with Dr. Loreta Frietas at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) visited the lab in the spring of 2018 and worked to identify for scent genes in petunia transcriptomes with support from NSF-DEB 155314.
Andrea Berardi

Andrea Berardi

Postdoctoral Researcher
Andrea examined the genetic and biochemical changes associated with convergent origins of white flowers in Iochroma and its relatives from 2014 to 2016 with support from NSF DEB 1257541 . She is now an assistant professor at James Madison University.
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Justin Berl

Undergraduate researcher
Justin conducted research on phylogenetics of Iochroma in the spring of 2013.
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Hanna Biagini-Lee

Undergraduate Researcher
Hanna worked on adding red-flowered taxa to the Solanaceae family phylogeny as a CU BURST student from 2013 to 2014. She currently works in finance in San Francisco.
Charles

Charles Bush

Undergraduate Researcher
Charles was an REU student in the summer of 2021, working with Chelsea and Sukuan on flower color data from Petunieae. He graduated from Oglala Lakota College and is now a graduate student at the AMNH.
Abel

Abel Campos

Undergraduate Researcher • he/him/his
Abel worked with Rocio to compare fossil morphological data with traits that are seen in extant nightshades (Solanaceae), as well as applying statistical analyses to those data. He graduated in May '23 with double majors in EBIO and MCDB, and wrote an honors thesis on his Solanaceae seed wing research!
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Dylan Carter

Undergraduate researcher
Dylan worked on several molecular and biochemistry projects in the lab as a UNL UCARE student from 2012 to 2013. He was a technician in Sabrina Spencer's lab at CU Boulder, went onto medical school and is now a physician assistant in oncology in Omaha, Nebraska.
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Rachel Coburn

Undergraduate researcher
Rachel studied the genetic basis of color polymorphism in Iochroma calcyinum from 2011 to 2015. She was an NIH-INBRE scholar and a Goldwater Scholar, and her honors thesis was published in the American Journal of Botany in 2015. She completed medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and is now a clinical assistant professor in the UW-Madison Department of Medicine.
Kai Cui

Kaixin Cui

High School Student Researcher
Kai joined our lab while she was a junior at Fairview High School in Boulder. She studied phylogenetics and biogeography of the charasmatic genus Cestrum , and her work was supported through an NSF RAHSS award. She finished her degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2021 and now works for NASA in Houston.
Rachel

Rachel Dale

Undergraduate Researcher
Rachel worked with Miranda as a UROP assistant on the evolution and development of blue color and other fruit traits in Lantana during the summer of 2021. She's graduated with a degree in IPHY and is now a medical assistant with the baby直播app Center for Dermatology.
Rocio Deanna

Roc铆o Deanna

Postdoctoral Researcher • she/her/hers
Roc铆o joined the lab in 2017 with funding from the Fulbright Foundation and CONICET to resolve the phylogeny of the Physalids and trace the history of inflated calyx syndrome. She subsequently led our efforts to expand the Solanaceae fossil record and build a new timetree for the family. She is now an MSCA postdoctoral fellow at the Finnish Museum of Natural History in Helsinki and Associate Curator at the CORD...
Agnes

Agnes Dellinger

Postdoctoral Rsearcher • she/her/hers
Agnes joined our lab as a postdoc from 2020 to 2023, and investigated the abiotic and biotic drivers of diversification in Merianieae (Melastomataceae), using phylogenetic comparative methods, niche modelling and buzz-pollination experiments. She is now an assistant professor at the University of Vienna -- check out her lab website !
Kathy Ding

Kathy Ding

High School Student Researcher
In the summer of 2015, she studied the history of duplication and psuedogenization of the flavonoid-3'5'-hydroxylase gene in Iochrominae with support from NSF DEB 1257541 . She is now an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley.
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Brandan Dinkelman

Undergraduate researcher
Brandan conducted research on Solanceae phylogenetics in spring and summer 2013 as a UNL UCARE student. He is now an analytical technician in the Department of Food Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Kayleigh

Kayleigh Dodson

Undergraduate Researcher • she/her/hers
Kayleigh joined Smith Lab in 2021 and worked with Miranda studying the ecophysiology of native and invasive Lantana in Florida. She wrote an honors thesis on her work and won a GRFP to continue her invasive plant research at Boise State University!
Amy

Amy Dunbar-Wallis

Research Technician
Amy was a research technician in the Smith lab from 2017 to 2021 and led our qPCR and HPLC experiments. She is now an NSF graduate research fellow in Lisa Corwin's REACH Lab here in EBIO!
Julia Dupin

Julia Dupin

Graduate Student
Julia completed her PhD in 2017, and her dissertation research focused on the fascinating Datureae clade, which comprises Datura , Brugmansia and a new genus Trompettia . She was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Guillaume Besnard and is now a research grant writer at Universit茅 Toulouse III Paul Sabatier in France.
Rachel

Rachel Effron

Undergraduate Researcher • she/her/hers
Rachel worked with Stacey on anthocyanin expression in Browallia americana in response to different environments. She graduated in May '23.
Laurence

Laurence Fairchild

Undergraduate Researcher
Laurence studied the effects of micronutrient variation on pollen tube growth in Physalis with Chelsea from 2018 to 2020. He is now a biological engineer working in California.
Juan

Juan Florez

Undergraduate Researcher
Working with Chelsea, Juan conducted research on the role of pollination in triggering the developmental of the inflated calyx in Physalis in the spring and summer of 2019 and presented his results at Botany 2019 in Tucson.
jgarcia

Jaquelin Garcia

High school student intern
Jackie was an Upward Bound Math and Science summer intern in 2013, and she worked on sequencing the F3H gene from Iochroma with support from NSF DEB 1257541 . She completed her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at UNL, researching algal biofuels in the lab of Wayne Riekhof with support from a McNair scholarship, an NIH-INBRE scholarship, and the UCARE program. She is now a graduate student in the Guilak Lab...
Dan Gates

Daniel Gates

Graduate Student
Dan studied the history of hybridization in Iochroma as well as the evolutionary genomics of floral color and the diversification of plant transcription factors. After finishing his PhD, he was a postdoc with Jeff Ross-Ibarra. Now he works as a bioinformaticist for Checkerspot, Inc .!
Shelly

Shelly Gaynor

Undergraduate researcher
While she was an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida, Shelly came to Boulder to work as an REU student with Rob and Julienne on their NEON community phylogenetics project during the summer of 2016. She completed her PhD in the Soltis Lab and is now a postdoc with Stephen Smith and Rosana Zenil-Ferguson.
Hannah Ghisemi

Hannah Ghasemi

Undergraduate Researcher
Hannah worked with Julienne, Rob, and Will on the phylogenetic community project. She completed PhD in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at UCSB and is back at CU Boulder as a postdoc.
Jessica Gloe

Jessica Gloe

High School Student Researcher
While she was senior at Nederland High School, Jessica conducted phylogenetic research on the lovely Cestrum during the summer of 2015 with support from NSF DEB 1256678 . She completed at BS in Neuroscience at UW Seattle. She is now a researcher at the Allen Institute for Brain Science!
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Randi Griffin

Research Technician
Randi was a research technician in our lab from 2010 to 2011 before earning a master's degree in data science. She now works as a data scientist in Boston.
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Daisy Guiza Beltran

High school student intern
Daisy was an Upward Bound Math and Science intern who worked on the phylogeny of red-flowered Solanaceae during the summer of 2013 with support from NSF DEB 1256678 . She completed her BS in biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and she is now a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Limei Zhang .
Nina

Nina Gustafson

Undergraduate Researcher
As part of the Petunieae project, Nina worked with Julienne in developing and delivering the curriculum for our summer CU Upward Bound modules for two summers. She graduated from CU with a degree in EBIO and obtained ar teaching license in Secondary Science Education science education. She now teaches 7th grade biology!
Ashley

Ashley Hamilton

Undergraduate Researcher
Ashley joined our lab for the summer of 2019 as an REU student with support from NSF DEB 155314, and she studied carotenoid genes associated with flower color variation in Petunieae. After completing her biology degree at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, she was a tech in Carrie Wessinger's lab and now she's a GRFP fellow at the University of Chicago!
Jesse Harris

Jesse Harris

Graduate Student • he/him/his
Jesse investigated relationships among the North American members of Clematis sect. Viorna from 2018-2023, in collaboration with Erin Manzitto-Tripp and with generous support from the Mt. Cuba Center.
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Hannah Hartung

High school student intern
Hannah did research on the evolution of the F3'5'h enzyme in Iochrominae in the summer of 2014 with support from NSF DEB 1257541 . She also worked with Deane Bowers here in EBIO and is now a graduate student with Matt Hare at Cornell.
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Winnie Ho

Postdoctoral Researcher
Winnie studied the molecular evolution of anthocyanin pathway genes in Iochroma from 2013 to 2014 with support from NSF DEB 1257541 . She moved on to an NSF Math-Bio postdoc in the lab of Jeff Riffell at the University of Washington and has continued there as a lecturer.
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Danny Jackson

Undergraduate Researcher
Danny worked on the phylogeny and floral phenology of Cestrum with support from CU's BURST program and an NSF REU supplement from 2013-2014. After graduating, he was a research technician with David Lowry at MSU and then for Scott Taylor here at CU. He is now a postdoc at the University of Arizona with Sabrina McNew.
Chandra

Chandra Jacobs

Undergraduate Researcher
Chandra is a senior majoring in Biology at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP), and she worked with Jesse on phylogenetics as a remote intern during the summer of 2020. Check out her educational video on phylogenetics here ! Next up, she'll be headed for nursing school.
Lena

Helana Joe

Undergraduate Researcher • she/her/hers
Helana is rising sophomore at Utah State University. She spent the summer of 2022 working on anthocyanin expression under UV stress in Browallia, while also mentoring Native high school students in the CUUB program here on campus.
Lexi

Lexi Kantor

Undergraduate Researcher
Lexi came to the Smith lab with an interest in plant biodiversity, pollination ecology, and species coevolution. She completed an honors thesis in 2018, working on reproductive biology in Physalis in collaboration with Chelsea. After working as a consultant at Environmental Management and Planning Solutions here in Boulder for several years, she is now a NICU nurse!
NickKelly

Nicholas Kelly

Undergraduate Researcher
Nick joined the Smith lab in 2017, where he pursued his interests in floral phenology and studied crossability within the Iochrominae. In 2019, he graduated with an EBIO degree and is now seeking jobs in biology-related fields.
Ash

Ash Kerber

Undergraduate Researcher • she/her/hers
Ash joined the lab in 2022 to work with Agnes on floral character displacement in Rhexia and is now pursuing a master's degree at the Denver Botanic Gardens with Jennifer Ackerfield.
Keric Lamb

Keric Lamb

Undergraduate Researcher
Keric worked with Andrea on characterizing sequence variation in flavonoid synthase (FLS) in Iochroma and also developed his own independent research on alkaloids in Iochrominae. After graduation, he completed a BLM internship, spent two years with the Peace Corps, and moved on to graduate school with Laura Galloway at UVA.
Rob Laport

Rob Laport

Postdoctoral Researcher
Rob is an evolutionary ecologist who studies polyploidy and speciation in the creosote bush. Here at CU, he continued his creosote research and collaborated with Nolan Kane to develop genomic tools for using creosote in forensics! Rob is now an assistant professor and herbarium director at the College of Idaho.
MaxLarter

Max Larter

Postdoctoral researcher
Max's interests lie in evo-eco-physiology, and he studied the predictability of evolution during the loss of flower pigmentation in Iochroma as a postdoc from 2017 to 2019 with support from NSF DEB 1257541. He is now a postdoc at the Naturalis Center in Leiden studying herb hydraulics with Dr. Frederic Lens .
Sukuan Liu

Sukuan Liu

Graduate Student • he/him/his
Sukuan came to CU through the Interdisciplinary Quantitative (IQ) Biology program and devoted his PhD to studying the South American marsh pitcher plants ( Heliamphora , Sarraceniaceae). He is now splitting his time between teaching at Red Rocks and continuing his molecular evolution research as a postdoc with Dan Sloan at CSU.
Leah

Leah Maier

High School Student Researcher • she/her/hers
Leah worked with Miranda and Agnes from 2022 to 2023 on testing the evolutionary relationship between fruit and flower color through BVSD's Science Research Seminar.
Mandy Malone

Mandy Malone

Undergraduate Researcher
She worked in the lab from 2014 to 2015 on the molecular evolution of flavanone-3-hydroxylase with Andrea. She spent the summer of 2015 revising the aroid genus Stenospermation with Tom Croat at MO (through an NSF-REU), and she worked with Erin Tripp in the CU herbarium on floristics of bryophytes in baby直播app. She is now a botanist with the US Forest Service.
Melissa

Melissa McEvoy

Undergraduate Researcher
Melissa worked with Roc铆o Deanna during the summer of 2021 to score morphological traits of plant and seed fossils as well as modern samples for the divergence time project (supported by NSF 1902797 ). She is now pursuing a doctoral degree in Biomedical Sciences at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).
tina

Tina Melie

Graduate Student • she/her/hers
For her thesis, Tina studied evolutionary genomics of Ascomycete fungi with support from an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She is now a postdoc working phyloG2P with Stephen Mondo at JGI!
Annie

Annie Miller

Undergraduate Researcher
Annie's project involved creating species distribution maps from herbarium specimens and she also helped to maintain the living collections. She is the communications manager for CU Engage and crafts her own wonderful botanical products !
nmuchhala

Nathan Muchhala

Postdoctoral Researcher
Nate was a postdoc in our lab from 2011-2013, supported by a UNL Population Biology Program of Excellence (PoE) fellowship, and he is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Lauren Nalezny

Lauren Nalezny

Undergraduate researcher
Lauren did studies of petal cell anatomy in the lab from 2013 to 2014, first as a student in Boulder Valley School District Science Research Seminar, and then as an NSF RAHSS intern in 2014. She completed her undergraduate degree in biology at CSU and worked with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Fort Collins, CO. Now she's a research technician with Northstar Technology Corporation.
Jeff Neiman

Jeffrey Neiman

Undergraduate Researcher
Jeff worked on a variety of projects in the lab related to flavonoid expression and evolution, and his senior project examined light induction of flavonoids in snapdragon flowers. Jeff is now the VP of Operations and Programming at the Glazer Foundation.
Julienne Ng

Julienne Ng

Postdoctoral Researcher
As a postdoctoral researcher, Julienne took the lead on two major projects (the evolution of red flowers in Solanaceae and the predictability of color evolution in the Petunieae clade ) and carried out her own NSF-funded project on community assembly in NEON sites . She now works in data science and shares her expertise in DEI as a facilitator.
Khoa

Khoa Nguyen

Undergraduate Researcher
Khoa worked with Rob on investigating biogeographic patterns in the desert plant, creosote bush, using genetic markers from 2015 to 2017. He is currently a research assistant in the Wang lab at the CU Cancer Center and is planning to apply to med school next year.
lobaidi

Latifa Obaidi

Undergraduate researcher
Latifa studied the evolution of anthocyanin pigmentation genes in Iochroma with support from UCARE and NSF DEB 1257541 . She presented her undergraduate thesis work as a poster at the 2013 SMBE meetings in Chicago. She completed her MD at Nova Southeastern University and is now a family medicine doctor in Denison, Texas.
Mikayah Oxendine

Mikayah Oxendine

Undergraduate Researcher
Mikayah worked remotely as a 2020 summer intern with Sukuan , learning bioinformatics and studying carnivorous plants near her in NC. Follow this link to her video on these fascinating plants! She completed her undergraduate degree in Information Science and now works at the Historic Preservation Office of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources in North Carolina.
JP

Jes Persinger

Undergraduate Researcher
Jes worked on several projects in the lab, including phylogenetics of red-flowered Solanaceae (with support from NSF DEB 1256678) and community phylogenetics of NEON sites. They did a Master's with Mitch Cruzan at PSU and are now an IT specialist in CU's Biofrontiers.
pedro

Pedro Pezzi

Affiliated Researcher • he/him/his
He joined the Smith lab in 2022 as a visiting student to search for hybridization signals in Petunia , Calibrachoa , and Fabiana using transcriptomic data. He is now a postdoc with Maribeth Latvis at the University of Arkansas.
Nathaniel

Nathaniel Pinson

Undergraduate researcher
Nathaniel was a student in the CU BURST program during 2015-2016 school year, and he worked with Julienne and Rob on the NEON phylogenetic community assembly project. He's currently a park ranger in Golden.
Chelsea

Chelsea Pretz

Graduate Student
Chelsea finished her PhD in 2022, and her research, supported by an NSF-GRFP, focused on reproductive biology in the tomatillo genus, Physalis .
Vivianna

Vivianna Sanchez

Undergraduate researcher
Vivianna spent the summer of 2016 working as an REU student with Rob and Julienne on their NEON community phylogenetics project and subsequently completed her undergraduate degree in biology at Mount St. Mary's University. She is now a graduate student at Cornell!
Miranda

Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong

Postdoctoral Researcher • she/her/hers
Miranda joined the lab in 2019 with an NSF-PRFB in collections-based research. She worked with Dr. Smith and Dr. Silvia Vignolini (University of Cambridge) to study the evolution of structural color in fruit, and is now a postdoctoral research with Dan Park at Purdue.
Kevin

Kevin Thirouin

Undergraduate Researcher
Kevin grew up in the Mountain West and has a deep interest in both science and education. In the Smith Lab, he worked on multiple science education projects, including our work with CU Upward Bound and curricular development for undergraduate plant courses. He graduated with a degree in EBIO in 2019 and is now a graduate student with Dr. Pat Kociolek .
rthomas

Richard Thomas

Undergraduate researcher
Richard assisted with studies of pigment distribution and evolution in Solanaceae in the lab from 2012 to 2013. He is now a medical student at the University of West Virginia.
Cathyrn Toomey

Cathryn Toomey

Undergraduate Researcher
With funding from the CU BURST program, Cat conducted research on molecular phylogenetics of Cestrum during the spring and summer of 2015. She went on to study cancer drugs in the Liu Lab at CU-Boulder and is now an engineer in the pharmaceutical industry.
William Weaver

William Weaver

Undergraduate researcher
Will worked with Julienne and Rob on their phylogenetic community assembly project and continued onto graduate school in Stephen Smith's lab . Learn more about Will on his cool website !
seth

Seth Wells

Undergraduate Researcher • he/him/his
Seth was born in Berkeley, California and lived there until moving to baby直播app to attend CU. He just finished my Junior year double majoring in EBIO and anthropology. He joined the lab for the summer to work with Abel and Rocio in cataloging morphological traits of plants in the Solanaceae family. Outside of the lab, he plays ultimate frisbee for both the CU club team and a semi-pro team in...
LukeWheeler

Luke Wheeler

Postdoctoral Researcher • he/him/his
Luke joined the Smith lab in the Spring of 2018 to probe the genetic, molecular, and biochemical underpinnings of flower color evolution in Petunia and its wild relatives. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow with Carrie Wessinger at the University of South Carolina, studying population genomics and color variation in Penstemon .
Chantelle Yazzie

Chantelle Yazzie

Undergraduate Researcher
Chantelle was an NSF-REU student for two summers (2020, 2021), and she studied variation in dyeing properties and flavonoid content across populations of Navajo Tea ( Thelesperma megapotamicum ). Check out her awesome video about this ! She's finishing up her undergraduate degree this year at Utah Valley University.
Jianai

Jianai Zhao

Undergraduate Researcher
Jianai is pursuing a degree in Aerospace engineering with a German minor at CU Boulder. He worked in the lab during the summer of 2021 doing educational outreach and managing the greenhouse collections for research. He is now a grad student in engineering at TU Darmstadt in Frankfurt, Germany!