CURRENT LAB MEMBERS (click on personal image for more detail...)

	Chelsea Specht Principal Investigator Evolution of troical gingers (Zingiberales), Floral development and systematics of various monocot groups PUBLICATIONS
	Heather Driscoll Lab Manager & Research Associate Systematics, Biogeography and Evolution of Polystichum ferns
	Madelaine Bartlett Graduate Student, Plant Biology Floral development and the evolution of floral symmetry in Monocots
	Chodon Sass Graduate Student, Plant Biology Population biology and evolution of ecological adaptation in Aechmea
	Tanya Renner Graduate Student, Plant Biology: Evolution of proteins involved in plant carnivory
	Kali Lader Graduate Student, Microbiology: Fungal endophyte community structure in California coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens)
	Carolina Gomez Graduate Student, Plant Biology Population genetics and evolution of thermogenesis in mexican species of Dioon (Cycadales)
	Ana Almeida Incoming Graduate Student, Plant Biology Evolution of floral development in Richterago (Asteraceae)
	Nhu Nguyen Honorary Lab member and Research Coordinator, California Allium Project
	UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS
Laura Lagomarsino SPUR, David Scholar, Smithsonian RTP Evolution and Ancestral Ecology reconstruction in Heliconia	Sarah Starkey SPUR Systematics of Ancistrocladus	Irene Liao SPUR Systematics of New World Costaceae
Jennifer Bartlau SPUR Floral Development in Zingiberales	Claudia Henriquez SPUR Evolution of Aechmea (Bromeliaceae) and Milla (Themidaceae)
LAB ALUMNI	WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
	Hillary Cooper SPUR, Senior Thesis on systematics of Ruscaceae. Currently: Laboratory manager for Dr. Paul Fine, Integrative Biology, UCB
	Sankar Sridaran SPUR, Senior Thesis on comparative genetics and Floral Development in Costaceae and Musaceae Currently: Center for DIsease Control (CDC), EID intern.
	Yizhuo Wang URAP, Senior Thesis on the systematics of Costaceae Currently: MedImmune, research assistant.
	Debra Wang URAP: Graduated from College of Letters and Science with double major (Biology/Psychology)
	Christina "Tina" Johnson Currently: Graduate school in the Botany department at Miami University of Ohio with Dr. John Kiss

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Laura Lagomarsino (below) is the recipient of a Nathan and Violet David Scholars Fellowship for undergraduate research at UC Berkeley and a recipient of a 2007-2008 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Laura studies systematics and evolution of Heliconia for her research program and will spend the summer of 2007 at the Smithsonian Institution working with W. John Kress on reconstructing the ancestral ecology of Central American heliconias. In the picture below, Laura is seen hugging a Heliconia while simultaneously talking on the phone to Hillary. Can they ever get plant systematics off their minds?

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Sarah Starkey (GPB 08) spent the year working with graduate student Tanya Renner on the phylogeny and evolution of carnivorous plants in the Caryophyllales. Sarah worked independently to help Tanya develop an understanding of evolution within the genus Ancistrocladus. Below, Sarah is showing her love for Nepenthes...

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Claudia Henriquez (GPB 08) developed two projects: she assisted Chodon Sass with her work on understanding the evolution of the bromeliad genus Aechmea, and she worked with Dra. Victoria Sosa in Mexico working on a phylogeny of Milla (Themidaceae). Her honors thesis project focused on Milla. Claudia is shown below with related genus, Brodiaea.

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Jennifer Bartlau (MEB 08) has been working with Madelaine Bartlett on developing a system for photographing and documenting floral development across the Zingiberales. Irene Liao (GPB 09) has been working on several projects in the lab: First, developing primers and working on the phylogeny of california Allium (Alliaceae) along with Heather Driscoll and Nhu Nguyen, and more recently focusing on the phylogeny of New World Costus (Costaceae). Here, Jennifer and Irene are enjoying the carnivorous plants up at the UC Botanical Garden.

And Irene is caught botanizing...

FORMER URAP/SPUR Projects (2006-2007)

HIllary and Debra worked as a power team, developing a phylogeny of the monocot family Ruscaceae. This family includes diverse plant forms like Dracaena, Ruscus, and Convallaria and HIllary is interested in the evolution of plant habit and habitat. Hillary completed this project for her undergraduate thesis, and this image of her being attacked by a Dasylirion probably rang true for her as she finished up....

Sankar Sridaran, here shown with his beloved Costus dubius, has completed his senior thesis project, working on developing a system for using techniques developed in model organisms in order to better understand floral development in the diverse Zingiberales (tropical gingers). While managing the greenhouses, he also extracted MADS box genes from a variety of species of gingers and examining their sequences and expression patterns to help understand the role of candidate genes in creating the diverse floral morphologies in the Zingiberales.

Yizhuo Wang, MCB 2007, finished her honor's thesis on a phylogeny of New World Costus (Costaceae) in order to develop a robust hypothesis concerning the pattern of evolution of bee and bird pollination in these charasmatic species. Once this is completed, we will be able to better understand the importance of ecology in driving morphological evolution of flowers in Costus. Ongoing SPUR projects continue in Yizhuo's footsteps...

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Otto and Asa Gray

Lab Dogs

This duo is often found roaming the halls of Koshland in search of cookies (Otto) or apples (Asa Gray). Please avoid feeding them, if they let you.

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Department of Plant & Microbial Biology

University of California, Berkeley

Group photos from previous years