Marie Arentsen, Undergraduate researcher
Marie worked on a project looking at variation in herbivory and plant size in natural populations of Arabidopsis. She came to us from Denmark. She returned home and studied psychology at the University of Aarhus.
Regina Baucom, Ph.D. Graduate student
Gina completed her Ph.D. in 2006 and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. She studied the evolutionary genetics of a novel trait, tolerance to herbicide, in morning glories. While a graduate student, she was supported by NSF/DOE/USDA and NIH training grants. She also wrote a successful dissertation improvement grant to NSF, which supported her research.
Natalie Bowman, Undergraduate researcher
Natalie worked on a project looking at pollen differences between two species of Leavenworthia. She graduated from UGA and moved to California where she worked as an enologist at the Sanford Winery and Vineyards. Read this great profile about her in From the Vine. She now works at the Boulder Wine Merchant in Colorado.
Molly Brown, Undergraduate researcher
Molly worked on the evolutionary genetics of tolerance to herbicide in morning glories as well as on a project looking at within-population variation in Arabidopsis. She was supported by an REU supplement to Rodney's NSF grant. Molly graduated with a B.S. in Biology in 2004 and earned an R.N. at the Medical College of Goergia. She is now an R.N. for the U.S. Air Force.
Shannon Brown, Undergraduate researcher
Shannon worked on a project looking at pollen variation in two species of Leavenworthia. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2007.
Madeline Cozad, Undergraduate researcher
Madeline worked on tolerance to glyphosate in morning glories. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2006.
Jenny Fenton, Undergraduate researcher
Jenny worked on a project investigating the effects of ultraviolet-B radiation on natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana. She was supported by an REU supplement to Rodney's NSF grant. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2006.
Stephanie Held Goodrich, Research technician
As a technician, Stephanie worked on a project which considered the effects of the environment on the determination of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for seed traits in the annual plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Biology at the University of Virginia, where she was awarded a President's Fellowship and worked with Debbie Roach.
Stacy Jørgensen, Ph.D., Postdoctoral researcher
Stacy was a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Kathy Parker in the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia. Her dissertation was on the biogeographic and genetic diversification of a group of native Hawaiian plants (Lipochaeta section Aphanopappus). She did all of her genetic studies in our lab. She received her Ph.D. in December, 2002 and returned in 2003 and 2004 to do a postdoc on the geographic structure of genetic variation in Arabidopsis. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
Vanessa Koelling, Ph.D., Graduate student
Vanessa studied how species form. In particular, her research focused on understanding the evolutionary and ecological processes responsible for reproductive barriers between species. She examined the ecological and genetic basis of reproductive isolation between 2 species in the genus, Leavenworthia. Her graduate work was funded by an NIH Fellowship. She is currently a postdoc in John Kelly's lab at the University of Kansas.
Kelly Kopf Sayed, Undergraduate researcher
Kelly worked on her Honors thesis in the lab. Her research centered on understanding the interactions of gene flow and selection on adaptively important traits in natural populations of the rock cress, Arabidopsis lyrata. She was supported by an REU supplement to Rodney's NSF grant. She graduated in 2004 with a B.S. in Genetics and is now an attorney in North Carolina, having graduated from the UNC School of Law. She was the recipient of the 2005 "Cynthia Kenyon Outstanding Undergraduate Award" of the Department of Genetics.
Hassan Mansour, Visiting graduate student
Hassan was a Ph.D. student at Suez Canal University in Isma'ilia, Egypt and visiting the lab for 2 years with a grant from the Egyptian government. He is interested in the genetics of mating system variation in a Primula species endemic to the Sina'i desert.
Lynn Mitchell, Undergraduate researcher
Lynn worked on a project looking at variation in herbivory and plant size in natural populations of Arabidopsis. She was supported by an REU supplement to Rodney's NSF grant. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2005 with a B.S. in Biology.
Amanda Mulligan, Undergraduate researcher
Amanda studied the evolutionary genetics of novel herbicide tolerance in natural populations of the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea. Amanda graduated with a B.S. in Genetics in December, 2003.
Mickey Nzira, Undergraduate researcher
Mickey worked on a project investigating the effects of ultraviolet-B radiation on natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana. He was supported by an REU supplement to Rodney's NSF grant. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.S. in Genetics in 2010.
Gregory O'Connell, Research technician
Greg is an alumnus of our UGA-China PIRE program and helped on a variety of lab projects. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2008 with a B.S. in Genetics.
Cristi Radford, Undergraduate researcher
Cristi worked on a field project investigating the environmental and genetic control of anthocyanin production in Arabidopsis thaliana. Christi graduated with a B.S. in Genetics in 2001. After working as a senior lab technician in the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, she entered the Genetic Counseling Program at the University of South Carolina where she earned her Master of Science degree. She is now a genetic counselor at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Newark, Delaware.
Christina Richards, Ph.D., Graduate student
Christina graduated with her Ph.D. in 2004. Her research focused on understanding how patterns of selection vary in the salt marsh and how plant responses to this variation in selection lead to patterns of genetic and phenotypic variation in natural populations. She worked with the dominant high marsh perennial, Borrichia frutescens (Asteraceae: Sea Oxeye Daisy) on Sapelo Island, Georgia (which contains some of the last unaltered salt marshes along the Atlantic coast). She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida.
Jeremy Sexton, Undergraduate researcher
Jeremy worked on a project looking at pollen variation in two species of Leavenworthia. He is currently an undergraduate majoring in Biology at the University of Georgia.
Stephen Scott, Undergraduate researcher
Stephen studied the interactions between soil bacteria and plants -- a generally underappreciated area of evolutionary genetic research. He investigated the genetic basis of the interactions of a genus of antibiotic-producing soil bacteria, Streptomyces, and natural populations of the annual plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Stephen graduated with a B.S. in Biology in 2003 and earned a degree in International Transportation Management at the State University of New York Maritime College. He is currently Third Officer at the Military Sealift Command.
Jessica Sterling, Research technician
Jessica came to us from Ohio University where she graduated in 2003. She ran the lab for two years and is currently a graduate student in the Odum School of Ecology at UGA.
Stephanie Tucker, Undergraduate researcher
Stephanie studied the evolutionary genetics of novel herbicide tolerance in natural populations of the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea. She graduated from the University of Georgia in 2004 and earned an MPH from Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Danny Vaughn, Undergraduate researcher
Danny worked on a field project investigating the environmental and genetic control of plant size in Arabidopsis thaliana. Danny graduated with a B.S. in Biology in 2001. He graduated from the Mercer University School of Medicine and is now a general surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.
Ashleigh Waits, Undergraduate researcher
Ashleigh worked on finding the genetic basis for seed size variation and germination traits in Arabidopsis thaliana. Ashleigh graduated with a B.S. in Genetics in 2001. She is presently employed by a large, contract pharmaceutical company, Quintiles Transnational, in Atlanta.
Julie Williams, Undergraduate researcher
Julie studied the evolutionary genetics of novel herbicide tolerance in natural populations of the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea. She graduated with a B. S. in Genetics in 2004. She is currently a prenatal genetic counselor at the Medical College of Georgia and received her M.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007.
Jeff Wolf, Undergraduate researcher
Jeff worked with Vanessa on variyuos aspects of her work on speciation in Leavenworthia. Jeff helped to complete a reciprocal transplant experiment in northwest Alabama and also assisted with a population genetic analysis using allozymes. He is graduated from the University of Georgia in 2007 with a B.S. in Plant Biology.