Alumni

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!

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 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!

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 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 next moved to the University of Bern to work with Prof. Cris Kuhlemeier on Petunia genetics. She is now an HUH research fellow with Robin Hopkins at Harvard!

Justin conducted research on phylogenetics of Iochroma in the spring of 2013.

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 was an REU student in the summer of 2021, working with Chelsea and Sukuan on flower color data from Petunieae. He's currently a senior is at Oglala Lakota College where he is majoring in Natural Science with emphasis on Conservation Biology.

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!

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.

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 primary care resident in the UW-Madison Department of Medicine.

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 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 currenlty wrapping up her IPHY degree with plans to get a master's in nutrition afterwards!

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 !

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.

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 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 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 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 Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier in France.

Rachel worked with Stacey on anthocyanin expression in Browallia americana in response to different environments. She graduated in May '23.

Laurence studied the effects of micronutrient variation on pollen tube growth in Physalis with Chelsea from 2018 to 2020. He is now a research assistant at the CU Stem Cell Lab in next door in MCDB, and will start a Masters in Materials Science & Engineering in fall 2021.

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.

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 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 .!

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 is now a graduate student in the Soltis Lab .

Hannah worked with Julienne, Rob, and Will on the phylogenetic community project. She is now pursuing a PhD in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at UCSB.

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!

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.

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 .

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 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 an incoming GRFP fellow at the University of Chicago!

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.

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.

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 graduate student in Kevin McGraw's lab at ASU.

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.

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 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 off to nursing school!

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.

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 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 at Rhodes College in Memphis.

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 .

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.

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 Colorado. She is now a Master's student at the University of Denver.

Melissa worked with Rocío 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 continuing to work as a researcher in MCDB.

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's project involved creating species distribution maps from herbarium specimens and she also helped to maintain the living collections. She is now works at CU INVST and crafts her own wonderful botanical products !

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 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 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 pursuing a law degree at UT-Austin.

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 the K-12 education sector with Seeding Success in Memphis.

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.

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 is a junior in Information Science at UNC Chapel Hill. She 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!

Jessica 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. She did a Master's with Mitch Cruzan at PSU and is now back at CU as a researcher in Erin Tripp's lab!

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 finished her PhD in 2022, and her research, supported by an NSF-GRFP, focused on reproductive biology in the tomatillo genus, Physalis . She is now a postdoc in Clare Rittschof's honeybee lab at the University of Kentucky.

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!

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 .

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.

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.

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 !

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 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!