Past Donnelley Postdoctoral Associates

Sponsor: Michael Donoghue, Sterling Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Research: Anthony Baniaga joins us from the aromatic coastal scrub and chaparral of Southern California. His postdoctoral research at Yale focuses on documenting how whole genome duplication affects plant form, function, and ecophysiology. Anthony worked as a field botanist for the US Forest Service after receiving his BS in biology with a concentration in ecology at California Polytechnic State University and was awarded his PhD from the University of Arizona.

Anthony’s research at Yale focuses on how whole genome duplication affects plant form, function, and ecophysiology using the taxonomically difficult viburnum denatum species complex (Adoxaceae) as a model. Building upon previous work in this system, Anthony is currently documenting the distribution of polyploid populations in this complex. Through the support of the Donnelley Fellowship and the mentorship of Professor Michael Donoghue in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Anthony will ultimately link how having an extra set of chromosomes leads to changes in leaf morphology, function, and where these plants are able to inhabit.

Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UCLA

Curator of the Mildred E. Mathias Herbarium, UCLA

Los Angeles, California 

Sponsor: Craig Brodersen, Associate Professor of Plant Physiological Ecology

Research: Morgan Furze is a Donnelley Postdoctoral Fellow working with Professor Craig Brodersen in the Yale School of the Environment. Her research in the Brodersen Lab focuses on whole-plant carbon dynamics and its implications for how plants function in response to global change. She integrates tools from plant physiology, forest ecology, and isotope biogeochemistry with micro-CT imaging to explore carbohydrate storage and allocation in ecologically and economically important plants, especially trees. Morgan received her BA from Bucknell University and PhD from Harvard University.

USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis

Davis, California 

Jessica Kenigson, Ph.D. 

Sponsor: Mary-Louise Timmermans, Professor, Earth & Planetary Sciences

Research: Jessica completed her Ph.D. on causes of sea level variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018. She also completed an M.S. in Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Jessica’s research at Yale focuses on how changes in the Arctic Ocean circulation influence the global ocean circulation and Earth’s climate. She analyzes ocean and atmospheric measurements spanning decades to understand the far-reaching consequences of Arctic Ocean change, including influencing sea level rise in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Mahlet Garedew, Ph.D. 

Personal Website

July 2018 - June 2020

Sponsor: Paul Anastas, Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Prior to joining the Center for Green Chemistry and Engineering at Yale, Mahlet worked with Prof. Saffron and Prof. Jackson at Michigan State University where she received her Ph.D. in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering with a research focus on conversion of biomass to value-added intermediates using pyrolysis and electrocatalysis. More specifically, she investigated the effectiveness of a ruthenium catalyst for improving energy content and stability of phenolic compounds derived from the thermochemical degradation of lignin. Additionally, Mahlet was also part of the Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP) and a recipient the ESPP climate, food, energy and water (C-FEW) summer fellowship. Through her involvement in the ESPP program, Mahlet had the opportunity to explore the interdisciplinary aspect of her research. 

Outside of her research work, Mahlet enjoys working with students and is passionate about mentoring students from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers in STEM fields. While in her graduate program, Mahlet volunteered her time working as a tutor and mentor with programs such as Engineering and Science Success Academy, Summer Research Opportunities Program, and College Assistance Migrant Program at Michigan State University. 

Leslie James Robbins, Ph.D. 

Personal Website

Sponsor: Noah Planavsky, Assistant Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics

Research: Leslie completed his PhD in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, before coming to Yale in the fall of 2018 to conduct his postdoctoral research. He is a geochemist and geobiologist, whose doctoral research focused on using banded iron formations to examine the trace element chemistry of Earth’s early oceans and how changes in trace element abundances may be linked to the evolution of Earth’s biosphere.

Here at Yale, Leslie’s research is focused on developing new methods for assessing marine pH conditions in the geological past. The aim is to provide additional constraints marine pH, and by extension atmospheric CO₂ levels, during Cenozoic climate events such as the Middle Eocene Climate Optimum.  This research utilizes novel isotopic measurements and surface complexation modeling of iron oxides. Leslie is working with Dr. Noah Planavsky in the Department of Geology and Geophysics. 

Karolina Heyduk, Ph.D. 

Personal Website 

Sponsor: Erika Edwards, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 

Research: Originally from the Midwest, Karolina completed a bachelors of science in Economics and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011. From there she went to the University of Georgia, where she graduated with a PhD in Plant Sciences in 2015. Karolina worked as a post-doc for two years at UGA before coming to Yale.

Her research is on the evolution of specialized photosynthetic pathways in plants. She integrates plant physiology, genomics, and phylogenetics to understand how modifications to plant photosynthesis arose, and how they are maintained today. Karolina is working with Dr. Erika Edwards in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Sponsor: Derek Briggs, Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics

Research: Luke completed his PhD on fossil annelids at the University of Bristol in 2017. Prior to coming to Yale he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Ontario Museum and University of Toronto in Canada. 

Luke’s research at Yale focuses on understanding the origin of animal body plans, with particular focus on spiralians (molluscs, segmented worms and their close relatives). Much of this research is on fossil material from the Cambrian Period (541-485 million years ago) as well as comparative work on the morphology and phylogeny of extant organisms. 

Maria Natalia Umana Medina, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Liza Comita, Assistant Professor, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. 

Research: Natalia’s research at Yale, aims to identify ecological processes driving shifts in tree community composition and structure along a rainfall gradient in a tropical forest in Panama.

Josh Daskin, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Ines Zucker, Ph.D. 

Personal Website 

Research: Dr. Ines Zucker’s postdoctoral research in the Elimelech research group focuses on the development of nanotechnology-based solutions for water decontamination, as well as environmental and health impacts of nanotechnology.

Oliver Griffith, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Gunter Wagner, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Identifying the processes that underpin the evolution of pregnancy in vertebrates, including reptiles; understanding how pregnancy and specifically the evolution of a placenta interacts with the environment, and how this interaction may help or hurt organisms in a changing climate.

Chun Ho (Jason) Lam, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Paul Anastas, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: “A path to fossil-free chemical feedstocks to alleviate global warming: Electrocatalytic upgrading of depolymerized lignin and industrial waste to value-added products”

Charlotte O’Brien, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Mark Pagani, Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics

Research: Estimating global temperatures for the late Oligocene Epoch, which occurred from about 33.9 to 23 million years ago

Adam Roddy, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Craig Brodersen, Assistant Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Evolutionary transitions in the structure-function relationships of flowers

Lindsey Swierk, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: David Skelly, Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Understanding amphibian responses to suburbanization

Lauren Smith, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Oswald Schmitz, Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Do invasive plants that promote predators fundamentally alter ecosystem functioning?

Erin Saupe, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Derek Briggs, G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology & Geophysics

Research: Evolution and climate change: Elucidating the controls on species’ responses to 4myr of environmental change in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, USA

Peter Cowman, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Thomas Near, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Mechanistic processes and genomic evolution in marine biodiversity hotspots: Do coral reefs promote diversity through accelerated rates of molecular change?

Research Fellow in Ecosystem Dynamics, ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University,

Queensland, Australia

Sara Kuebbing, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Mark Bradford, Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Testing predictions in field and laboratory experiments on invasive functional trait analysis, litter decomposition and field litter-addition

Postdoctoral Researcher, Bradford Lab, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

New Haven, CT

Giovanna Carpi, Ph.D

Sponsor: Maria Diuk-Wassar, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health

Research: Linking vertebrate diversity with tick-borne pathogen species and genome-wide diversity

Associate Research Scientist in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University

New Haven, CT

Sponsor: Michelle Bell, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Research to examine how drought in the United States affects levels of airborne particles and thereby impacts the risk of mortality and illness for respiratory diseases

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Baltimore, MD

Sponsor: David Vasseur, Assistant Professor, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Understanding the mechanisms governing the distribution and abundance of the more than 8 million species that inhabit earth

Data Analyst, Zions Bancorporation

Salt Lake City, UT

Sponsor: David Skelly, Professor of Ecology, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Linking prey behavior to population and ecosystem-level pattern:  What drives variation in the strength of risk effects among temperate ungulates?

Associate Research Scientist, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

New Haven, CT

Bridget Nugent, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Suzanne Alonzo, Assistant Professor, Yale Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Understanding the proximate mechanisms that give rise to variation within and across species and thereby provide a substrate for selection and diversification that is critical to understanding the origins of biodiversity in wild species that may help to explain phenotypic variation in other organisms through comparative studies

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine

Philadelphia, PA

Sponsor: Michael Donoghue, Sterling Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Community assembly, niche evolution, and the future of alpine plant communities

Assistant Professor of Biology, Southern Utah University

Cedar City, UT

Isabelle Kruta, Ph.D.
 

Sponsor: Derek Briggs, G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology & Geophyics

Research: Role of ammonites in the Mesozoic food web

Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History

New York, NY

Matthew Niemiller, Ph.D.
 

Sponsor: Thomas Near, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Champaign, IL

Jay Zarnetske, Ph.D.

Lab Website
 

Sponsors: James Saiers and Peter Raymond, Professors at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Watershed hydrology, aquatic ecology, ecosystem informatics, hydrogeology, stable isotope biogeochemistry and global water resource issues

Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI

Sponsor: Robert Bailis, Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Associate Professor, Environmental Geography Research Centre, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

Mexico City, Mexico

Daniel Rosauer, Ph.D. 

Personal Website

Sponsor: Walter Jetz, Associate Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Biodiversity informatics, macroevolution and conservation science

Research Fellow, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University

Canberra, Austalia

Nina Lehr, Ph.D.
 

Sponsor: Jeffrey Townsend, Associate Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: The evolution of gene expression underlying sexual development in fungi

Postdoctoral Associate, Strobel Lab, Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Yale University

New Haven, CT

Valerie Fuchs, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Julie Zimmerman, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering

Research: Optimizing ecosystem benefits through water systems infrastructure location

Water Resources Engineer, Brown and Caldwell

Seattle, WA

Matthew Walsh, Ph.D.​​
 

Lab Website

Sponsor: David Post, Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: The link between environmental heterogeneity and evolutionary change in coastal lake ecosystems

Assistant Professor of Biology, Department of Biology, University of Texas Arlington

Arlington, TX

Andrea Gloria-Soria, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Leo Buss, Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Characterization of the allelic variation on the allorecognition complex of Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus

Associate Research Scientist, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University

New Haven, CT

Christopher Clark, Ph.D.
 

Lab Website

Sponsor: Rick Prum, William Coe Robinson Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB), Professor at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: The mechanics and diversity of feather-generated sounds in birds

Assistant Professor of Biology, Department of Biology, University of California Riverside

Riverside, CA

Nicholas Longrich, Ph.D.

Lab Website

Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology and Vertebrate Zoology, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Senior Lecturer, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath

Bath, UK

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Hunter College CUNY

New York, NY

Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington

Seattle, WA

Collections Manager, Invertebrate Paleontology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Los Angeles, CA

Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney

Sydney, Australia

Research Scientist, Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University

Corvallis, OR

Senior Lecturer, Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Israel

Assistant Professor in arbovirology, Florida Medical Entomology Lab, University of Florida

Vero Beach, FL

Associate Professor and Head of Biology, Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University,

University Park, PA

Margaret Evans, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Assistant Research Professor, EEB and Dendrochronology, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ

Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Urbana, IL

Craig Layman, Ph.D.

Lab Website

Sponsor: David Post, Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: To address (1) does ecosystem size affect food chain length in Caribbean estuaries, and if so (2) which measure(s) of ecosystem size (e.g. water volume of estuaries, catchment surface area, amount of tidal flow, or “resource “shed” – the total area from which an ecosystem derives resources) is most useful in accounting for differences in FCL.

Associate Professor, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University

Raleigh, NC

Gregory Dietl, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Derek Briggs, Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics

Research: Circumstances under which evolution occurs with particular interest in arms races between species in evolution

Director of Collections, Paleontological Research Institute & Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

Stephen Meyers, Ph.D.
 

Lab Website
 

October 2003 - September 2005

Sponsor: Mark Pagani, Professor, Geology & Geophysics

Research: Quantifying Holocene climate response to the North Atlantic oscillation; the origin and stability of centennial-millennial scale cyclicity in quaternary

Assistant Professor, Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Madison, WI

Benjamin Twining, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Gaboury Benoit, Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Use of a combination of synchrotron-based x-ray fluorescence microscopy, AAS/and/or ICP-MS, and voltammetric techniques to study the factors controlling the accumulation of metals by estuarine biota

Senior Research Scientist & Director of Research and Education, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

East Boothbay, ME

Amy Russell, Ph.D.
 

Personal Website

Sponsor: Anne Yoder, Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Evolutionary history and biogeography of chameleons in a megadiversity hotspot

Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Grand Valley State University

Allendale, MI

Susanna Remold, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Paul Turner, Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Environmental heterogeneity and the evolutions of genetic architecture in viruses; career consequences of expertise with mammalian pathogens

Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Louisville

Louisville, KY

Klaus Meiners, Ph.D.

Sponsor: John Wettlaufer, Professor, Geology & Geophysics

Research: The ecology of frozen oceans - controls on primary production in sympagic communities

Research Scientist, Sea Ice Ecology, Australian Antarctic Division’s Climate Processes and Change program & Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center’s Ecosystem Impacts program

Sponsor: Karl K. Turekian, Sterling Professor of Geology & Geophysics

Research: Paleoceanographic and climate change reconstruction over various time scales

Sponsor: Menachem Elimelech, Roberto C. Goizueta Professor of Chemical Engineering; Professor, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Bacterial transport in aquatic systems; interpreting microbial deposition patterns

Lecturer, Civil Engineering & Construction Engineering Management Department, California State University at Long Beach

Long Beach, CA 

Sponsor: Gisella Caccone, Director, ECOSAVE Conservation Genetics Laboratory; Lecturer, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Evolution and conservation of Giant Galápagos Tortoises; patterns of diversification in Amazonian fishes

ARC Future Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University

Adelaide, South Australia

Campbell Webb, Ph.D.
 

Personal Website

Sponsors: Mark Ashton, Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology, Director of School Forests; and Michael Donoghue, G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Comparative phylogenetic structure of rain forest tree communities

Research Associate, Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University

Kalimantan, Indonesia

Claudio Ciofi, Ph.D.

Sponsors: Dr. Gisella Caccone, ECOSAVE Conservation Genetics Laboratory and Lecturer, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; and Jeffrey Powell, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Research: Genetics and ecology of island reptiles; established long-term collaboration with both US and foreign Institutions aimed at the management and conservation of endangered species

Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Florence

Firenze, Italy

Ofer Ovadia, Ph.D.

Lab Website

Sponsor: Oswald Schmitz, Oastler Professor of Population & Community Ecology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,  School of Forestry & Environmental Studies; Professor,  Ecology/Evolutionary Biology

Research: Effect of state-dependent decision making of individual herbivores on food web dynamics

Lecturer in Ecology & Evolution, Ben‑Gurion University of the Negev

Be’er Sheva, Israel

Douglas Gollin, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Professor Robert Evenson, Economic Growth Center

Research: Impact of international agricultural research on the sustainable production of crops; management of materials in agricultural gene banks

Professor of Development Economics, Department of International Development, Oxford University

Oxford, England

Joseph Kiesecker, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Professor David Skelly, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Disease ecology – investigating the influence of fungal pathogens on the distribution of larval amphibians and dynamics of their communities

Past YIBS Postdoctoral Associates

Federico Spada, Ph.D.

Personal Website

Sponsor: Sabatino Sofia, Professor, Astronomy

Research: Solar structural variability and its influence on Earth climate

Karl Schwarzschild Fellow,
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

Potsdam, Germany

Sponsor: Jordan Peccia, Assistant Professor, Environmental Engineering

Research: Microalgae lipid analysis and bioinformatics

Assistant Professor, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogaziçi University

Istanbul, Turkey

Li-Qing, Jiang, Ph.D.
 

Personal Website

Sponsor: Peter Raymond, Associate Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: The impact of seasonal hypoxia on carbon dioxide in large estuarine systems – a case study of the Long Island Sound

Assistant Research Scientist, 
Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, University of Maryland

College Park, MD

Philip Larese-Casanova, Ph.D.
 

Lab Website

Sponsor: Ruth Blake, Professor, Department of Geology & Geophysics

Research: Improving bioremediation of groundwater contamination using

δ 18O stable isotope signatures

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University

Boston, MA

Sponsor: James Saiers, Professor of Hydrology and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research: Determining the role played by hydrological events in mediating dissolved organic matter (DOM) dynamics and related in-stream processes

Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Brandon, Manitoba

Chad Vecitis, Ph.D.
 

Lab Website

Sponsor: Menachem Elimelech, Roberto C. Goizueta Professor of Chemical Engineering; Chairman, Chemical Engineering & Director of the Environmental Engineering Program; Professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Anti-microbial activity of single-walled carbon nanotubes, with investigations into membrane stress mediated toxicity

Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, 
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences & Center for the Environment, Harvard University

Cambridge, MA

Alexander Jih-Pai Lin, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Derek Briggs, William Beinecke Professor of Geology & Geophysics

Research: The uniqueness of Cambrian paleoecology and closure of the Cambrian taphonomic window

Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University

Taipei, Taiwan

Linda Puth, Ph.D.

Sponsor: Professor David Skelly
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Research: Putting the parts together: A holistic treatment of invasion

Lecturer in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University

New Haven, CT