Author: Sunshine Van Bael

We’re proud of the graduates of 2017!  We’ll miss you and we wish you the best in your next steps. We hope that you’ll visit often and keep in touch.  Earning a B.S.: Emma Darr, Miranda Hendrix, Jennifer Janowsky and Amelia Lormand Earning an M.S.: Emma Tower   Earning a Ph.D.: Dr. Kimberly Mighell   And […]

Dr. Kimberly Mighell became the first Ph.D. to graduate from the Van Bael lab at Tulane! She  defended her thesis on March 3 and participated in the hooding ceremony on May 19, 2017. Her next step is a position as a “Visiting Assistant Professor” in Tulane’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She’s not tired of us […]

Our lab participated in a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) program out at the Studio in the Woods. We piloted the first ever, “Kid Master Plan for Coastal Management” workshop. Kids worked in teams of three to design and build the coast, using a physical model.  The City Planner decided where to place […]

It was another successful day sharing our research with middle school girls. A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make this day inspiring! 

The Van Bael lab had a successful  field trip to a baldcypress swamp! Liz led the charge as Lorena, Miranda and Emma Darr came along to help collect soil for our seedling flooding experiment. Back home at Tulane, the team is working together to study how flooding influences the bacterial and fungal endophyte ratios in […]

On Friday March 3, Kimberly Mighell (pictured at the far left) became the first Van Bael Ph.D. student to defend her dissertation. The day was a success and Kim is preparing her corrections and getting ready for the hooding event on May 19. Congrats to (almost) Dr. Mighell! You can read more about Kim’s research here! […]

We braved the rainy weather and drove to Grande Isle last weekend. The hunt was on for Spartina alterniflora seeds, which we need for our inoculation studies. Our crew of 7 slogged through the marshy parts of the beach to beat the seeds into buckets, while the kid crew stayed near the shore to… fly a dragon kite […]

Last weekend we hosted middle school girls for our Fungal Endophyte workshop at Tulane. The girls isolated some pet endophytes to take home with them. Thanks to the army of volunteers who helped make this happen!

The Van Bael lab led a workshop with middle school boys in October, wherein we introduced the boys to the wonderful world of endophytes! Huge thanks to all lab members who volunteered their time to inspire. Look below to find some results!    

Three Entomology students are earning their second tier service learning credit by planting a native pollinator garden at Audubon Charter School, on Milan.  The Tulane students have enjoyed interacting with students in the after school program to plant the garden, and will each be giving presentations to classrooms at Audubon about the importance of insect diversity. […]