Author: Sunshine Van Bael

Kim Mighell led the Entomology class in a night collecting trip at The Studio in the Woods. The class was joined by Dr. Nancy Knowlton.

The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology hosted a visit by Dr. Nancy Knowlton from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History this past week. Nancy met with undergraduates, graduate students, post docs and faculty during her visit. She presented the Marcia Monroe Conery Lecture on Saturday in Freeman Auditorium, entitled, “#OceanOptimism: Success stories in Ocean […]

Congratulations to Kim Mighell for publishing the first chapter of her dissertation: “Selective elimination of microfungi in leaf-cutting ant gardens” in Fungal Ecology.  You can read the article here (pdf).

The Van Bael lab is happy to welcome two post-doctoral scholars. Lorena Torres Martinez holds the Koch Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship and is teaching Plant Biology and a course in Analyses of next-generation sequencing data. She began in July and will be joining the lab’s research team to study the influence of flooding on baldcypress symbionts. […]

Members of the Van Bael lab enjoyed attending the Ecological Society of America meeting in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Steve Formel, Kim Mighell, Liz Kimbrough and Jen Janowsky gave poster presentations, and Liz received a fellowship to be a PLOS reporter for two sessions! See her blog posts here (Liz’s first PLOS blog) and here (Liz’s second PLOS […]

The Van Bael lab was busy at the Maple Street Greenhouse this week, completing our set up of the oiling experiment with Spartina alterniflora. This experiment will help us understand the role of plants and their endophytes in breaking down hydrocarbons from oil. Setting up this experiment began back in February, and now all the treatments are […]

 photo by Besty Arnold Tropical forest time! Three members of the Van Bael lab, Peter, Courtney and Keiana have just begun their summer field work on Barro Colorado Island. They were caught here on camera along  with two members of the Arnold lab at the University of Arizona, Anyang and Jasmin.  Together the group is starting our […]

We are proud of your accomplishments and grateful for the time you invested in our lab! We wish you the best in your next adventures, near and far — and feel certain you will continue to make the world a better place! Kaylee Arnold (M.S.) will be starting a Ph.D. program at the University of Georgia […]

Congratulations to Steve Formel, our newest graduate fellowship winner! Steve’s research is focusing on the endophytes of Spartina alterniflora in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.  He’s especially interested in understanding how the oil spill influences bacterial and fungal symbionts of Spartina.  We’re proud of your huge accomplishment, Steve!

Look at this great new write-up of our newly published work from Panama! Link to biotropica blog Nos vemos pronto, Panamá!