Sunshine Van Bael
Dr. Sunshine Van Bael’s (she/her) laboratory studies community ecology with emphases on symbioses and plant-animal interactions. Broadly, we are interested in how plants, animals and fungi become involved in symbioses with other organisms to feed themselves and defend themselves from enemies. We are involved in projects in Panama and in the southeastern US that include microbial ecology, chemical ecology, biodiversity conservation, coastal restoration and agroecology.
Mareli Sanchez
Mareli Sanchez (she/her) is a Ph.D. student interested in how fungal endophytes and root mycorrhizal fungi help non-halophytic plants deal with salinity stress, as well as the role of mycorrhizal fungi in forest restoration. Broadly, her research interests are tropical ecology, wetland ecology, mycology, biogeography, and soil biochemistry.
Bolívar Aponte-Rolón
Bolívar Aponte-Rolón (he/him) is a Ph.D. student interested in studying bacterial and fungal endophytic communities in tropical forests and mangrove ecosystems. His research interests are, broadly, tropical ecology, agroecology, mycology and myrmecology.
Elizabeth MacDougal
Elizabeth MacDougal (she/her) is a Ph.D. student with research interests in coastal restoration, climate change and science outreach
Nico Potoker
Nico Potoker (he/him) is a +1 master's student whose research interests include tropical ecology, fungal biology and wetlands conservation and restoration
Bek Markel
Bek Markel (they/them) completed a MS degree on baldcypress endophytes and is currently a research technician working on coastal restoration projects
Undergraduates 2021
Judge Sanchez, Iker Yturralde, Oliva Barfield, Blaine Martin
Undergraduates 2020
Olivia Barfield (left) and Reid Belanger (right). Not in photo: Molly Duncan, Anya Mukundan, Emily Nochowicz, Iker Yturralde.
