Past Happenings (from August 2022-Present)...
May 2025: The lab shared our mutualism science with elementary students at Piney Grove and people of all ages at UNCG's Science Everywhere and Greensboro's first ever STEMFest this spring!
May 2, 2025: Elise Grabda successfully defended her PhD proposal "Four Tiers of Shrub Encroachment", investigating shrub encroachment into grasslands from a variety of scales.
April 29, 2025: Olivia Kjuka successfully defended her Master's proposal investigating the effects of microplastics on soybean, leaf beetles, and parasitic wasp tri-trophic interactions. Cool preliminary results are coming in hot and we can't wait to see the full greenhouse experiment this summer!
April 10, 2025: Congratulations to Master Millie Ortiz for successfully defending her Master's thesis on the indirect effects of fire on grassland invertebrates!
March 2025: Elise Grabda was awarded a Weaver grant from the Nature Conservancy to set up a biodiversity experiment investigating biotic resistance to shrubs at the Plant and Pollinator Center, congrats Elise!
March 4, 2025: Kim Komatsu shares the good and the bad about insects in the UNCG Sustainability Lecture & Dialogue series.
December 2024: Congratulations to our December graduates, Elijah Resuello and Stephanie Besa! Read about Elijah's journey in our lab and at UNCG here.
August 2024: Welcome to new lab members Kelly Clark (PhD student), Olivia Kjuka (MS student), Elliott Turbeville, Za'Nay Forney, Youseph Sabek, Atlas Pratt-Brown, Airelle Newkirk, Layla Eglin, Caroline Ferguson, Leslie DeCuesta, Madeline Wild, Stephanie Besa, and Silver Caldera! Learn more about everyone in the lab here.
August 2024: The lab headed out to Long Beach, CA for the annual Ecological Society of America meeting!
April 2024: It was a big month for the Community Dynamics lab! Zachary Bunch defended his master's thesis, Rachael Brenneman defended her dissertation proposal, and Millie Ortiz defended her thesis proposal. Congratulations to all three on successfully completing these big milestones!
April 2024: The lab spent some time outside at UNCG's annual Science Everywhere talking to people about our plant microbiome work and helping them culture their own microbiomes!
January 2024: Welcome to new lab members, undergraduate students Ryan Hargrove and Maleak Whittaker!
January 2024: We say a sad farewell to lab technician Sara Gora this month, thanks for all of your hard work over the past year processing samples and entertaining us all! At the same time, we are excited to welcome Maya Parker-Smith to the lab group as our new lab manager!
August 2023: Welcome to all of our new lab members, including PhD student Elise Grabda, MS student Millie Ortiz, and undergraduate students Special Puri, Elijah Resuello, Zoe Edmonson, Kimberly Gonzalez, and Briana Worley!
August 2023: Rachael and Kim attended the annual Ecological Society of America meeting this summer in Portland, Oregon! It was great to see friends and colleagues there and hear about some amazing science.
June 2023: Milan Toomer received an Undergraduate Research Creativity Award, amazing! She's hard at work this summer planting lots of legumes in the greenhouse to see how plant-soil feedbacks impact legume species coexistence.
June 2023: Rachael and Zachary are out at Konza Prairie for the summer to study tallgrass prairie plant and insect communities!
May 2023: Congratulations to our graduates, Wudeh Saidykhan and Jayda Gresham! We're so proud of your accomplishment!
May 2023: We are sad to say farewell to Sarah Alley, who has been a fabulous technician for the lab's beanDIP and GMDR projects for more than two years! Sarah excelled at detailed lab work and was always ready with a smile. Sarah moves on to graduate school and we wish her all the best!
April 2023: Rachael Brenneman and Zachary Bunch presented posters at the UNCG Graduate Student Expo!
January 2023: We're so proud that Rachael Brenneman received the Linda Carlisle Graduate Fellowship for her academic excellence. Way to go Rachael!
January 2023: We're excited to have Zachary Bunch join the lab as a new master's student, as well as undergraduate researchers Holly Cha, Kyla Grant, Jayda Gresham, Zaria McKoy, Wudeh Saidykhan, and Zion York! The lab is growing quickly!
September 2022: Sarah Gora joins the team as a new lab technician! We're excited to get the lab organized together.
August 14-18, 2022: ESA annual meeting comes around again! We had lots of fun with friends and colleagues discussing great science!
August 2022: Welcome to our newest graduate students, Rachael Brenneman and Shelby Williford!
August 2022: We are excited to join the Biology Department at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro!
May 2, 2025: Elise Grabda successfully defended her PhD proposal "Four Tiers of Shrub Encroachment", investigating shrub encroachment into grasslands from a variety of scales.
April 29, 2025: Olivia Kjuka successfully defended her Master's proposal investigating the effects of microplastics on soybean, leaf beetles, and parasitic wasp tri-trophic interactions. Cool preliminary results are coming in hot and we can't wait to see the full greenhouse experiment this summer!
April 10, 2025: Congratulations to Master Millie Ortiz for successfully defending her Master's thesis on the indirect effects of fire on grassland invertebrates!
March 2025: Elise Grabda was awarded a Weaver grant from the Nature Conservancy to set up a biodiversity experiment investigating biotic resistance to shrubs at the Plant and Pollinator Center, congrats Elise!
March 4, 2025: Kim Komatsu shares the good and the bad about insects in the UNCG Sustainability Lecture & Dialogue series.
December 2024: Congratulations to our December graduates, Elijah Resuello and Stephanie Besa! Read about Elijah's journey in our lab and at UNCG here.
August 2024: Welcome to new lab members Kelly Clark (PhD student), Olivia Kjuka (MS student), Elliott Turbeville, Za'Nay Forney, Youseph Sabek, Atlas Pratt-Brown, Airelle Newkirk, Layla Eglin, Caroline Ferguson, Leslie DeCuesta, Madeline Wild, Stephanie Besa, and Silver Caldera! Learn more about everyone in the lab here.
August 2024: The lab headed out to Long Beach, CA for the annual Ecological Society of America meeting!
April 2024: It was a big month for the Community Dynamics lab! Zachary Bunch defended his master's thesis, Rachael Brenneman defended her dissertation proposal, and Millie Ortiz defended her thesis proposal. Congratulations to all three on successfully completing these big milestones!
April 2024: The lab spent some time outside at UNCG's annual Science Everywhere talking to people about our plant microbiome work and helping them culture their own microbiomes!
January 2024: Welcome to new lab members, undergraduate students Ryan Hargrove and Maleak Whittaker!
January 2024: We say a sad farewell to lab technician Sara Gora this month, thanks for all of your hard work over the past year processing samples and entertaining us all! At the same time, we are excited to welcome Maya Parker-Smith to the lab group as our new lab manager!
August 2023: Welcome to all of our new lab members, including PhD student Elise Grabda, MS student Millie Ortiz, and undergraduate students Special Puri, Elijah Resuello, Zoe Edmonson, Kimberly Gonzalez, and Briana Worley!
August 2023: Rachael and Kim attended the annual Ecological Society of America meeting this summer in Portland, Oregon! It was great to see friends and colleagues there and hear about some amazing science.
June 2023: Milan Toomer received an Undergraduate Research Creativity Award, amazing! She's hard at work this summer planting lots of legumes in the greenhouse to see how plant-soil feedbacks impact legume species coexistence.
June 2023: Rachael and Zachary are out at Konza Prairie for the summer to study tallgrass prairie plant and insect communities!
May 2023: Congratulations to our graduates, Wudeh Saidykhan and Jayda Gresham! We're so proud of your accomplishment!
May 2023: We are sad to say farewell to Sarah Alley, who has been a fabulous technician for the lab's beanDIP and GMDR projects for more than two years! Sarah excelled at detailed lab work and was always ready with a smile. Sarah moves on to graduate school and we wish her all the best!
April 2023: Rachael Brenneman and Zachary Bunch presented posters at the UNCG Graduate Student Expo!
January 2023: We're so proud that Rachael Brenneman received the Linda Carlisle Graduate Fellowship for her academic excellence. Way to go Rachael!
January 2023: We're excited to have Zachary Bunch join the lab as a new master's student, as well as undergraduate researchers Holly Cha, Kyla Grant, Jayda Gresham, Zaria McKoy, Wudeh Saidykhan, and Zion York! The lab is growing quickly!
September 2022: Sarah Gora joins the team as a new lab technician! We're excited to get the lab organized together.
August 14-18, 2022: ESA annual meeting comes around again! We had lots of fun with friends and colleagues discussing great science!
August 2022: Welcome to our newest graduate students, Rachael Brenneman and Shelby Williford!
August 2022: We are excited to join the Biology Department at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro!