Lab Members

May 2023 in the Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden (L-R): Kenji Hayashi, Haylee Oyler, Mary Van Dyke, Nathan Kraft, Samantha Catella, Lauren Glevanik, Jordan Yanowitz.

Alexandra Cisneros Carey

(she/they)

Ph.D. student

Email: alcisneroscarey@g.ucla.edu

 

Kami Schneider

M.S. student

Email: kmschneider@g.ucla.edu

Kenji Hayashi

Ph.D. candidate

email: kthayashi@ucla.edu

Lauren Glevanik

(she/her)

Ph.D. candidate

email: lglevanik@g.ucla.edu

 

Maya Sagarin

(she/her)

Ph.D. student

Email: msagarin@g.ucla.edu

 

 Nathan Kraft

(he/him)

Professor

email: nkraft@ucla.edu

phone: (310) 825-3593

 

Alumni- UCLA

Graduate Students Dr. Ian McFadden PhD in 2019: Separating the effects of multiple processes on diversity patterns in an Amazonian tree community and the New World flora’. (currently group leader/ lecturer, Queen Mary University of London, UK )

Dr. Gaurav Kandlikar PhD in 2020: ‘Quantifying the effects of spatial environmental variation and soil microbes on plant community dynamics‘. (currently Assistant Professor, Dept. Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University)

Dr. Marcel Vaz PhD in 2021: ‘Trait-mediated coexistence in a hyperdiverse tropical forest, or, Why are there so many kinds of trees in the Central Amazon?‘. (currently postdoctoral researcher at Wilkes University)

Jordan Yanowitz MS in 2023: ‘Microbial Communities and Vegetation Change: An Unseen Driver?‘.

Dr. Mary Van Dyke PhD in 2023: ‘The effects of temporal variation in precipitation on plant coexistence in an annual grassland community.’ (currently postdoctoral researcher, Colorado State University)

Postdocs Dr. Lei Chen 2015-2016 (now full professor, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Dr. Claire Fortunel 2013-2016 (now a Research Scientist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development)

Dr. Andrew Kleinhesselink 2017-2020 (now Managing Director of Sage Hill, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA)

Dr. Hannah Carroll 2020-2023. IRACDA Postdoctoral Fellow, co-mentored with Dr. Aradhna Tripati, EPSS. (now an Assistant Professor, Western Colorado University)

Dr. Samantha Catella, 2021-2023. La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science Postdoctoral Fellow (co-mentored with Dr. Sophie Parker, The Nature Conservancy)

Research Techs Haylee Oyler, 2021-2024. (went on to graduate school in Environmental Science and Management, USCB).

Suzanne Ou, 2017-2018 (went on to PhD in Biology, Peay Lab, Stanford)

Mary Van Dyke, 2016-2017 (went on to PhD in EEB, Kraft Lab, UCLA)

Undergraduate Researchers

Clare Camilleri (2016-2017), Grace Kumaishi (2016-2017), Vivian Griffey (2016-2017), Angela Chen (2016), Bastien Dehault (2017), Jennifer Tran (2017), Aoife Galvin (2017), Xinyi Yan (2017-2020), Megan Clark (2017-2019), Anmol Dhaliwal (2017-2020), Heather Lindsey (2017-2019), Brooke Shimasaki (2017-2018), Erick Yeh (2017), Cindy Nguyen (2018), Jeff Lee (2018-2019), Jonathan Shi (2018-2019), Kuimars Edalati (2019-2020), Leontyne Henderson (2019-2020), Jordan Yanowitz (2019-2021), Jiahui Li (2020-2021), Timothy Foster (2020-2021), Magdalene Lo (2020), Celina Nishioka (2020), Leah Andino (2020), Ian Morris (2021-2022), Carly Pomeroy (2021), Abita Venkatesh (2021), Levy Lidor (2021), Jinsuh Jung-Aum (2021-2022), Julie Yang (2021-2023), Amelia Chiang (2022-2023), Jagveer Gill (2022-2023), Soline Grimbert (2022), Fidel Negrete (2022-2023), Andrew Rice (2022-2023), Chudi Onyedika (2023)

Visiting Scholars Aubrie James (Ph.D. student, Geber Lab, Cornell University) 2017

Dr. Yi Ding (Professor, Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, China), 2017

Dr. Milton de Souza Mendonça Jr. (Professor, UFGRS, Brazil), 2019-2020

Dr. Bill Hoffman (Professor, North Carolina State University). 2019

Alumni- University of Maryland

Postdocs Dr. Kristen Powell (SESYNC postdoctoral fellow) 2013-2014
Visiting Scholars Dr. Benoit Parmentier (postdoc, McGill Lab, U Maine) 2014-2015

Dr. Rong Li (Associate Prof., Kunming Institute of Botany) 2013-2014

Marcos Carlucci (Ph.D. student, Duarte Lab, UFRGS, Brazil) 2014

Cristina Bastias (Ph.D. Student, Valladares Lab, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain) 2014

Dr. Jeanne Osnas (postdoc, Lichstein Lab, U Florida) 2012-2013

Undergraduate Researchers Samantha Cruz (2014), Cara Heilveil (2015), Ali Sanz (2015).

Previous Lab Photos

June 2019 in the Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden (L-R): Kiumars Edalati, Jonathan Shi, Kenji Hayashi, Marcel Vaz, Mary Van Dyke, Heather Lindsay, Anmol Dhaliwal, Nathan Kraft, Megan Clark, Xinyi Yan, Gaurav Kandlikar.

Winter 2017: Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden, UCLA: Yi Ding, Bastien Dehaudt, Gaurav Kandlikar, Andrew Kleinhesselink, Mary Van Dyke, Ian McFadden, Claire Fortunel, Aubrie James, Clare Camilleri, Marcel Vaz, Nathan Kraft.IMG_3823 2

Fall 2015 Lab Retreat, W. Virginia: Nathan, Ian, Marcel, Lei, Gaurav, Claire

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Fall 2014- W. Virginia: Kristin Powell, Nathan Kraft, Claire Fortunel, Marcos Carlucci, Ian McFadden, Rong Li.