March 2025 in the Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden (L-R): Zhenfi Li, Jalen Austria, Aaron Wu, Noah Kamps, Lily Anderson, Nathan Kraft, Maya Sagarin, Kenji Hayashi, Kami Schneider, Alexandra Cisneros Carey, Lauren Glevanik. Not pictured: Genelle Marcelino-Searles.
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Alexandra Cisneros Carey
(she/they) Ph.D. student Email: alcisneroscarey@g.ucla.edu
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Kami Schneider
M.S. student Email: kmschneider@g.ucla.edu |
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Kenji Hayashi
Ph.D. candidate email: kthayashi@ucla.edu |
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Lauren Glevanik
(she/her) Ph.D. candidate email: lglevanik@g.ucla.edu
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Maya Sagarin
(she/her) Ph.D. student Email: msagarin@g.ucla.edu
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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), Jessica Echarte (2023), Hannah Gray (2023-2024), Maddie McEwan (2023-2024), Saba Saei (2023), Natalie Keung (2024), Jasmine Ryan (2024), Lily Anderson (2024-2025), Genelle Marcelino-Sears (2024-2025), Aaron Wu (2024-2025), Noah Kamps (2025), Luke Smith (2025), Jalen Austria (2025). |
| 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
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.
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.
Fall 2015 Lab Retreat, W. Virginia: Nathan, Ian, Marcel, Lei, Gaurav, Claire
Fall 2014- W. Virginia: Kristin Powell, Nathan Kraft, Claire Fortunel, Marcos Carlucci, Ian McFadden, Rong Li.