Several members of our lab group will be moving on to different pastures soon!
Greg, Patty and Aldo Bonito are Australia bound
Greg Bonito joined the lab in 2003 as a Ph.D. student to study the molecular systematics of Tuber. For the last 3 years, Greg has been the lead postdoc for our PMI project with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study fungal endophyte communities associated with cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa and P. deltoides). Greg recentliy accepted a Research Scientist position at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Way to go!
Soledad Benitez is expecting her baby in December, and will be leaving for South Dakota in January.
Soledad Benitez came in 2009 to join our NSF-sponsored project with Jim Clark (in Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment) to study ecology of forest pathogens. The project is using next-gen community sequencing to test elements of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis that has invoked host-specific herbivores and pathogens as agents for maintaining forest tree diversity. Soledad and her husband Wirat are expecting their second child in December, after which they plan to move to South Dakota. (update: Baby boy Ananda Pipatpongpinyo was born December 2nd. 2013. Family all healthy, happy and at home now.)
Lindsey Becker plans to continue with field research
Lindsey Becker has been working with Soledad on the forest pathogen project, helping to collect and process thousands of plant samples and managing our extensive culture collection. We’ll be missing Lindsey, and wish her well in her future career!
