Interested students: Please contact Selena if you’re interested in becoming involved in the PEPPR lab! There are plenty of research opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students, especially for those who are interested in plant anatomy, evolution, plant paleoecology and/or the link between plants and climate.
Here are some descriptions of current and available projects we’re working on!
Current Lab Members
Dr. Selena Y. Smith, Principal Investigator. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences and the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan. My interests are diverse, including plant evolution, anatomy & structure, paleoecology, and taphonomy…anything about plants and the past, and I’m there! I earned my B.Sc. (Hon.) in Evolutionary Biology and a Ph.D. in Systematics and Evolution from the University of Alberta. I was a Royal Society postdoctoral fellow with Margaret Collinson at Royal Holloway, University of London, and then a junior fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows.
Dr. John Benedict, Lecturer, PitE. John was a postdoc in the lab for two years, and continues to be part of PEPPR in his “spare time.” He is helping to decipher the evolutionary history of the gingers, bananas, and relatives – the order Zingiberales, as well as leading his own projects on various plants including the fossil record of Alnus (alders) and the diversity of the Miocene Shimokawa Chert from Japan. John earned a B.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Arizona State University, and spent a year as an adjunct faculty member at University of Guam, before coming to UM.
Kelly Matsunaga, PhD candidate (2015–). Kelly received her BSc and MSc from Humboldt University in California, where she worked on Devonian plants. She’ll be focusing on systematics, biogeography, and paleoenvironments of the Cretaceous of India.
Molly Ng, PhD pre-candidate (2015–). Molly earned her BSc from UCLA and comes to us having been most recently a research assistant in the Specht lab at UC Berkeley. Among other things Molly is interested in linking plant morphology, anatomy, and physiology with modelling techniques to understand past, present, and future taxon distributions.
Chris Nelson, PhD pre-candidate (2016–). Chris earned his BS from University of Florida and spent the two years before grad school as a research assistant in the Florida Museum of Natural History with the Panama Canal Project: Partnerships for International Research and Education. Chris has an interest in plant anatomy (especially wood) and Cretaceous floras of the Western Interior Seaway.
Bekah Stein, PhD pre-candidate (2016–; co-supervised with Nathan Sheldon, Earth & Environmental Sciences). Bekah earned her BS from Brown University and spent some time as a lab manager and high school science teacher before coming to UM. Bekah will be looking at plant isotope ecology.
Lab Alumns
Graduate Students
- Chelsea Mervenne (MSc. Fall 2015; co-supervised with Nathan Sheldon, Earth & Environmental Sciences), Isotope ecology of conifers.
- Ethan Hyland (PhD 2014; co-supervised with Nathan Sheldon, Earth & Environmental Sciences), Reconstructing Eocene paleoenvironments.
- Meredith Dennis (MSc. spring 2012; co-supervised with Nathan Sheldon, Earth & Environmental Sciences), Phytolith evidence for vegetation change across the Eocene-Oligocene transition in Montana
- Lauren Miller (MSc., summer 2010; co-supervised with Nathan Sheldon, Earth & Environmental Sciences), Using phytoliths to reconstruct a high-resolution record of deep-time vegetation dynamics from the Eocene of Montana
Undergraduate Students
- Amanda Salvi, Undergraduate Research Assistant (2013–2016, UROP 2013). Amanda studied leaf architecture in Zingiberales, and doing an Honors thesis on why Costus (the spiral gingers) have a spiral arrangement to their leaves. In Fall 2016 she started a PhD in Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison!
- Iris Partlan, Undergraduate Research Assistant (2015–2016, UROP student, 2014–2015). Iris worked on fossil ginger seeds from the Eocene of Vancouver Island.
- Madelyn Celovsky, Undergraduate Research Assistant (2015-2016). Madelyn examined biodiversity of Zingiberales as recorded through the fossil record.
- Chien Tan, Undergraduate Research Assistant (2015-2016; co-supervised with Nathan Sheldon). Chien is assisting with studies on a Late Cretaceous permineralized fossil flora from the Western Interior Seaway in Colorado.
- Symone Bawol, Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2013-2015; UROP 2012-2013. Symone studied phytoliths from Zingiberales and for reconstructing paleovegetation in Montana.
- Victoria Chrumka, Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2014-2015. Victoria looked at plant diversity preserved as permineralized plant material in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway.
- Miles DeNudt, UROP student, 2014-2015. Miles will be looking at tomography data of ginger seeds, especially focusing on digitally dissecting out the operculum to look at its taxonomic significance.
- Carli Balogh, Research assistant, 2012-2013. Phytolith and isotope based vegetation reconstruction in Montana. Carli has moved on to pursue graduate studies at the University of Nevada-Reno!
- Alison Bradley, Research assistant 2013-2014. 3D visualization
- Gabrielle Hodges, UROP 2013-2014. Paleobiodiversity and paleoecology of Pinaceae
- Charlotte King, UROP 2013-2014. Diversity of seed structure in Zingiberales
- Carter Reinke, UROP 2013-2014. Leaf architecture and vein density in monocots
- Stephanie Chen, Research assistant, 2010-2013, UROP 2009-2010, resident phytolith expert, phytolith and isotope based vegetation reconstruction in Montana. Stephanie is now pursuing a PhD at North Carolina State University!
- Catherine Hu, Independent study, 2012-2013; UROP student, 2011-2012, using seeds and x-rays to understand evolution in Zingiberales.
- Germain Burchfield, UROP student, 2011-2012, biodiversity of monocots.
- Tess Nugent, Research assistant, 2011-2012 (co-supervised with Nathan Sheldon, Earth & Environmental Sciences), relationship between Ginkgo carbon isotopes and climate
- Bryana Boos, Research assistant, 2009-2012, Independent Study, 2011: conifer diversity from Late Cretaceous Pierre Shale nodules in Colorado.
- Cameron Webley (Geosci 499, Winter 2010), depositional environment and paleoecology of Cretaceous Pierre Shale nodules from Colorado, USA
- Xiang (Bill) Zhou (UROP 2009-2010), uses of 3D synchrotron tomography in understanding the fossil record of Zingiberales
Other
- Monica Choi, high school student volunteer (2014–2016). Monica is studying the opercula of ginger seeds by using synchrotron tomography data to digitally dissect out these tiny structures.