2025
- May 2025: Andrew, Austin, and Kim graduate. Congratulations, all!
- May 2025: Andrew is selected as Best Undergraduate Biology Student (Research). Well deserved, Andrew!
- January 2025: The lab hosts a graduation dinner for Andrew & Austin. We will miss you both.
2024
- October 2024: The lab hosts Dr. Ilan Goldstein for a fun seminar and dinner. Thanks for visiting us, Ilan!
- June 2024: Alan successfully defends his thesis. Yay, Alan!
- June 2024: Andrew heads to a REU at Yale, Austin heads to a REU at the U Arizona Biosphere, and Catherine heads to a SURF at City of Hope. Have fun!
- May 2024: The lab celebrates a successful first year with a trip to the LA Zoo.
- April 2024: Catherine is selected as a RISE scholar. This will support two years of research. Nice work, Cathy!
- March 2024: The lab hosts Dr. Priscilla San Juan for a fun seminar and dinner. Thanks for coming to visit us, Priscilla!
2023
- December 2023: We celebrate a successful first semester as a lab with a holiday party.
- December 2023: Former student Chandra Jones shares her science journey with the Discover Discovery campaign
- November 2023: Austin & Andrew share their summer research with their fellow Toros in the Biology Seminar Series
- November 2023: The lab welcomes four new students: Catherine Giles, Andrew Fairclough, Austin Martinez, and Kimberly Velazquez
- October 2023: The lab hosts UC Riverside professor Kate Ostevik for a wonderful seminar and dinner. Thanks for visiting us, Kate!
- June 2023: The lab celebrates our graduates: Micah Castrillo, Itzel Ixta, Chandra Jones, Susana Lopez Ignacio, and Alexis Widmann. Congrats, all! I can’t believe we forgot to take a picture.
- April 2023: The lab conducts a science experiment with CSUDH Math CEO, helping introduce local middle schoolers to biology research on campus
- February 2023: The lab participates in Girls STEAM Day 2023, helping encourage middle schoolers to pursue STEM in college
- February 2023: Chandra presents at Student Research Conference. Nice work!
2022
2021
- December 2021: Alan Santana Hernandez joins the lab as a Masters student. Welcome, Alan!
- November 2021: We finally were all in the same place, in person. Definitely had to take a picture to commemorate.
- August 2021: Chandra is accepted into the UC Davis Evolution and Ecology Preview Weekend.
- August 2021: Micah shares her science journey in a powerful video. Watch here.
- July 2021: Aracely is awarded funds from the NSF REPS program to spend a year at UW Seattle to collaborate with our lab and the Leache lab on lizard speciation. We are so excited!
- July 2021: Liz starts her PhD in evolutionary biology at University of New Mexico. We will miss you, Liz!
- June 2021: Susana is accepted into the RISE program on campus to support her research in the lab. Nice work, Susana!
- June 2021: Alexis, Chandra, George, Itzel and Susana all start summer REUs in the lab.
- June 2021: We finally were able to celebrate all our graduates! Congrats Andrea, John, Josh, Liz, Mayra, Natalya, and Nicole. Thank you for making the lab such a kind, fun, and interesting place to be.
- May 2021: Micah is selected as a CSU Coast Student Intern. She will spend the summer working with NOAA on abalone conservation. Super cool, Micah!
- May 2021: Liz is selected as Best Undergraduate Biology Student (Research).
- May 2021: Liz and Nicole graduate!
- May 2021: Nicole is selected as the second place winner in the first-ever CSU 3MT Thesis competition. Nice work, Nicole! More information here
- April 2021: We have a new lab! And even better, a proper computational space! Can’t wait for it is safe for us all to be here working together.
- January 2021: We welcome six new members to the lab! Learn more about them on our People page.
- January 2021: Liz is awarded an Edison Student Fellowship from California State University STEM-Net to support her research on speciation in Australian lizards
2020
- December 2020: Josh graduates!
- December 2020: Liz is awarded a Promega DOORS Scholarship. Nicely done, Liz!
- June 2020: Liz is awarded a LS-AMP Summer Fellowship to support her research on speciation in Australian lizards
- May 2020: Andrea is selected as Best Undergraduate Biology Student (Research)
- May 2020: Andrea, Mayra, and John graduate! We cannot wait until we can celebrate in person.
- April 2020: Nicole performs socially-distant opera concerts for her neighborhood and is featured on the local news!
- February 2020: The entire lab presents at Student Research Day on the CSU Dominguez Hills campus
2019
- December 2019: Liz is selected to attend the Graduate Diversity Weekend at Cornell University
- November 2019: Mayra & Liz present their research on Encelia at SCCUR 2019. Well done, both!
- November 2019: Natalya presents her summer research at ABRCMS. Well done, Natalya!
- October 2019: Nicole gets the Graduate Equity Fellowship to support her studies. Congrats, Nicole!
- May 2019: Andrea presents her research at the Southern California Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting in Northridge
- April 2019: John presents his research at the West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference in San Diego
- April 2019: The lab hosts Dr. Jessica Oswald for a seminar on avian paleontology
- March 2019: Nicole Roberts joins the lab as a Masters student. Welcome, Nicole!
- March 2019: Everyone is leaving the lab for the summer to head to REUs! Andrea is heading to Auburn, John to Michigan State, Liz to University of Michigan, Mayra to Texas A&M, and Natalya to UCLA
- February 2019: The entire lab presents posters at Student Research Day on the CSU Dominguez Hills campus
2018
- December 2018: Mayra is selected to attend the Graduate Diversity Weekend at Cornell University
- December 2018: Andrea is selected for the winter field course in Baja California Sur, Mexico, run by CSU Fullerton
- December 2018: The lab hosts Dr. Eduardo Amorim for a seminar on human evolutionary genetics
- November 2018: Andrea and Mayra are selected as McNair Scholars
- October 2018: The lab hosts Dr. Bree Putman for a seminar on anthropogenic effects on lizard behavior
- September 2018: The lab hosts Dr. Patricia Lopes for a seminar on social behavior & disease
- September 2018: The lab hosts collaborator & friend Dr. Adam Roddy for a seminar on the evolution of plant physiology
- September 2018: Andrea and Natalya share their summer research experiences in CSUDH Biology Seminar
- September 2018: Natalya is chosen as a MARC*USTAR scholar
- September 2018: Andrea is awarded stipend support from LS-AMP to support her research on the genetics of rare plant species
- June 2018: Mayra is awarded stipend support from LS-AMP to support her research on plant hybridization
- June 2018: Andrea attends the NextGen REU at Ohio State University, studying the phylogeography of ticks
- June 2018: Natalya attends REU at Penn State University, studying applications of machine learning to autism
- June 2018: Natalya is selected as a Sally Casanova Scholar
- May 2018: Sonal & John are awarded a GWIE Grant for their research on genetic diversity in lizards
- May 2018: John, Melissa, and Natalya present a hands-on demonstration of DNA extraction for distinguished guests at President Hagan’s retirement party
- April 2018: Mayra is selected to attend the Broadening Participation in the Biological Sciences: Los Angeles, a workshop collaboration between iDigBio and NHMLA
- March 2018: The lab hosts collaborator & friend Dr. Felipe Zapata for a seminar on plant biodiversity
