News

2024

  • 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. image-center
  • 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. image-center
  • 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. image-center
  • 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. image-center
  • 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. image-center
  • 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! image-center
  • 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! image-center
  • November 2019: Natalya presents her summer research at ABRCMS. Well done, Natalya! image-center
  • October 2019: Nicole gets the Graduate Equity Fellowship to support her studies. Congrats, Nicole! image-center
  • 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 image-center

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 image-center
  • June 2018: Natalya attends REU at Penn State University, studying applications of machine learning to autism image-center
  • 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 image-center
  • 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