People

Forrest Freund. When not thinking about Isoetes Forrest is … well, he’s usually thinking about Isoetes. A corm of which he is dissecting in this photo.

Maryam Sedaghatpour. For this photo Maryam opted to show off some of her Rothfels lab interpretive dance moves. Wine and plants–I think she nailed it!

David Adelhelm. David has given up his destiny of becoming the next Florida Man in favor of polyploid ferns, a valiant sacrifice.

Mike May. Mike is our resident statistical phylogenetics nerd. He enjoys birth-death models and Markov chain Monte Carlo, and so should you!

Priscilla Lau. Priscilla’s brain is overwhelmed by random (and most-of-the-time weird) thoughts. Now she joins the lab attempting to integrate these intriguing ideas into a decent research question!

Carl Rothfels. I don’t always like to have a mustache, but when I do, I like to have it finding ferns. (That white tuft by my hand is a plant of Notholaena brevistipes, known from one small population in Mexico.)

John “Game” Game. John left his position as a yeast geneticist to follow his true calling as photographer extraordinaire and connoisseur of all things pteridological (especially if they’re growing on Pacific islands).

Alan Smith. Alan has been a pteridological tour de force since at least 1967, and aside from his dozens upon dozens of publications and such honors as being the namesake of Alansmia, he has made the UCJEPS fern collection into the world-leader that it is.

Sraavya Sambara. Sraavya, a student of Dougherty Valley High School, is the youngest and probably most well-spoken member of the Rothfels lab. And the most determined: we keep telling her that she should concentrate on her schoolwork, but she’s caught the Azolla bug and will continue coming in weekly this semester.

Abby Jackson-Gain. Among her many other contributions, Abby brought much-coveted geological expertise to the lab, as indicated by her enthusiasm for granodiorite (not to be confused with mere granite, oh nosiree). Abby is currently doing getting a Masters in Geology at the University of Chile in Santiago!

Adia Tajima. Ethnobotany enthusiast, plant fan, and stem slicer extraordinaire. Known to dabble in monocots.

Olivia Jerram. Even though she’s an astrophysics major, Olivia is pretty sure she knows what a fern is. Her real passion, though, is science communication and telling people all about the lab’s great work!

Michael “Mick” Song. Turns out, googling for “Mick Song” brings up a lot of Rolling Stones’ hits. Mick has been on vacation since filing in the summer of 2021…

Carrie Tribble. Some people have a passion for underground storage organs. Carrie is one of those people. Look at that joy! Carrie is now a post doc at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, with Dr. Rosana Zenil-Ferguson.

Keir Wefferling. Keir loves the ploidy, and the ferns. Also the Ranunculales, which are ok. Keir now runs his own lab at the University of Wisconsin, Greenbay!

Dori Contreras. (Postdoc, ~2018-2019) She codes characters in her sleep! Dori is now a Curator of Paleobotany at the Perot Museum of Natural History.

Joyce Chery (PhD student, ~2017–2019). Joyce, a one-woman force of science. Cambial variants, beware! I think there’s even a copy of Tree Thinking being worked in here. Joyce is the first Rothfels Lab PhD graduate, and we miss her already.

Jonathan Qu (undergraduate student, 2017–2019). Jonathan is the most photogenic lab member, and also the only one with the inner fortitude to actually send the webmaster an embarrassing photo, as requested.

Ingrid Jordon-Thaden. Looking intrepid, and slightly concerned, by a cliff. On which there are probably ferns, and possibly Draba. Ingrid was the Rothfels lab technician/research associate from the beginning until she got her current position at the University of Wisconsin — we miss you Ingrid!

Fay-Wei Li (postdoc, 2015–2016). Fay-Wei, father of the fern genus Gaga (among many other accomplishments) had a brief and memorable Rothfels lab sojourn prior to demonstrating a general lack of consideration by getting himself a job. Very sad for us!

Ben Dauphin (visiting student, 2015–2016). Ben, the Botrychium Whisperer, joined our lab from the University of Neuchatel for an all-too-brief stint in 2015 — 2016. We miss you, Ben!

Francisco (Paco) Perfectti. Paco visited the lab in 2016–2017 as a sabbatical scholar from the University of Granada, enriching us with his brassicaceous prowess and enthusiasm for messy taxonomic complexes.