News

Juliana got a UVa Graduate Global Research Grant to fund field research this summer. Congratulations!!!!

Fabiane has a new paper in press with Evolutionary Application! It’s titled “A diverse parasite pool can improve effectiveness of biological control constrained by genotype-by-genotype interactions”

Juliana has a new paper out in Scientific Reports: Predicting the effects of climate change on the cross-scale epidemiological dynamics of a fungal plant pathogen

And a new review in press at Philosophical Transactions on the use of mechanistic models to predict ecology and evolution of plant-pathogen interactions in the face of climate change.

We have lots of new folks joining us! Welcome to:

Linyao Peng (postdoc)

Juliana Jiranek (transition from technician to 1st year PhD student)

Erin Scott (1st year PhD student, rotating)

Ashlyn Crain (1st year PhD student, rotating)

Sarah Talley (undergraduate)

Sarah was promoted to lab/research technician 2 in recognition of her accomplishments and the new responsibilities she continues to take on. Very well-deserved Sarah!

Congratulations to Fabiane and Jai for earning a GIDI-UP Award from the Global Infectious Disease Institute at UVA! This award supports the research of undergraduate-postdoctoral research pairs, and Jai will be developing an experiment on the role of parasite genetic diversity in promoting establishment and spread of disease.

Gibson Lab folks presented their research at our end of year poster sessions on May 4. Congratulations to our first-year graduate students Abbey and Irish and our undergraduates Ally, Leila, Tori, and Jai on their beautiful posters and great data! And big thanks for the mentors who worked with our undergraduates!

Mandy was awarded the Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award, which goes to an assistant professor at UVA who has demonstrated outstanding teaching and a commitment to student success. Big thanks to students and colleagues who supported her nomination! See the UVAToday feature here

They’re off to exciting things this summer! Leila will join the Beck Lab at the Jackson Laboratory as part of their REU program. Tori has been accepted to the Mountain Lake Biological Station REU program and will work with Corlett Wood. And Ally Motter is graduating and starting as an NIH IRTA in the Hanchard Lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute

Caroline and Mandy have a review coming out soon in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics entitled “Ecology and Evolution of Parasite Avoidance.” Thanks to editor Judie Bronstein for the invitation to submit and guidance in developing the manuscript.