People

Kadeem J. Gilbert, PhD

Kadeem is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist primarily interested in interactions between plants and other organisms, especially when those interactions are symbiotic (i.e. the associated organisms spend a significant portion of their lives in close physical contact with host plant tissues). He especially aims to examine the ways in which plants influence their symbionts by manipulating the abiotic properties of their leaf micro-environments. For his investigations, he utilizes a wide array of techniques and approaches, including field observation, manipulative experiments, phylogenetic comparative methods, DNA metabarcoding, transcriptomics, and metatranscriptomics.

Cristal López González, PhD

Cristal is a plant biotechnologist interested in understanding plant responses under different abiotic stress conditions, which involves signaling pathways, carbon metabolism, photosynthesis and transcriptional regulation at a transcriptional level. She completed her PhD at el Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados
(CINVESTAV) for her dissertation entitled “Tissue specific transcriptional
regulation of sucrose-starch metabolism in Zea mays”. Her current research project is to unravel plant responses under external pH changes by using transcriptome analysis and molecular biology approaches.

Sylvie Martin-Eberhardt

PhD Student
[email protected]
https://samartineberhardt.github.io/
B.S. | Biology/Linguistics double major | Indiana University | 2021

Sylvie is a plant-insect ecologist with a special interest in non-floral red plant structures. They study red coloration in ant-plant mutualisms, herbivory, and especially plant carnivory. Co-advised by Dr. Marjorie Weber at University of Michigan, Sylvie uses field and herbarium studies to work out plant-insect natural history and answer broader questions about plant-insect signaling and plant defense.

Daniel Mok

Daniel is an ecophysiologist and evolutionary biologist interested in the evolution of complex traits. He is specifically fascinated by the convergent evolution of carbon concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) such as C4 and CAM photosynthesis, as well as carnivorous plants. He hopes to examine if CCMs contribute to certain carnivorous plants’ ability to persist in hot arid, epiphytic, or lithophytic environments where water stress and costs of photorespiration are high. Daniel finished his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto where he completed an undergraduate thesis project in the lab of Rowan Sage. His project focused on factors driving a high carbon isotope ratio in Bulnesia retama, a woody xerophytic shrub with photosynthetic stems. His results revealed the first known instance of CAM in both the Zygophyllaceae and the woody stem growth form, and that weak CAM photosynthesis coupled with high stomatal diffusion resistance can drive higher than expected carbon isotope ratios.

Vincent Pan

PhD Student
[email protected]
https://vsbpan.github.io/
B.S. | Animal Biology | University of California- Davis | 2020

Vincent is a PhD candidate broadly interested in plant-insect interactions, particularly plant functional variability and plant defense against herbivory. He investigates general questions about plant-insect ecology by exploring their natural history in the field, building mathematical models, and synthesizing large datasets. Vincent's dissertation focuses on emergent properties of ensembles of plant-insect interactions and works on passion projects related to seed mucilage, marcescence, dame's rocket, and R package development.

Sidney Richardson

Technician
[email protected]

Sidney is an undergraduate researcher from Western Michigan University, anticipated to graduate in Spring 2024. During the summer of 2023, he worked in the Gilbert Lab as an REU student examining phylloplane pH regulation in maize in the LTER. He continued on as a field technician for the LTER in Fall 2023 and currently has a part-time tech role in the Gilbert Lab.

Lab Alumni

Dillon Wheeler

REU Student
[email protected]

Dillon is an undergraduate researcher from Lee University (Biology/Anthropology double major), graduating in Fall 2022. He has a special interest in wetland plants. During the summer of 2022, he worked in the Gilbert Lab as an REU student at KBS examining the unique systems and strategies employed by carnivorous plants. Specifically, he was designing and implementing experiments investigating the local native pitcher plant population's (Sarracenia purpurea) potential capture, digestion, and utilization of leaf litter.

Currently: PhD student at Harvard University

Mia Gaughan

REU Student
[email protected]

B.A. | Vassar College | 2024 (expected)

Mia is an undergraduate Biology major from Vassar College and is broadly interested in plant-insect interactions. During the summer of 2023, she worked in the Gilbert Lab as an REU student at KBS examining how the flower color polymorphism of Hesperius matronalis impacts insect herbivory.

Shreya Balla

URA Student

MSU undergrad working with Sylvie on Sarracenia purpurea visual signalling in Summer 2023

Tyler Rybak

URA Student

MSU undergrad working with Sylvie on Sarracenia purpurea visual signalling in Summer 2023

Emily Parker

Technician
[email protected]

B.S. | Zoology (Marine Biology concentration) | Michigan State University | 2022

Emily is a technician working part-time with the lab. She has been at KBS for 3 years prior to joining the Gilbert Lab in December 2022 through September 2023. As a technician, she assisted with a wide variety of experiments across multiple disciplines, both in the lab and in the field.

Currently: PhD student at Oregon State University

Jean-Baptiste Floc'h, PhD

Jean-Baptiste is a microbial ecologist. He studied rhizosphere microbial communities with a network approach in his dissertation entitled "Microbial interaction dynamics and variation in the subterranean microbiome of two genus of Brassicaceae: Brassica napus and Sinapsis alba". He is currently working on metatranscriptomic analysis of leaf surface microbes in response to external pH changes.

Currently: Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki

Lillian Holl

REU Student

Lillian was an REU student in the lab; she attends the University of Wisconsin - Superior, where she is majoring in Biology and minoring in Geographic Information Science. During summer 2024, her project examined the plasticity and trait correlations with phylloplane pH in Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion).

Samuel Caliente Quinto

URA Student

MSU undergrad working with Cristal on phylloplane pH and qPCR in Summer 2024

Roberto Perez-Perez

REU Student

Undergrad working with Daniel on Pinguicula photosynthesis in Summer 2024

Emma Wagner

REU Student

Undergrad working with Sylvie on pitcher plant light trap prey capture strategy in Summer 2024

​Kadeem J. Gilbert, PhD

Cristal López González, PhD

​Sylvie Martin-Eberhardt

Daniel Mok

Vincent Pan

Sidney Richardson

Lab Alumni

Dillon Wheeler

Mia Gaughan

Shreya Balla

Tyler Rybak

Emily Parker

Jean-Baptiste Floc'h, PhD

Lillian Holl

Samuel Caliente Quinto

Roberto Perez-Perez

Emma Wagner

Kadeem J. Gilbert, PhD

Sylvie Martin-Eberhardt