Extending Our Streak!

Team Rushfels Labs successfully defending their coveted pumpkin-carving crown, earning Best In Show at the departmental pumpkin carving contest. But the competition was stiff!

Look’it those bivalents!

 

Julia has officially leveled-up to Chromosome Counter Extraordinaire! You can see the chromosomes! In the cell! With your eye! How cool is that???

Julia counts 81 chromosome pairs/bivalents/tetrads. So since the base number of chromosomes in Cystopteris is x=42, there are presumably 84 pairs present, meaning that this plant it is a tetraploid. Thank you to Mike Windham and James Beck for helping us continue the cytological dark arts!

 

Caleb has joined the lab!

We (rLab sensu stricto, lato, and everything in between) are excited to welcome Caleb Onoja Akogwu to the lab!! Fresh from a summer of finishing his Master’s (in China), visiting family (in Nigeria), and completing a major fellowship application, Caleb has settled right down to a relaxing semester as a new PhD student. So great to have you here Caleb!

 

 

 

 

Rlab sensu lato Melts in the Desert (and Delivers the Science and Good Times)

It is/was Botany time again! Palm Springs in late July might not be my first choice, but in fairness it wasn’t the conference’s first choice either. Regardless, the Rothfels Lab sensu lato represented and good times were had! A highlight was a colloquium celebrating the careers and individuals of Kathleen Pryer (my phd advisor) and Michael Windham (my pretty much co-advisor). It was great to see everyone come together and celebrate these two extraordinary people.

 

 

 

 

 

The legendary Woods Hole phylogenetics workshop

This May, Chinedum attended the Workshop on Molecular Evolution at Woods Hole, and wow—what an experience! Two weeks of intense lectures, hands-on coding, and late-night phylogenetics discussions with some of the brightest minds in evolutionary biology. From wrestling with RevBayes scripts to exploring molecular clocks and model testing, Chinedum was definitely pushed out of his comfort zone (in the best way) and came home buzzing with new ideas for his dissertation research. He called it one of the most intellectually intense—and rewarding—experiences of grad school so far. Plus, learning all of this while overlooking the ocean and bonding with brilliant, like-minded nerds? 10/10—would absolutely nerd out again.

 

 

 

 

Fieldwork in Zion: Chasing Cystopteris in Bear Trap Canyon

 

This May (ok, as usual, I’m behind in these posts), Julia and Chinedum traded laptops for hiking boots and ventured into the wilds of Zion National Park for a three-day fern-hunting expedition. With the expert guidance and support of Darrin Gobble, the park’s Vegetation Program Manager, they set off on a two-day backpacking trip into Bear Trap Canyon—a lush, fern-filled drainage tucked deep in the Zion wilderness. Their mission: to track down the elusive Cystopteris reevesiana and Cystopteris utahensis, two key players in our ongoing research on fern biology. Along the way, they also snagged a few bonus Pentagramma samples, because when in Zion… collect more ferns, right? Huge thanks to Darrin and the Zion NPS team for making this trip not only possible but also wildly memorable—complete with towering canyon walls, sore legs, and lots (and lots) of ferns.

 

 

 

 

In early June we had the pleasure of hosting three students in the Native American Summer Mentorship Program for a couple days. Harley, Cathaline, and Baahozhooni are students at USU-Blanding and spent four weeks this summer in Logan getting hands-on lab and research experience. It was wonderful to get to know them, hear about their interests and perspectives, and introduce them to our research! The first day we focused on fieldwork with a plant collecting trip up Temple Fork in Logan Canyon; the second day was lab work involving PCR amplification and gel electrophoresis on DNA from Cystopteris samples as part of Chinedum’s research. Then the students were off to the Rushworth Lab for the rest of the week, to see a more experiment-driven type of botanical research, while the Rothfels Lab headed off on the Intermountain Botanical Foray. Sadly we have no pictures from the lab day, but here’s some of what we got up to the first day!

We started the day by checking out the old beaver dams on Temple Fork. Though we didn’t see any beavers that day, there was lots of evidence of their ecological effect – angled cuts on willows and slow, meandering streams.

We documented the biodiversity with some iNaturalist posts and a few specimen collections.

Then we headed to the Intermountain Herbarium to press our samples. We all learned first-hand why the genus Balsamorhiza (balsamroot) has its name – the taproot has a strong but pleasant piney smell! Balsamorhiza macrophylla (cutleaf balsamroot) pictured here.

  

Chinedum wins the JS Karling Award!

A slightly belated congratulations to Chinedum who has achieved a remarkable double honor—winning the 2024 J. S. Karling Graduate Student Research Award (the top graduate research award from the Botanical Society of America) and an ASPT Graduate Student Research Award!

We are thrilled to celebrate this major accomplishment and can’t wait to see where his work takes him next. Way to go, Chinedum!

 

Chinedum Cruises to Candidacy

Congratulations to Chinedum, who crushed his comprehensive exams (both the written and oral portions) and now is officially PhD Candidate Anajemba! He handled all questions with skill and aplomb (drawing a map of North American might have been the biggest challenge–which side does florida go again?). Well done, we’re all very proud of you!

 

 

 

WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Congratulations to newly minted Dr. Maryam! There were some dark moments (as there always are) and then … you did it! It’s done! CONGRATULATIONS!!! We all (Rothfels lab sensu lato) knew you would, and I’m very proud of you!