Current R-I Lab members

Please read more information on joining the lab and lab expectations.

Brenda Cameron
(she/her)

Brenda is the lab manager and czar. In addition to working with us, she manages the Bay, Grosberg and Stachowicz labs as well, and is an award-winning lab safety expert.

Vibha Chandrasekar
(they/she)

Vibha is a biochemistry major interested in computational biology. They are currently working under Natasha Dhamrait to understand the evolution of transposable elements in the maize genome.

Elli Cryan
(she/her)

Elli is a Plant Biology graduate student coadvised by Dan Kliebenstein, working on the evolution of gene networks and the evolution of cross-incompatibility loci.

Natasha Dhamrait
(she/her)

Natasha is a student in the Population Biology graduate group with interests including plant evolution, domestication, genome biology, and transposable elements.

Regina Fairbanks
(they/them)

Regina is a student in the Population Biology graduate group, currently working on the population genetics and archaeology of the maize domestication locus tga1.

Forrest Li
(he/him)

Forrest is a graduate student in Integrative Genetics and Genomics working on climate adaptation in maize as part of a large international collaboration led by CIMMYT. He is coadvised by Dan Runcie.

Beibei Liu
(she/her)

Beibei is a postdoc working on the evolution of transposable elements in maize and teosinte During her PhD she worked on epigenetics in maize.

Hana Lubin
(they/them)

Hana is a sophomore interested in plant ecology and genetics. They are currently working with Regina Fairbanks to update our list of genes targeted by selection during maize domestication.


Paulo Magalang
(he/him)

Paulo is a graduate student in Integrative Genetics and Genomics working on using whole genome assemblies to study allelic diversity and demography in maize.

Sowmya Mambakkam
(she/her)

Sowmya is a sophomore Genetics and Genomics major investigating the population genetics of inversions in Zea and convergent adaptation in perennials grasses.

Alyssa Phillips
(she/her)

Alyssa is a Plant Biology graduate student working on the origins of polyploidy and environmental adaptation in big blue stem as part of the PanAnd project.

Garnet Phinney
(she/her)

Garnet is a Genetics and Genomics major working to understand the evolution and genomic variability of cross-incompatibility loci in maize and teosinte.

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra
(he/him)

Jeff is a Professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology and a faculty member of the Center for Population Biology and the Genome Center.

Ayelet Salman-Minkov
(she/her)

Ayelet is a project scientist working in collaboration with Dan Runcie and CIMMYT to understand how genotype-environment association approaches can be used for crop breeding.

Samantha Snodgrass
(she/her)

Sam is an NSF Plant Genome postdoc working on the coevolution of humans and their domesticated plants. She is coadvised by Graham Coop.


Cristian Stark (he/him)

Cristian is a Genomics Data Scientist at Bayer Vegetables R&D and a PhD graduate student in Integrative Genetics and Genomics working on genomic selection, pangenomes, and inbreeding depression in Zea. He is coadvised by Dan Runcie.


Lab Alumni

Fellow of the R-I Lab: for >500 hours of scholastic fellowship

Current Collaborators

Genetic diversity in maize and teosinte

Evolution of Incompatibility Loci in Maize and Teosinte

Quantitative Genetics of Genotype x Environment Interaction

Evolutionary Genetics of Transposable Elements

Convergent Evolution in the Andropogoneae

Evolutionary genetics of highland adaptation in maize