After almost three years at UC Merced, with two postdocs, four graduate students, and many undergraduate students doing exciting work in the lab, our research descriptions were a bit outdated.  A major fall project for me and the lab has been to update the descriptions of what we do, and it’s finally (mostly) done!  This was also a good chance for me to reflect on the research going on in my lab- and realize, again, how exciting it all is!  We are working on paleo-modeling projects, community assembly and range shift projects, traits, genetic diversity and phylogeography, and basic natural history. I can’t think of a more ideal set of intellectually exciting topics to work on. And, I have been fortunate to have attracted an absolutely fantastic set of people to work with me at UC Merced, in addition to wonderful collaborators at UCM and elsewhere.  So check out our new research descriptions!

Kaitlin Maguire will be leaving the Blois lab at the end of this week!  Kaitlin got a job as an Ecologist and Statistician for the USGS in Boise, Idaho.  She will be joining the Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center and primarily working on a project modeling the effects of fire and other ecosystem disturbances on communities.  We will greatly miss Kaitlin’s presence in the lab, but wish her the best of luck in her new job!