Principal Investigator

Rachel M. Penczykowski, Associate Professor
How I pronounce my last name:

Pronouns: she/her/hers
Click here for CV (updated March 2024)
Top 3 favorite plants besides Plantago:
1. Coffea arabica (coffee)
2. Brassica oleracea (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, etc…)
3. Helianthus annuus (sunflower)
Click here for contact info

Lab Manager

Carrie Goodson
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Top 3 favorite plants besides Plantago:
1. Adiantum raddianum (maidenhair fern)
2. Brugmansia (angel trumpet)
3. Welwitschia mirabilis
Email: cgoodson@wustl.edu

Post-Doctoral Fellows:

Kaylee Arnold
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Ph.D. 2023, Ecology (Interdisciplinary Disease Ecology Across Scales), University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
M.S. 2016, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)
B.S. 2013, Biology, University of Redlands (Redlands, CA)
Top 3 favorite plants besides Plantago:
1. Taxodium distichum (bald cypress trees)
2. Attalea butyracea (palm trees)
3. Sequoia sempervirens (California redwoods)
Twitter: @Black_Ecologist
Email: akaylee@wustl.edu
From 2023-2024, Kaylee was an LEC Post-doc co-mentored by Rachel Penczykowski, Danielle Lee, and Solny Adalsteinsson.

PhD Students:

Grace Coppinger
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Email: coppinger@wustl.edu
PhD program: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB)

Noah Clayton
Pronouns: he/him/his
Email: clayton.n@wustl.edu
PhD program: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB)
Co-advised by Jonathan Myers and Rachel Penczykowski

Cheyenne Morris (Anderson)
Pronouns: she/her/hers
B.S. 2018, Biology, Missouri Baptist University (St. Louis, MO)
Top 3 favorite plants besides Plantago:
1. Orchidaceae (orchids)
2. Citrus limon (lemon tree)
3. Ficus lyrata (fiddle-leaf fig)
Twitter: @Cheyanderthal
Email: a.cheyenne@wustl.edu
PhD program: Plant and Microbial Biosciences (PMB)

Mahal Bugay
Pronouns: she/her/hers
B.S. 2019, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Agnes Scott College (Decatur, GA)
Top 3 favorite plants besides Plantago:
1. Ginkgo biloba
2. Mangifera indica (mango)
3. Lavandula spp. (lavender)
Twitter: @majbugay
Email: mbugay@wustl.edu
PhD program: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB)

Philippa Tanford
Pronouns: she/her/hers
B.S. 2016, Biology, Duke University (Durham, NC)
Top 3 favorite plants besides Plantago:
1. Quercus alba (white oak)
2. Bryophyta (mosses)
3. Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia)
Twitter: @ptanford
Email: ptanford@wustl.edu
PhD program: Evolution, Ecology, and Population Biology (EEPB)

Undergraduates: 2023-2024 academic year

Shaza Ali (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Zee Zee Covington (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Serena Fankhauser (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Alana Herr (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Sam Ko (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Jaimie Lin (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Ashley Lugo Huerta (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Allison Rea (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Anna Tourney (Wash. U. in St. Louis)

Tyson Undergraduate Fellows & TERA Teens: Summer 2023

Samantha Lyerla (Bellarmine University)
Ella Marks (Tyson Environmental Research Apprenticeship)
Fares Noueiry (Lake Forest College)
Maddie Rhodes (Cornell University)
Shawn Zhu (Wash. U. in St. Louis)
Zoey Ziegler (Tyson Environmental Research Apprenticeship)Left-to-right in photo: Fares, Zoey, Shawn, Ella, Samantha, Kaylee, Cheyenne, Maddie