The VanBuren Lab
Dr. Bob VanBuren is an assistant professor in the department of Horticulture at Michigan State University. Prior to this, he was an NSF-PGRP Postdoctoral fellow at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Todd Mocker’s lab. His NSF project focused on understanding drought induced CAM photosynthesis in the succulent plant Sedum album. He completed his PhD with Ray Ming at the University of Illinois studying the evolution of sex chromosomes in papaya. Bob is broadly interested in the evolution of drought adaptations and crop domestication.
Google scholar page CV 
Dr. Rose Marks is an NSF-PGRP postdoctoral fellow working in the VanBuren lab at Michigan State University and the Farrant lab at the University of Cape Town. She received her PhD from the University of Kentucky with Dr. Nicholas McLetchie where she worked on sex chromosome evolution in the tropical liverwort, Marchantia inflexa. Her current research focuses on understanding the ecophysiology and genomics of extreme drought tolerance in the South African resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia. Untangling the biology of this unique and understudied plant has promising applications for improving plant resiliency in agricultural systems, and provides an exciting opportunity for Rose to travel to some incredibly beautiful places across Southern Africa.
Kevin Bird is a PhD student in the Horticulture department and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior graduate program in the Edger and VanBuren labs. He is interested in the evolutionary impact of genome structural variation, particularly gene and whole genome duplication. He uses a combination of natural and synthetic polyploids, experimental evolution, and systems biology to characterize the neutral and adaptive forces that maintain duplicate gen(om)es and the mechanisms that create novel traits from duplicates. He is also interested in broad evolutionary phenomena like convergent evolution and phenotypic/genomic plasticity. Outside the lab, Kevin is passionate about science communication and drawing on his background in philosophy and improvisational comedy to better communicate to broad audiences.
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Dr. Jennifer Wai is a senior research scientist in the VanBuren Lab. Jennifer was previously a postdoctoral associate in Dr. Ray Ming's lab at the University of Illinois. She received her PhD from the University of Hawaii under Dr. Robert Paull. In her PhD and postdoctoral work, Jennifer worked genetics and genomics of papaya. In the VanBuren lab, Jennifer works on the evolution of drought induced CAM photosynthesis in the model plant Sedum album using systems biology approaches. She also works on various drought tolerance projects in grasses.
Jeremy Pardo is a PhD student in the department of Plant Biology. He received his B.S. in Plant Sciences from Cornell University where he developed a passion for plant abiotic stress tolerance research. In the VanBuren lab Jeremy works to understand the evolution of desiccation tolerance in the chloridoideae subfamily of grasses. Jeremy also works on elucidating the genetic and epigenetic basis of stress ‘memory’ in crop plants using quantitative genetics, genomics and computational approaches. Outside the lab, Jeremy is passionate about protecting the environment and the people that live in it. In his free time Jeremy enjoys spending time cycling, backpacking and pursuing other outdoor endeavors.
Joe Baczkowski is an undergraduate student majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Biotechnology. Joe is using a bulk segregate analysis based approach to map seed color in the orphan grain crop Tef.
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Alumni
Serena Lotreck (2018 REU student) Currently PhD student in Plant Biology at MSU.
Hannah Chay (2018 HSHSP student) Currently a high school senior.
Mirza Arsyad (2018 Borlaug Fellow) Currently working in forest conservation in Indonesia.
Sterling Evans (2017 REU student) Currently majoring in plant science at Mizzou.
Emily Dias (2017 HSHSP student) Currently an undergraduate at Columbia University.
Hannah Chay (2018 HSHSP student) Currently a high school senior.
Mirza Arsyad (2018 Borlaug Fellow) Currently working in forest conservation in Indonesia.
Sterling Evans (2017 REU student) Currently majoring in plant science at Mizzou.
Emily Dias (2017 HSHSP student) Currently an undergraduate at Columbia University.
