The Yoder Lab at CSUN is recruiting up to two Master’s students to start in Fall 2022, to develop thesis projects within our ongoing work on the evolutionary genomics of Joshua tree and its coevolution with specialized pollinators.
Earlier today, Master’s student Mikhail Plaza successfully defended his thesis research, in which he built a linkage map for Joshua tree and used it to reexamine data identifying genetic loci that may play a role in local adaptation to climate and to specialized pollinating yucca moths. Mikhail’s project is among the first fruits of the…
Master’s student Alby Dang successfully defended his thesis research, an examination of cooperative dynamics in the Joshua tree/yucca moth mutualism, in a public presentation and meeting with his thesis committee this morning. Alby was the first graduate student to join the Yoder Lab, interviewing for a position in summer 2017 and enrolling the next fall,…
I’m delighted to finally, officially announce that the lab has received funding from the National Science Foundation — for a big, collaborative endeavor we’ve been calling the Joshua Tree Genome Project. Collaborative grants to us here at CSUN and to Chris Smith’s lab at Willamette University, with subawards to collaborators at USGS and the Universities of…
For years at the Evolution meetings there’s been a meetup of lesbian, gay, bi, and trans attendees — going back at least to the 90s. It’s called “Outgroup”, for the obvious phylogenetic double-entendre, and it’s operated largely unofficially. Someone would post a time and location during the meetings, over a lunch break or at a…
I’m excited to be organizing a spotlight session for the American Society of Naturalists at this year’s Evolution 2019 meeting in Providence, and I have a talk slot available for a graduate student working on mutualistic species interactions. The session title will be “Origins, stability, and benefits of interspecific cooperation in a changing world”. I’m…
My lab at California State University, Northridge, is open for Master’s students enrolling for the 2018-19 school year. I’m building a research program focused on the coevolution of interacting species, particularly how mutualists shape each others’ genomic diversity, and how interactions between species can help or hinder adaptation to abiotic factors like climate. You should…
The latest episode of the Slightly Evolved podcast features an interview with me — starting from host Toby Fountain’s traditional question about his guests’ first published research paper, it ends up being a walk through most of my career, from how I got to graduate school to my plans for the new lab here at…
In addition to recruiting graduate students, the Yoder Lab is open to postdoctoral researchers interested in coevolution and ecological genomics. I don’t currently have funding designated to support postdocs, but I’m eager to work with prospective postdoctoral researchers to apply for independent funding through one of the opportunities listed below, or another of your choosing.
