Swapna Subramanian was swabbing fallen apples under a tree when she met Jeff Rogers, whose family has owned the orchard for eight generations. By merging experimental evolution, ecological experiments, and population genomics, Swapna planned to test whether yeasts on these apples evolved local adaptations to their specific orchard and apple variety. She aspires to test fundamental theories about how genetic networks influence which genes underlie adaptation. But this chance meeting with Jeff Rogers sparked a side project, testing overlooked species of wild yeast in brewing commercial ciders. EEB seeks funding that will help us give creative students like Swapna the funding they need to pursue such intellectually innovative and risky research – and side projects.

Jill Wegrzyn is an Associate Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Director of the Computational Biology Core. Her research advances our understanding of evolution and conservation across a wide range of species, from giant sequoia to Arctic grayling, focusing on adaptations to pests, pathogens, and climate change. Besides these fundamental insights, Jill develops computational tools to analyze complex genomic data as well as digital repositories that integrate genomic and trait data in an ecological context. For instance, her work has directly informed forest management through the identification of genetic resistance to white pine blister rust in sugar pine and beech bark disease in American beech. In a current $15 million grant, she is evaluating whether Arctic species, ranging from mayflies to willows, can adapt in the most rapidly warming place on the planet. Besides her research, she mentors numerous graduate and undergraduate students and co-leads a program on genomic novelty, providing a bridge to research for recent graduates. She has most recently been honored by the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Biden, the nation’s highest award for early-career scientists.

The first encounter with lichens in a seminar on EEB’s natural history collections led Crystal Zhu to seek an opportunity to explore the diversity of lichenized fungi. She chose to work on Chilean lichens and quickly acquired a robust understanding of species boundaries by studying our herbarium collections. However, she wanted to see the species in their natural habitat. Support from a donor made it possible for Crystal to conduct field work twice in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. She acquired critical material to strengthen the concept of her species and discovered new records of species for Chile, in fact, the Southern Hemisphere! She graduated as a UConn Scholar and earned the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History Award for her outstanding scholarship and original research. She is now pursuing her interest in our graduate program.