News

Welcome Minh as our new Lagniappe postbac scholar! Minh will be working on mathematical models of monodominance, along with Rachana
We bid a bitersweet farewell to Edmarie and Alex, who are off to new adventures! Edmarie is joining Dr. Adriana Romero Olivares’ lab as a PhD student, and Alex is off to Florida to pursue his biotech career.
The lab had a great time at ESA 2025! It was a big year for the lab, with six talks and a poster coming out of our group. We loved meeting with old friends and new, and learning about a lot of exciting research!

Welcome to Nia Sampson and Maggie Fugate joined us through the Gulf Scholars program to work on longleaf pine savanna projects

April: Anita and Gaurav wrote a letter to Science Magazine calling for scientists to support one another, and to raise expectations of one another and of our institutions, in the face of federal attacks on science and scientists. The published letter is available here, and a more comprehensive conversation guide we put together out of discussions in the lab is available here.
April: The lab’s proposal to the Louisiana State Board of Regents for work on longleaf pine savanna dynamics was recommended for funding! Special thanks to Anita for their leadership on this proposal and work.
March: Gaurav gave a talk at Tulane (slides here). What a pleasure to meet so many fantastic people working on exciting ecology questions!
February: Fun work weekend for the lab at LSU’s Lee Memorial forest - special thanks to Joe Nehlig for accomodating us! Looking forward to more work in these beautiful longleaf pine savannas.
January: Gaurav was privileged to spend several weeks in India, mostly working with Meghna Krishnadas on various projects on soil microbial regulation of forest dynamics.

Congrats Rohit on completing his LSU Biological Sciences Entry Seminar!
The lab continues to grow! Welcome Anita, who is joining us after finishing up their PhD at Duke to work on plant–microbe interactions in longleaf pine savannas.

Summer was a period of growth, rest, and building momentum - read more about it here!

It’s an exciting end to summer as we welcome Rachana and Edmarie to the lab! Can’t wait for the fun science to come over the years!

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Gaurav had the pleasure to attend the SABER (Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research) annual meeting at the University of Minnesota. He shared a poster about EcoEvoApps and was a co-author on another about the UNIDE network. It was great to be back on the beautiful UMN campus and energizing to meet the BER community!
Welcome to the lab, Rohit Jha! Rohit will be joining us starting this Fall and will work on his dissertation research in collaboration with Gaurav and Daijiang Li, as Daijiang’s lab moves from LSU.
June: Welcome back Alexander Philips! Alex will be working with us over the next year as a lab manager/research assistant, while also working towards his Master’s degree in Biotechnology.
June: Welcome to Xavier Jackson, who will be joining us for the summer (and hopefully beyond!) to help out with various aspects of the Lifeplan and Dragnet projects.
May: Gaurav visited iDiv for the third working group meeting of the sPSF working group. What a privilege to work with this group of friends on fun and important questions!

Click here to read about busy spring semester!

May: Gaurav’s first paper from LSU was published at the American Journal of Botany. This paper provides an overview of the mathematical frameworks that empirical researchers can use to quantify how microbes shape plant coexistence. Read the paper here 📝
April: We’re thrilled that Rachana Rao will be joining us this Fall as a PhD student! While she waits for grad school to start, Rachana has also started a new field experiment on the role of soil microbes in mediating seedling dynamics at the interface between coffee plantations and natural forests 🌱
April: Gaurav visited Archbold Biological Station as a Distinguished Seminar Speaker. Thank you Aaron for the invitation, and hope to visit you again before too long 🔥

March: Richard and Gaurav conducted the first round of soil sampling to start experimenting on plants native to Louisiana. Ultimately we decided to shelve the experiment for now, but collecting the soil provided an opportunity for Richard to practice the protocols 🍀

Click here to read about our exciting first semester at LSU!

December:

Welcome to Ameya Kherde, who is joining the lab as our first remote internship student! Over the coming month, Ameya will be learning how to process microbiome sequencing data.
Congrats to all lab members for completing a busy and eventful semester! We are looking forward to moving into our new (permanent) lab space in LSA 363 next semester, to welcome a few more undergrad researchers, and to get going with some fun new science!

November:

Big congrats to Dr. Richard Ita on his official PhD conferral from the University of Uyo! 🎉 We’ll have to call him Dr. Dr. by the end of his time at LSU
New paper published from the REC network, with whom Gaurav has had the pleasure of working over the past few years (including the Fall Think Tank event this month!) 📝.
- Morton, T. et al.. 2023 Re-Envisioning the Culture of Undergraduate Biology Education to Foster Black Student Success: A Clarion Call. CBE-Life Sciences Education.
Thanks to various collaborators, Gaurav has also been a part of four other manuscript submissions this month, making this a busy and exciting time. Can’t wait to share the results with everyone!

September:

August:

Gaurav and Richard moved to Baton Rouge and are eager to set up the lab at LSU 🌱