Welcome Frank, Wei Shen, and Joana!

We’ve had several lab additions in the past couple months, so I want to take a moment to introduce them. First, I am excited to welcome a new Botany Ph.D. student in the lab, Dachuan “Frank” Wang. Frank is from China and has been studying and working in the USA for about 10 years. His main research interest is to explore the mystery of plants. Frank likes nature and traveling to visit different beautiful natural parks. His dissertation will be on stomatal anatomical evolution in response to rising CO$_2$.

Next up is a new technician, Wei Shen Lim. Wei Shen is from Malaysia and graduated with B.S. in Marine Biology this summer from UH. She is interested in botany, evolution, and conservation. As an undergraduate, she worked with marine invertebrates, but saw the light and realized her primary interest in plants and algae. She will be working to measure the adaptive significance of amphistomatous leaves. If you’re on Oʻahu, you will definitely see her playing ultimate frisbee, but also enjoy swimming and scuba diving. Wei Shen hopes to get more involved with the botany scene in Hawaiʻi and using that to protect native species here.

Finally, I am really excited to welcome a new undergraduate assistant Joana Kim from Kapiʻolani Community College (KCC). Joana is majoring in natural science at KCC. She was born and raised in the Kaimuki area. In her free time she likes to take dance classes and go to the beach. Silverswords are one of her favorite plant groups. In my BOT 100 class, Joana asks great, engaged questions, so I am excited to have her getting involved with research!