Lab updates from Fall 2025

This semester has been very eventful in the Muir lab, with two new graduate students (Ariella and Freyja) being admitted and Frank obtaining dissertator status and a MS in Botany!

Everyone has been working hard, submitting applications for funding and making great strides in their research projects. Eddie and Ariella have applied to the Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Research to possibly secure funding for field collection projects in summer 2026. Eddie aims to collect measurements and samples in Hawaiʻi to study the adaptive radiation of Hawaiian Bidens, while Ariella’s goal is to collect Mimulus tilingii seeds and leaves across the mountain ranges of the Western United States to measure trichome trait variation. Additionally, Freyja and Ariella worked extensively to submit applications to both the NSF GRFP and the Simons Graduate Fellowship in Ecology and Evolution this semester. Outside of applying for funding, everyone has been forging ahead, learning new lab skills, collecting data, planting seeds, and planning the next steps in their projects. All of this could not be done without the amazing undergraduates in the lab. Lily started taking new microscopy images for Frank this semester, and Aren, a former field technician, is beginning to apply to postgrad opportunities with a Public Health lab as she gears up for the next step in her career.