People

Current Lab Members

Vivian Irish, Ph.D.

Vivian obtained her B.A. from Wesleyan University, and her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Pursuing her interests in developmental genetics, she carried out postdoctoral work as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow, working on Drosophila pattern formation with Michael Akam at the University of Cambridge.  Long interested in plant development, Vivian decided to then carry out postdoctoral work as a National Science Foundation Fellow under the guidance of Ian Sussex at Yale University. Now the Daniel C. Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale, Vivian continues to delve into questions of plant development, plant genetics, and the evolution of developmental mechanisms.

Adam Saffer, Ph.D. Associate Research Scientist

Adam received his B.S. from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. from MIT working on C. elegans development.  Making the switch to plant development, Adam is now focusing on the mechanisms that control the patterning and differentiation of Arabidopsis petal conical epidermal cells, with a particular interest in the role of the cell wall in these processes.

Cintia Helena Duarte Sagawa, Postdoctoral Associate

Cintia is from Brazil and obtained her Ph.D. at U.C. Davis, working on the molecular basis of bacterial diseases in plants. She has a long standing interest in Citrus biology, and lived on a Citrus reseach farm in Brazil for a year.  Cintia has joined our team working on developing Crispr-induced Citrus mutants that display decreased susceptibility to Huanglongbing disease.

Archana Khadgi, Postdoctoral Associate

Archana originally from Kathmandu, Nepal, studied at the University of Arkansas, and obtained her Ph.D. in horticulture from Cornell University. Archana is now working on Citrus, exploring the roles of candidate genes that may be involved in susceptibility to Huanglongbing disease.

Ruirui Huang, Graduate Student

Ruirui comes to us from Nanjing, China, where she obtained a Masters degree in Agronomy. She is now focusing on investigating the role of epigenetic control mechanisms in petal development.

Ivy Lin, Graduate Student

Ivy is from Taiwan where she obtained a Masters degree in forestry. Now, Ivy is embarking on a study of hormone action in regulating patterning in Citrus, and getting used to New England winters.

Anastasiya Andriyash, Graduate Student

Anaa is fascinated by how plant percieve and respond to signals and is working on a thesis project to examine the roles of cell to cell signaling interactions in plant growth and development. When not in the lab, Anaa enjoys hiking, collecting tropical houseplants, and baking too many desserts.

Joanna Wypasek, Yale class of ‘24

Joanna was born and raised in Connecticut and is majoring in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She currently works with Ivy to explore hormonal regulation of patterning in Citrus. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, taking trips to the beach, and doing a ton of jigsaw puzzles.

Kaiden Brown, Yale class of ‘26

Victor Nguyen, Yale class of ‘26

 

 

Former Lab Members and Current Affiliations

Former Research Scientists

  • Ning Wei, retired

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Fei Zhang, Assistant Professor, Huazhong Agricultural University
  • Jie Dong, Assistant Professor, Zhejiang University
  • Tengbo Huang, Assistant Professor, Shenzhen University
  • Pascale Rossignol, Research Associate, J. Craig Venter Institute
  • Mary Abraham, Sub-Editor, Nature
  • Koen Geuten, Professor, Leuven University
  • Hae-Lim Lee, Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University
  • Sinead Drea, Lecturer, University of Leicester
  • Lena Hileman, Associate Professor, University of Kansas
  • Jens Sundstrom, Senior Lecturer, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  • Moriah Zik, Assistant Professor, Ben Gurion University
  • Amy Litt, Professor, UC Riverside
  • Rebecca Lamb, Associate Professor, Ohio State University
  • Cristina Juarez, Lecturer, Bristnall Hall Technology College
  • Brian McGonigle, Senior Research Scientist, Dupont
  • Christopher Day, Lecturer, University of California, San Diego
  • Karim Bouhidel, Lecturer, Universite de Bourgogne, Dijon
  • Yuri Yamamoto, Musician, Raleigh, NC

Former Graduate Students

  • Irvin Pan, Associate Professor, Stonehill College
  • Chloe Mara, Postdoctoral, University of Maryland
  • Elizabeth Wojcik, Manager, Tesaro, Inc.
  • Gemma DeMartino, Research Associate, McGill University
  • Eunyoung Chae, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
  • Naomi Nakayama, Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
  • Queenie Tan, Physician
  • Pablo Jenik, Professor, Franklin and Marshall College
  • Theresa Hill, Senior Research Associate, UC Davis
  • Elena Kramer, Professor, Harvard University
  • Susan Zondlo, Associate Director, QPS
  • Roberta Miller, Physician

Former Undergraduates, PostGrad Associates & Summer Students

  • Gemma Yoo
  • Crystal Liu
  • Corina Vernon
  • Alan May
  • Zihao Lin
  • Andy Ma
  • Gillian Page
  • Calvin Lu
  • Victoria Mevs
  • Ellie Czepiel
  • Brandon Araki
  • Kantiya Jindachomthong
  • Chayma Boussayoud
  • Alejandro Jiminez
  • Alexia Zagouras
  • Anne Shue
  • Tom Viaene
  • Kristina Gremski
  • Takudzwa Shumba
  • Chanateep Methreetrairut
  • Tin Ngo
  • Ramon Herrera
  • Martin Skipper
  • Eva Maria Sehr
  • Ana Maria Pardo
  • Elizabeth Ryan
  • Roshani Anandappa