Pat Kociolek studies the taxonomy, systematics, evolution and biogeography of (mostly) freshwater diatoms, particularly those possessing a raphe system. He has worked at the University of Michigan, California Academy of Sciences and is now at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His focus on the project is conducting revisionary study of members of the Rhopalodiales with museum- and field-based collections, documenting morphological variation amongst the group, and, as the PI on the grant, the other areas of study for the project.

Associate Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Colorado Boulder

Role: Overseeing molecular phylogenetics projects. Contributing to discussions on the ecology and evolution of symbiosis. Participating in manuscript preparation. Mentoring students.

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Scott Miller studies the evolution of cyanobacteria, mostly from extreme environments. His focus on the project is on spheroid body diversification, genome evolution and mode of transmission.

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Assistant Professor
Biology and Annis Water Resources Institute
Grand Valley State University

Role: Diatom taxonomy and systematics using morphological and molecular data. Mentoring students.

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Aimee Caye Chang, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado Boulder, currently studies diatoms and their endosymbiotic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). Experienced in microbiology and phycology research, her expertise is on cyanobacteria, its molecular biology, and bioinformatics. She is focused on investigating host-symbiont interactions and understanding the science of these complex biological relationships.

Kyle received his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. He is a genomicist who specializes in bioinformatic workflows for expediting the assembly and annotation of organellar and nuclear genomes. In his spare time, he can be found climbing rocks.

Catherine hails from Nigeria, where she obtained a master's degree in Environmental Pollution Monitoring from the University of Ibadan and her bachelor's degree in Plant Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Benin. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in studying the evolutionary history of diatoms in symbiotic associations with cyanobacteria by exploring their mitochondrial genomes in the order Rhopalodiales. Catherine enjoys eating cookies with chocolate tea.

Mailor has a degree in Biological Sciences and a master's degree in Environmental Sciences from the Western Paraná State University - UNIOESTE, Cascavel, Brazil.

His research involves taxonomy, systematics, genomics and phylogeny of diatoms, with a greater focus on the chloroplast genome of Rhopalodiales.

Megan graduated from the University of Michigan in 2019 and is from Florida. She is currently a master’s student at the University of Colorado where she is studying the Rhopalodiales of Argentina.

Heidi is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Montana. She is interested in how long-term, mutualistic co-evolution and tight-knit endosymbiotic relationships evolve, especially in protist-prokaryote systems. Her Ph.D. research explores how the N-fixing cyanobacterial endosymbionts of Rhopalodiaceae have evolved with their hosts and how the partners are genetically and metabolically integrated.