Vinson Doyle, Ph.D.
Vinson Doyle earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the New York Botanical Garden and the City University of New York — Graduate Center and is now an Assistant Professor of Mycology @ the LSU AgCenter. His interests in evolution and biodiversity are at the plant/fungal interface. He uses tools of phylogenetics and population genetics to explore the natural history of many organisms, with a particular affinity for fungal symbionts of plants. Contact: vdoyle[at]agcenter.lsu.edu
We have had a great group of people come through the lab. See who is here now and who has moved on to bigger and better things.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
Elaisa Tubana (2017-Present)
Elaisa is not new to the LSU AgCenter. She graduated from LSU with a Bachelor of Science in Animal-Dairy-Poultry Science and previously worked in another plant pathology lab. She now helps to run the Doyle Mycology Lab and keeps everything working smoothly. She divides her time between our lab and the Clark lab where she is helping with tissue culture of virus-free sweet potatoes.
Haley Hutchins (2016-2017)
Haley has been working in the lab for a few years. She started in the lab as an undergraduate researcher with support from a College of Agriculture Undergraduate Research grant. She presented her work on the diversity of Colletotrichum species associated with Louisiana plants at two different undergraduate research symposia at LSU. She recently (2016) graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Zac Carver
Zac was imported to Louisiana from Oklahoma (recent graduate of OU), but has lived many places (we are still not sure where he is from). He is diving head first into the world of Cercospora systematics and population genetics and trying to tease apart the cryptic biology of the CLB and PSS soybean pathogen, Cercospora cf. flagellaris.
Teddy Garcia
Teddy comes to the Doyle Mycology Lab from across the hall. He finished his MS with Dr. Ray Schneider (retired) and joined our lab to bridge the gap between fundamental and applied research. He is working on an emerging disease of soybean, taproot decline, under the supervision of Vinson and Dr. Trey Price.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS
Jacob Searight
Jose Solarzano
Sara Berrezueta
Hannah Tonry
Hannah joined the lab at the end of her freshman year as a Biology major. She is currently away for the summer making an impact elsewhere [photo shows her providing medical support in Puerto Penasco, Mexico], but we are excited that she has committed to returning in the fall. She will be working with Haley until she gets oriented to the lab, but will soon be working to develop diagnostic tools to track changes in the populations of various Cercospora species on soybean in the United States.
Veronica Bras
Veronica comes to us from Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
FORMER GRADUATE STUDENTS
Josiene Silva Veloso
Josiene Silva Veloso was a visiting Ph.D. student from Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife, Brasil. She has came to work with us on Colletotrichum systematics, specifically species associated with wild and domestic cashew (Anacardium). She is enthusiastic about fungi, but she is not so enthusiastic about the cold (see her in NYC here trying to see her breath)! She will be defending her thesis in February 2017.
Sebastian Albu
Sebastian Albu recently finishded his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and is now a postdoc at UC Davis. His research interests include: (1) using phylogenetics and genomics to identify the fungal pathogens associated with Cercospora leaf blight and purple seed stain, two soybean diseases occurring worldwide. It has long been thought that a single species of Cercospora causes these diseases, but we know now that at least three different, morphologically indistinguishable species cause similar symptoms. (2) Developing diagnostic molecular markers for rapid and accurate identification of pathogenic fungi and other biologically important organisms. (3) Biodiversity of subtropical and tropical fungi, including non-pathogenic phylloplane yeasts, yeast-like relatives and endophytes within the smut lineages of Ustilaginomycotina.
Willie Anderson dos Santos Vieira
FORMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHERS
Caroline Baer
Candace Hernandez
We miss the levity she brought to the lab, but are happy to report that she is not far away. Candace took some of the skills she gained in the lab with us to Pennington Biomedical Research Center where she is now a Research Project Assistant.
Sergio Urioste
Charlot Amadi
