It is always regally hard to be a postdoc. It is a period of academic limbo, where the stakes are high and rejections are common and sting hard. It is especially difficult right now. Given that, I want to acknowledge how grateful I am for the postdocs in my lab right now.

@acer_aceae has led my switchgrass pathogen and genetic mapping research for which I am grateful, but he has also made major contributions to our education initiatives in partnership with the Flint schools, mentored many REUs, and will be teaching the EEBB grad course this fall.

Kathy Toll has brought her keen ability to think through super complex evolutionary ecological processes to implement elegant experiments to test challenging hypotheses in nature in the monkeyflower system. She has guided my first NSF grant expertly.

@FoggyIdeas has been bringing great ideas to our lab meetings for years and has now joined us by implementing ambitious eco physiology experiments in switchgrass. I so admire his passion for making undergraduate education better and more equitable.

@Ian_Willick has revolutionized how we approach cold and freezing stress in switchgrass. He is one of the best out there in thinking through problems of low temperature stress generally. Look out for a great review from him soon.

Kyle Christie is one of the best and most knowledgeable postdocs in the field of plant speciation. His understanding is really deep and his ability to pull of big field experiments is inspiring. I am so thrilled to have him as part of the lab.

@mimulusly just joined us and plans to build on her success as a PhD student doing elegant functional molecular work in monkeyflower species. She will now expand her research to connect that functional work with ecological and evolutionary processes in nature. Super exciting!!!