Congratulations, PhD Graduate Heather Phillips!!!!

 

Dr. Heather Phillips graduated from Cornell’s Graduate School with a PhD in Plant Biology on May 25th 2024.  She’s off to Stanford to start a postdoc with José Dinneny building tools for investigating comparative genetic, genomic and phenotypic innovation and adaptation across angiosperms.


Queens of the Lab!!!

The Specht Lab is excited to celebrate the career accomplishments of Dr. Heather Phillips (seated, left) and HHMI Gilliam Fellow Ayress Grinage (seated, right).

Lab Queens

Heather was offered and accepted a postdoc position with José Dinneny at Stanford University where she’ll be part of a team working on a grant from the Templeton Foundation to functionalize ‘omics level understanding of plant biodiversity by deploying species that can be used as research models from across the plant tree of life, combining genomic data with phenotyping, genotyping, and gene editing capabilities.  Meanwhile, Ayress was offered the position of Palm Biologist at the Montgomery Botanical Center in Miami Florida, enabling her to continue to “speak for the palms” through botanical exploration, research, cultivation, conservation, and outreach.  Ayress will be completing her dissertation on phylogenetics and biogeography of the palm genus Sabal and population dynamics of the Sabal minor complex later this spring.

Congratulations to both Heather and Ayress!!!

Heather Phillips passes her B exam and is officially ABD!!!

11/31/23

Congratulations for passing your B exam, Heather.  And thanks for leading a celebration in style!!



 

Heather achieves the highest level of fame, having her portrait hung on the wall of the 413 Mann Library conference room.