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

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!!!