Cathy Pfister
Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolution, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, & co-Director of The Microbiome Center
My lab works jointly with Dr. Tim Wootton.
I can be contacted via email at cpfister at uchicago dot edu
Postdocs Current Graduate Students
Leo Gaskins
Smith Conservation Postdoctoral Fellow
The role of muskrats on the biodiversity of midwestern wetlands
Luella Allen-Waller
Chicago Postdoctoral Fellow
Features, interactions, and outcomes in symbioses, with a focus on the anemone Aiptasia
Max Murray
PhD student in Ecology & Evolution
Microbiomes, seawater chemistry and pathogen risk in seastars
Daniela Pierro
PhD student in Ecology & Evolution
Symbioses across environmental stress with the anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima
Current Graduate Students
Emma Stanfield
PhD student in Ecology & Evolution
kelp-microbe interactions and microbial dynamics
NSF GRFP Fellow
Max Bogan
PhD student in Committee on Evolutionary Biology
Genes that mediate seaweed-microbe interactions, and especially the haloperoxidases
NSF GRFP Fellow
Roo Weed
PhD student in BioPhysics
Microbial mats, their bacterial and viral members, and their functions
Casey Richards
PhD student in Ecology & Evolution
Population structure and eco-evolutionary processes in mussels in a changing climate
Super postbac and research assistant
Kaylie Scorza
Discovering kelp-associated bacteria & their metabolisms
Former Graduate Students
Daniel Smith
2022 CEB graduate from Tim Wootton's lab
Brooke Weigel
2021 graduate
Kelp microbiomes and their consequences. Brooke was a Harper Fellow at the University of Chicago.
Brooke is an Asst Professor at Stanford University
Mark Bitter
2020 graduate
dissertation title: The Dynamics of Rapid Adaptation to Ocean Acidification in the Mediterranean Mussel.
Mark is in Dmitri Petrov’s lab at Stanford as a postdoc & is a recipient of a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship
John Park
2021 graduate from Tim Wootton's lab
Undergraduate Research in the Lab
Nicole Martinez
2024 Ecology and Evolution Fellow studying determinants of kelp fitness across Washington's coast.
Nichos Molnar
2023 Thesis: Temperature and Nitrogen Induced Shifts in the microbiome of a canopy kelp
Claire Fu
Raising kelp and their microbes
Alex Hochroth
2021 thesis: microbial functions on kelp hosts
Published!
Lizzie Shaw
2021 thesis: symbionts in anemones and their response to carbon dioxide
Theresa Fonseca
2021 thesis: Transitions in intertidal communities
Former Undergraduate researchers in the Lab and Field
Sativa Volbrecht
Bacterial densities on kelp blades from healthy and declining populations
Hengxing Zou
Olivia Cattau
Summer field Assistant working on kelp bed chemistry and microbes
AK Alilonu
Microbiome Center webmaster
Megan Verner-Crist
thesis: The Impacts of Snow Removal on Plant Fitness Along an Alpine Gradient
Renata Poulton-Kamakura
thesis: Propagule Pressure and Phylogenetic Diversity on Nonlocal Species Growth in Newly Restored Tallgrass Prairies
Ty Bowyer
Summer field assistant working on kelp bed dynamics and …. counter of copepods
Madori Spiker
thesis: Birth order effects in Speke’s Gazelles
Doris Duke Conservation Fellow
Former Graduate students in the Lab
Katherine Silliman
Research Scientist, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Lab in Miami, FL
Simon Lax
Postdoc at MIT
Dissertation title: Our Microbial Interaction with Built Environments (co-advised with Jack Gilbert)
Orissa Moulton
Lecturer, College of William and Mary
Dissertation title: The role of nitrogen in mediating algal-microbial interactions in a rocky intertidal ecosystem
Courtney Stepien
Data Scientist
Dissertation title: The roles of evolutionary history and ecological interactions in the maintenance of a high diversity macroalgal assemblage
Sophie McCoy
Associate Professor, University of North Carolina
Dissertation title: Effects of ocean acidification on the ecology of crustose coralline algae
Erin Grey
Asst Professor Univ of Maine
Ole Shelton
Biologist, NOAA-NMFS
Dissertation title: The demography, persistence, and community importance of seagrasses in the genus Phyllospadix
Julie Collens
CEO, VividGenomics
Dissertation title: Interactions between Mating System, Dispersal and Genetic Structure in Kelp
Carlos Polivka
Research Biologist, US Forest Service
Dissertation title: Foraging theory, habitat selection and the ecology of a guild of benthic estuarine fishes
Satie Airame
Asst Dean, Academic Programs, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dissertation title: Population structure and viability of stream-dwelling frogs of Borneo