Four papers all came out right around the same time, in March and April of this year. Two were led by Kadeem Gilbert and were about microbial communities in different Nepenthes pitcher plants from Southeast Asia: “Tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes) act as ecological filters by altering properties of their fluid microenvironments” and “Investigation of an elevational gradient reveals strong differences between bacterial and eukaryotic communities coinhabiting Nepenthes phytotelmata”. One was led by Lauren Shoemaker and Allie Barner, and came out of a Research Jam they initiated at the Santa Fe Institute: “Quantifying the relative importance of variation in predation and the environment for species coexistence”. And the final one was the main paper coming out of my postdoc: “Context-dependent dynamics lead to the assembly of functionally distinct microbial communities”. Very exciting to have them all published!
Seminar at Utah State University
On February 26th, 2020, Leonora gave a talk for the Biology Seminar series at USU. It was great to meet with Robert Schaeffer, Valerie Martin and others to talk about plant, insect, and microbial interactions.
NSF Microbiome Workshop
Leonora attended an amazing workshop on Deciphering the Microbiome in Washington, D.C. in December 2019. It was wonderful to discuss cutting edge techniques, and new ways to move the field forward, while also meeting new people and seeing old friends.
Seminar at University of Chicago
Leonora visited the University of Chicago in November, 2019, and gave a seminar. It was great to meet the faculty and students, and to see Chicago for the first time.
Moving to Idaho!
Leonora will be moving to Boise at the end of the summer, and officially starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Boise State University in January 2020.