Student News

Francis wearing a baseball cap standing near a lake

Francis Anaya

April 27, 2026

Advisors: Dr. Rebecca Hufft, Dr. Michael Moore, and Dr. Diana Tomback Date: April 29th, 2026 Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm Location: Botanic Gardens FNC Classroom 3 Long-Term Impacts of Aerial Seeding During Fire Recovery in Lodgepole Pine (Pinus Contorta) Communities: Beaver Creek Fire, Colorado Case Study Wildfires are continuing to increase...

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Ellie standing in the desert at sunset

Ellie Tushar

April 21, 2026

Elli e Tus har Advisor: Dr. Gregory Ragland Date: April 24, 2026 Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Location : North Classroom 1003 Evolutionary Divergence and Thermal Plasticity: Investigating Transcriptional Responses in Tropical and Temperate Drosophila Species. Phenotypic plasticity enables organisms to adjust to environmental variation, yet it remains unclear how plastic...

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Casey holding a bird in the middle of the desert in the summer

Casey Weissburg

Feb. 5, 2026

Casey W eissburg Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam Advisor: Dr. Michael Wunder When: Friday, February 13, 2026 Where: Science Classroom, Room 1111 Time: 8:00am Age-and Season-Specific Demographic Rates for the Mountain Plover: Variation Between Populations and Across the Annual Cycle Pinpointing what factors drive population change requires understanding variance in demographic rates...

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Jessica Loeffler receives 2025 Fall CLAS Outstanding Master's Student Award

Dec. 8, 2025

Congratulations to Jessica Loeffler for receiving the 2025 Fall CLAS Outstanding MS student Award. She has contributed positively to the research mission, the teaching mission, and the overall culture of the department. This is now seven semesters in a row that one of our students has won either the Outstanding...

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Alyssa Hohorst receives 2025 Fall CLAS Outstanding PhD Student Award

Dec. 8, 2025

Congratulations to Alyssa Hohorst for receiving the 2025 Fall CLAS Outstanding PhD Student Award. She has contributed positively to the research mission, the teaching mission, and the overall culture of the department. This is seven semesters in a row that one of our students has won either the Outstanding MS...

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Jessica squatting near a river cutting roots

Jessica Loeffler

Nov. 18, 2025

Jessic a Loeffler M a ster’s Thesis Defense Adviso rs: Dr. Andrew Wilson, Dr. Michael Greene, and Dr. Sara Branco When: November 21, 2025 12:00pm – 1:00pm Where: Science Building, Room 2001 Join Zoom Meeting: https://ucdenver.zoom.us/j/98409192103 Meeting ID: 984 0919 2103 or Join by SIP • 98409192103@zoomcrc.com Comparing the Fungal...

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Gabrielle sitting in a field of natural grass in Colorado

Gabrielle Cerep-Funke

Nov. 18, 2025

Gabr ielle Cerep-Funke Master's Thesis Defense Advisor: Dr. Chrissy Alba When: Thursday, November 20, 2:00pm - 3:00pm Where: Science Building, Room 4127 Zoom: https://ucdenver.zoom.us/j/94940451010 Evaluating the Performance of Horticulturally Relevant Native Forbs under Increasingly Limiting Water Availability Climate models predict a hotter and drier future for Colorado, which can impact...

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Justin sitting in an extremely large bird's nest

Justin J. Loucks

Nov. 10, 2025

J ustin J. Loucks Defense Exam Advisor: Dr. Andrew Wilson When: Friday, November 14, 2025 1:30pm – 3:30pm Where: Science Building, Room 4127 Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/77907961149?pwd=VdQqOUhtyKl0fvWM2Ua56Vz8s9Jg4p.1 Meeting ID: 779 0796 1149 Passcode: QEb2VF TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS OF THE FUNGAL GENUS BOLETOPSIS IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA The fungal genus Boletopsis...

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Alyssa outdoors wearing a knit hat smiling at the camera

Alyssa Hohorst, Successfully Defended her PhD Dissertation

Nov. 3, 2025

Alyssa Hohorst PhD Dissertation Defense Advisor: Dr. Ben Greenwood Department of Integrative Biology When: Friday, November 7th 2025 10:00am Where: Science Building, Room 4127 Clarifying the Mechanisms Underlying Estrous Cycle Modulated Fear Extinction and Relapse Extinction that occurs during high ovarian hormone phases, proestrus or estrus (Pro/Est), or following E2...

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Ali and Dr Tomback hiking and stopped under a tree

Ali Alghamdi PhD Student - Successfully Completed his Comprehensive Exam

Oct. 24, 2025

Ali Alghamdi Ph.D. Student Dr. Diana Tomback's Lab Department of Integrative Biology When: 10/28/2025 - Time: 11:00 am Where: Science Building 4127 Ecological Restoration in Forest and Aridland Systems: Nature-Based Solutions to Counter Disturbance and Degradation. My dissertation investigates how ecosystems recover when disturbances push them to their resilience limits...

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