Amelia Wolf

Assistant Professor, University of Texas
​Department of Integrative Biology

Ecosystem ecology, community ecology, nutrient cycling, global change, biodiversity loss, species interactions, nitrogen fixation, flowering phenology

amywolf @ utexas.edu

Laurel Miller

Research Technician, The University of Texas, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
lmiller @ wildflower.org

Laurel is a research technician in the Wolf Lab, as well as the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center's research team in a joint appointment. Her interests are focused on the intersection of community ecology and conservation. Laurel is currently exploring the ecology of the nectar microbiome in disturbed grasslands, as well as the diverse conservation impacts of the microbial world. She hopes to begin graduate studies in Fall 2025.

Tom Bytnerowicz

Stengl-Wyer Postdoctoral Scholar

Tom is interested in feedbacks between nutrient limitation, forest growth, and climate. His research is aimed at elucidating the mechanisms that determine global patterns of symbiotic nitrogen fixation and using that mechanistic understanding to predict nitrogen fixing tree abundance and nitrogen fixation inputs across temporal and spatial scales.

https://tbytnerowicz.weebly.com
​

Keri Greig

PhD candidate, EEB graduate program

Elena Leander

PhD student, EEB graduate program

Elena is broadly interested in plant-soil ecology. She is curious about the ways in which the plant communities we see aboveground are shaped by their interactions with the soil microbiome below. Understanding how these relationships may foster ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change is a key driving force in her work. She has spent the most recent years of her life as a field botanist across the western United States, growing an appreciation for plant taxonomy, public lands, and conservation across a diverse range of landscapes.

Sarah Ortiz

PhD candidate, EEB graduate program

Sarah is broadly interested in the stoichiometric, ecological, and biogeochemical ramifications of different nutrient acquisition strategies in plants, particularly those involving mutualistic soil microbes, and how these effects are mediated by plant traits and the abiotic environment. She uses a combination of greenhouse and field work studies to gain knowledge on how individual plants change and mitigate nutrient acquisition strategies in the greenhouse and then scale that out to the field to understand plant community dynamics and ecological processes. Sarah hopes to understand how plants will change their resource uptake strategies under anthropogenic stress and uncover the downstream effects of these changes in natural communities.

​https://sarahortiz147.wixsite.com/sarah-ortiz

Charlotte Reemts

PhD student, PB graduate program

Charlotte is interested in applied fire and restoration ecology in grasslands, savannas, and forests. She works with land managers to test new techniques and track long-term management outcomes.

​https://ecoreemts.wordpress.com/

Chatura Vaidya

Stengl-Wyer Postdoctoral Scholar

Xinyi Yan

PhD candidate, EEB graduate program

Xinyi studies how plant-microbe interactions shape plant diversity and community assembly. Check out her website for more information: https://xinyi-yan.github.io/

Undergraduate researchers

              Lynda Torres (2024-present)
              Luke Gueqierre (2024-present)
              Ash Romero (2023-2024)
              Abby Jones (2022-present)
              Eli Galli-Anderson (2024)
              Sofia Bautista (2023-present)
              Margaret White (2023)
              Lanning Welsch (2023)
              Eliana Pratt (2023)
              Noor Malhi (2023)
              Claire Bradley (2023)
              Laurel Miller (2022-2023)
              Gayathree Gopi (2022)
              Allison McNairy (capstone project student, 2022-2023)
              Casey Dinh (capstone project student, 2022-2023)          
              Inara Jiwani (TEJAS researcher, 2022-2023)
              Cain Yin (2022-2024)
              Allyssa Lauren Davis (2022-2023)
              Ashley Nguyen (2022-2023)
              Stephanie Nunez (McNair Scholar, 2022)
              Michael Hanson (capstone project student, 2022)
              Emma Rust (InSTInCT REU student, 2022)
              Jessica Richards (capstone project student, 2021-2022)
              Maggie Brandon (2022)
              Diana Espinoza (2022)
              Lynna Benhamou (2022)
              Serah Osborn (2022)
              Brian Matibag (2022)
              Elena Adams (2021-2022)
              Sora Sunby (2021)
              Josue Perez (2021)
              Johari Weaver (InSTInCT REU researcher, 2021)
              Sarah Bybee (2020-2021)

Previous Lab Members

Elena Adams

Lab technician

Elena is interested in how biodiversity is maintained (and lost) in human-modified ecosystems, particularly in relation to plants and insects - taxa which largely form the foundation for terrestrial ecosystems. Her research goals are strongly conservation-focused with an emphasis on illuminating the important relationships between plants, insects, and humans, the former two groups being so often overlooked and at risk of decline due to land use change and habitat fragmentation. Elena is currently working as a research technician and applying to grad school!