Dr. Demian Willette
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Demian is an assistant professor in the Biology Department at LMU.
Click here for Demian’s CV. |
STUDENTS
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Kelcie Chiquillo
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Sydney Lee |
Kesterlyn Wilson
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Kelcie is a doctoral candidate at UCLA and has worked with the Willette Lab since 2015. Kelcie’s dissertation examines multiple ecological and evolutionary questions about the invasive seagrass Halophila stipulacea both in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. Kelcie has received multiple awards and grants for her research, and has several manuscripts in review and in the works.
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Sydney joined the lab in 2017 and has worked on multiple projects including contrasting seafood mislabeling and price points and microplastic accumulation in crustaceans. Her current research builds on work of past lab members in refining our understanding of a warming climate on black walnut seed germination rates.
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Kesterlyn joined the lab in 2017 and continues her multi-year field and computational project on assessing the value of ecosystem services at Los Angeles’ Ascot Hills Park. This work combines extensive tree measurements, urban heat island transects, and UAV mapping to provide a fresh take on assigning a dollar value to urban greenspaces.
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Marie Smith
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Leo Gonzalez-Smith |
Stacy Lam |
Anna Horvath |
Marie joined the lab in 2018 as a summer intern through LMU’s Coastal Research Institute. She has continued her research using a combination of molecular, morphological, and meristic tools to differentiate the circumglobal seagrass Zostera marina and putative endemic Southern California seagrass Z. pacifica. The results of this work will help inform future plantings of the seagrass for coastal restoration projects.
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Leo joined the lab in 2018 and is exploring the evolutionary origins of a threatened freshwater sardine, Sardinella tawilis, that is endemic to Taal Lake – a volcanic lake formed only 300 years ago. Leo uses SNPs to genotype and contrast S. tawilis from its marine sister species S. hualiensis for estimating when species divergence occurred.
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Stacy joined the lab in 2018 and originally worked with Mary using molecular tools on the Los Angeles Seafood Monitoring Project. Stacy’s current work with Anna aims to use molecular and morphological metrics to identify genetic diversity of black walnut trees (native Juglans californica and introduced J. nigra) to inform future restoration efforts at the park.
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Anna joined the lab in 2018 and worked previously on ecosystem service data from Ascot Hills Park. Anna currently partners with Stacy who together are characterizing the composition of black walnut species present at Ascot Hills Park, namely the native Juglans californica and introduced J. nigra.
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Rukhbaan Hayer
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Evie Chokler |
Evan Shen
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Rukhbaan joined the lab in 2020 and is a freshman in Biology. He is currently working with Evie and Evan to develop and test an assay to quantify the tumor-suppressing capacity of extracts from the medicinal plant Leonurus japonicas Chinese motherwort.
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Evie joined the lab in 2020 and is a freshman in Chemistry. She is currently working with Rukhbaan and Evan to develop and test an assay to quantify the tumor-suppressing capacity of extracts from the medicinal plant Leonurus japonicas Chinese motherwort.
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Evan joined the lab in 2020 and is a freshman in Biology. He is currently working with Evie and Rukhbaan to develop and test an assay to quantify the tumor-suppressing capacity of extracts from the medicinal plant Leonurus japonicas Chinese motherwort.
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Past Lab Members
Sofia
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Nick
Pilaud 
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Jackie
Galvez 
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Candice
Cross 
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Sophie
Deen 
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Lab member 2015-2019. Sofia was a co-author on the 2017 seafood paper and continued working on ecolabeled seafood genetics research until she graduated with her B.S. in Biochemistry. Sofia is currently in medical school at Western Michigan.
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Lab member 2015-2019. Nick was a co-author on the 2017 seafood paper and worked on brush pile research. He graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science and is currently a tech at The Bay Foundation.
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Lab member 2016-2019. Jackie worked the effects of climate change on walnut seed germination. Jackie graduated with a B.S. in Biology and is now earning her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley.
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Lab member 2017-2019. Candice studies the ecology, spread, and carbon sequestration capacity of the invasive seagrass Halophila stipulacea. She graduated with her B.S. in Biology and is currently earning her Ph.D. at UCLA.
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Lab member 2016-2019. Sophie was lead author on the slime mold & 3D printing experiments to investigate traffic patterns in Los Angeles. Sophie graduated with a B.S. in Health and Human Science and is currently earning her doctorate in Physical Therapy at USC.
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Matt
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Xiaoya Selena Yuan
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Mary
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Sarah
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Quinn
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Lab member 2018-2019. As a CURes researcher, Matt collaborated with the lab in developing a molecular genetics tool to distinguish prey types in coyote scat. Matt graduated with his B.S. in Biology and is currently in medical school
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Lab member 2018-2019. Selena worked on multiple research project in the lab including the on-going Los Angeles Seafood Monitoring project and eco-labeled seafood project, which is being prepared for publication.
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Lab member 2018-2019. Mary joined the lab for her senior capstone research contributing to the eco-labeled seafood project. Mary graduated with her B.S. in Biology.
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Lab member 2016-2017. Sarah worked on the Ascot Hills Park projects. She graduated with her B.S. in Biology and is currently in medical school
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Quinn briefly worked on the Ascot Hills Park projects. Quinn will graduate in Spring 2019 and has a job lined up in Minnesota.
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COLLABORATORS
Our lab frequently works with top-notch scientists and experts from around the world. Below is a list of some of our collaborators!
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Dr. Sascha Steiner
Sascha is the founder and director of ITME and TROPIC and has been a long-time collaborator and colleague of the lab on our invasive seagrass work, primarily in Dominica (West Indies).
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Dr. Mudjie Santos
Mudjie is a Research Scientist II in the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (Philippines) and has partnered on multiple food security and fisheries management projects with the lab. He also was a teammate of Demian’s on local basketball leagues in the Philippines.
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Dr. Peggy Fong
Peggy is a Professor at UCLA and partners with the lab on ecological studies on the invasive seagrass Halophila stipulacea in the Caribbean. She is also a cherished mentor of Demian’s.
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Dr. Anna Toline
Anna is a marine scientist and Ocean Program Coordinator for the National Park Service Southeast region and partners with the lab on risk assessment and management strategies targeted at the invasive seagrass Halophila stipulacea within US National Parks, including the Virgin Islands National Park and the Coral Reef National Monument.
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Dr. Gidon Winters
Gidon is a researcher at the Dead Sea & Arava Science Center (Israel) and partners with the lab in investigating the genetic basis for the rapid, global expansion of invasive seagrass Halophila stipulacea.
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Dr. Eli Meyer
Eli is an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University and partners with the lab in the use of cutting-edge molecular methods, and is the co-organizer of our summer workshops on Catalina Island.
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Dr. Paul Barber
Paul is a Professor at UCLA and partners with the lab in using molecular genetic tools to help address challenges with Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud. He is also an esteemed mentor of Demian’s.
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Dr. Elizabeth Sbrocco
Elizabeth is a research scholar with the Ronin Institute and partners with the lab in on-going ecological niche modeling of the invasive seagrass, Halophila stipulacea, in the Caribbean.
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Dr. Anchana Prathep
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Dr. Samantha Cheng
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Anchana is a Professor at Prince of Songkhla University in Thailand and has and continues to collaborate with Demian on multiple scientific education programs.
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Sam is a post-doctoral scholar with the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at UC Santa Barbara and partners with the lab on a range of fisheries management topics.
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Mr. Duncan Leadbitter
Duncan is the director of Australia-based fisheries and natural resource consulting group Fish Matter, and a fellow at the University of Wollongong (Australia). Duncan has collaborated with the lab on marine fisheries research.
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Dr. Ines Gonzalez Viana, Dr. Lucy Gillis,
and Dr. Rapti Siriwardana-de Zoysa Ines, Lucy and Rapti are current research collaborators investigating social, ecological, and biological questions related to the invasive seagrass across the Caribbean Sea.
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Links to Collaborating Partners and Institutes
