Baums Laboratory

Iliana serves as a Professor of Marine Conservation at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Miami using population genetic tools to study asexual reproduction and gene flow in the Caribbean elkhorn coral Acropora palmata. She completed post docs at the University of Miami with Dr. Jack Fell and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology with Dr. Rob Toonen. She studies how corals and their symbionts acclimate and adapt to rapidly changing environments bridging the fields of ecology, evolution and conservation genetics.

Kelly received her PhD from Penn State University on coral photo physiology. Her research has focused on how light shapes coral physiology, symbiosis and morphology. Currently, Kelly is investigating how we can use standard heat stress experiments to understand coral temperature stress responses.

Trinity is a Ph.D student in the department of Biology. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Miami where she studied symbiosis dynamics and local adaptation in Caribbean corals. Trinity is broadly interested in the variety of adaptive mechanisms of corals, how selection is acting on these populations and how we can best leverage that in the conservation and restoration of these species.

Nick is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biology. He obtained an M.A. from Colombia University and a B.Sc. from the University of California at Berkeley. He develops bioinformatic tools to study the ecology and evolution of reef-building corals. These tools have applications in conservation and restoration.

Cornelia is a Ph.D. student in the department of Biology. She completed her undergraduate education in Biology and Environmental Studies at Grinnell College, Iowa. Prior to joining the lab, she was a research assistant at the University of Illinois studying gene regulatory networks and cell fate during larval development in the marine snail, Crepidula fornicata. Her PhD research seeks to better understand the Caribbean hybrid coral, Acropora prolifera, and the genetic, developmental, and physiological mechanisms that allow it to thrive in variable environments. Generally, she is interested in determining the ecological and evolutionary impact Acroporid hybridization will have on the future of threatened Caribbean reefs.

Severin is a Research Assistant in the Marine Conservation Group. He graduated from the University of Oldenburg with a focus on the structure of octocoral mitochondrial genomes and molecular species discrimination. Severin is interested in deep-sea octocoral biodiversity, population genomics, as well as coral-associated fauna and coral microbiomes.