People
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Cindy Looy
Professor Cindy is a plant ecologist who tumbled down the rabbit hole of deep time. As a notorious subject hopper Cindy's interests are all over the place, however a common denominator in much of her work is the response of plants and plant communities to major environmental change and its evolutionary consequences. Her primary interest is investigating aspects of the terrestrial end-Permian biotic crisis and its aftermath, and the terrestrial consequences of the transition from a glacial-dominated ice-house world to an ice-free greenhouse one—going from the late Carboniferous to the middle Permian. Although she likes almost all things green (even after they stopped being green 100s of millions of years ago), she has a soft spot for conifers and lycophytes. |
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Ivo Duijnstee
Assistant Adjunct Professor As a labless adjunct, Ivo made his home in the Looy Lab. With a background in plant ecology, marine ecology, and a PhD in geosciences studying the paleoecology of foraminifera, Ivo's research interests have succesfully dodged straightforward classification. For the time being, aspects of various interests have now coalesced in Paleozoic plant ecology, ecophysiology and evolution—using plant fossils, plant fossil data sets and experimental paleobotany to answer questions about the developing newfangled terrestrial biosphere in the Paleozoic and its relations with the Earth System. |
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Jaemin Lee
Graduate Student Jaemin's broad research interest includes ecology and evolution of plants and insects, and their interactions in the past. His current research includes reproductive ecology of angiosperms, insect herbivory, and insect community reconstructions (including taxonomic descriptions and an ontogenetic reconstruction) during the rise and diversification of the angiosperms in the Cretaceous. With a paradigm-shifting publication in the journal Science under his belt, Jaemin will be wrapping up his PhD research in the Fall of 2026 and will continue his academic endeavors during two postdoctoral stints: one at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural history in Washington, D.C., and the other at the University of (the other) Washington in Seattle. (Here is a link to one of his projects & check out his website; opens in new tab) |
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COMING SOON: Dean Lewis
Graduate Student Approaching rapidly with an unstoppable drive to uncover the deep-time history of the evolution and ecology of brown algae (SAR: Phaeophyceae). These include kelps—the charismatic, foundational, autogenic ecosystem engineers that introduced the concept of forests to our planet's oceans. Dean will be joining us in the Fall of 2026 as our in-house Paleophycologist (an exquisitely rare paleobotanical condition). |
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Jeff Benca
Independent Collaborator, UCMP Research Associate, former Postdoctoral Researcher and Graduate Student Jeff is an experimental paleobiologist using studies of living plants to reconstruct developmental and ecosystem-level patterns observed in the plant fossil record. His work focuses on growth and reproductive responses of conifers and lycophytes to heightened ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation exposure. These experiments aim at testing whether volcanogenic ozone weakening events could have triggered a global floral turnover and favored lycophyte-dominated plant communities during Earth’s largest mass extinction, the end-Permian crisis (check this out for more info; opens in new tab). In the past, Jeff has also studied global morphological variation in Early Devonian lycophytes and digitally reconstructed a new species. Additionally, Jeff is a horticultural researcher pioneering cultivation techniques for early-diverging lycophyte and fern lineages to aid in their accessibility and ex situ conservation. |
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Swee Peck Quek
Assistant Researcher Swee Peck's main research interest is in the evolution, ecology, and historical geography of the biota of the Malay Archipelago, focusing on the mutualistic association between Macaranga plants, Crematogaster ants and Coccus scale insects. |
Affiliates
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Alex Lowe
UCMP Senior Museum Scientist Alex is in charge of the UCMP's sizable paleobotanical collections. His research interests cover many aspects of paleoecology, paleoclimate, geochronology, taxonomy, and biogeography. He works primarily with plant macrofossils from the Cenozoic. Recently, his research has mostly focused on reconstructing terrestrial vegetation and climate in the western US, particularly the Pacific Northwest, during the late Paleogene and Neogene. The rich fossil records he studies provide an exciting opportunity to reconstruct the response of vegetation types—fairly analogous to modern wet temperate forests of the eastern US, Europe, and east Asia—to global climatic changes and pervasive regional volcanism. Additionally he is involved in paleoecological investigations as well as paleoclimate proxy development and refinement. |
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Riley Hayes
Former Graduate Student Riley's thesis work broadly focused on late Paleozoic terrestrial biota, with a focus on the ecology, biogeography, and biostratigraphy of Permian floras of Gondwana. Statistical models are her primary analytical tools, integrating biostratigraphic data with high-precision geochronologic dates to calibrate spatial-temporal patterns of biotic change. She applied these tools to better understand how Gondwanan vegetation responded to deglaciation during the collapse of the Late Paleozoic ice age. More info on Riley's research project can be found here (opens in new tab). Riley graduated in 2025. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. |
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Jenn Wagner
Former Graduate Student For their thesis work, Jenn was most interested in a combination of plant ecology, climate change, and earth system science. For >500 million years, plants have played a pivotal role in Earth’s history. The fossil record has proved a useful tool in studying the Earth’s historical record, including the biota (plants), their habitat, and ecology. Jenn used fossils, leaf physiognomy, cuticular analysis, and sedimentology to better understand plant response to environmental change in the geologic past as an analogue to future climate change. Take a look at their project here (opens in new tab). Jenn graduated in 2025. Currently, they are the Ecological Monitoring Lead for The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas. |
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Ben Muddiman
Former Postdoctoral Researcher and Graduate Student As a former Assistant Professor at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA (where he taught courses in general biology, human anatomy and physiology), Ben is first and foremost an educator, but that is not stopping him from doing some science on the side when he has the chance. He studies paleoecology and plant evolution. In particular, he examines the 450 million year history of fire and its role in the evolution of plants. His present focus is on reconstructing fires & fire regimes during the Pennsylvanian (~323-299 million years ago), and on describing the relationship between fire and climate change, shifts in atmospheric composition, transitions in plant community composition, and landscape-scale changes in paleoecology during that time interval. While he is currently focused on the Pennsylvanian, his methods and broader questions are applicable to any time period during the history of land plants (read more about Ben's project here and here; opens in new tab). Ben graduated in 2022. |
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Renske Kirchholtes
Former Scientific Research Assistant and Graduate Student Renske is a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz where she teaches the UC-system-wide California Ecology and Conservation course; taking students on immersive field expeditions to various reserves within the UC Natural Reserve System. Renske's main research interest is focused on phytoliths and their application in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Phytoliths, small silica particles found in most plants, which are particularly resistant to weathering, are useful in botanical, archeological and geological studies. Renske graduated in 2018 but is still a frequent visitor in the lab. |
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Dori Lynne Contreras
Former Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Researcher Dori’s thesis work research aimed to document past biodiversity of plants, illuminate the evolutionary and ecological history of lineages and ecosystems, and understand how those histories have shaped the modern world. Her work spanned the levels from organisms to ecosystems, and is heavily rooted in new fossil plant collections and the reconstruction of ancient environments. She is especially interested in understanding changes in the ecological structure of communities during periods of turnover in the dominance of major plant groups. Her work in the lab focused on landscapes of the Late Cretaceous, as as flowering plants (angiosperms) diversified and expanded their ecological roles. She has worked in the southern Western Interior and is expanding her focus all the way to the Arctic in her current position as Director of Paleontology and Curator of Paleobotany at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX. Dori also works extensively on the evolution of conifers, including their past diversity, structural and ecological evolution, and the systematic relationships between fossil and living conifers. Much of this work has focused on Mesozoic conifers of the cypress family (Cupressaceae). Wanna know more? Click here. Dori graduated in 2018. |
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Hannah Bonner
Author and Illustrator Hannah Bonner is an illustrator and science writer for both children and adults, and created the Lab's logo. She has written and illustrated several books about ancient life, including When Fish Got Feet, When Bugs were Big, and When Dinos Dawned. This trilogy (now published as a single volume) follows life's ups and downs from the birth of land plants to the first dinosaurs in the late Triassic. Cindy was an advisor for these books, and she now makes them required reading at the start of her intro to Paleobotany course in order to give her students an entertaining, image-based overview of life on the planet prior to having them delve into more detailed scientific literature. Hannah's latest collaboration with the Looylab began in 2016 with a two-month stay at the Lab in order to begin work on a series of images and cartoons for the Lab's upcoming exhibit about how Life and Planet Earth have interacted through the ages. |
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Diane Erwin
UCMP Senior Museum Scientist Emerita Diane is the former Senior Museum Scientist in charge of managing the paeobotanical collections at the UCMP (University of California Museum of Paleontology). Her primary interest in plant systematics, floristic and vegetational change through time and space dovetails with her day-to-day curation of one of the world's lanrgest Cenozoic fossil plant collections from western North America. Diane currently does field work and fossil plant collection in California and Nevada. However, in the last few years she has spent much of her time as the PI on an NSF-supported PEN (Partner to an Existing Network) project collaborating with the Fossil Insect Collaborative Thematic Collections Network (TCN) digitizing the UCMP fossil insect collections. In August 2018 she returned to her "roots" as a Co-PI on the NSF-funded Pteridological Collections Consortium (PCC) TCN focused on digitizing both modern and fossil ferns and allies. |
Alumni
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Lisa Vincent
Former Visiting Scientist Lisa was a visiting researcher from the Geoscience Department at Utrecht University. Her research focused on aberrant pollen and spores formed during the end-Permian and end-Triassic biotic crises. Using Zeiss' Airyscan microscopy she improved our understanding of various types of microfossil malformations, and how these abnormalities compare to UV-B-induced malformations from our lab's growth chamber experiments, spearheaded by Jeff Benca (check this out for more info; opens in new tab). |
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Nick Spano
Former Graduate Student Our outreach talent Nick worked on the legacies of Quaternary megafaunal extinctions on contemporary ecosystems and what those legacies mean for conservation. Specifically, Nick used experimental work with the dung fungus Sporormiella—a palynological indicator of megafauna widely used in Quaternary paleoecology—to test how past climate change might complicate interpretations of this indicator. This is important for timing Quaternary megafaunal extinctions, inferring the ecological consequences of extinctions, reconstructing landscapes shaped by grazers through time, and informing restoration practices based on long-term ecology. Nick graduated in 2021. |
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Shih-Yi (Winnie) Hsiung
Former Graduate Student Winnie is interested in how plant communities reflect climate change through time. She worked on the floral changes during the previous interglacial using a core from Clear Lake, California. Winnie graduated in 2017. |
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Susan Tremblay
Former Graduate Student Susan was a graduate student in the Mishler Lab, who is interested in all aspects of early land plant evolution. Liverworts are her main passion, because they occupy an important position as the sister group to the rest of the land plants. She incorporates fossil evidence into liverwort phylogenies in order to form a more complete picture of their early evolution and is especially interested in the origin and evolution of their unique oil bodies. Susan graduated in 2016. |
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Robert Stevenson
Former Research Assistant As an undergraduate student Robert studied the intra-canopy variation in epidermal morphology in Coastal Redwood and Giant Sequoia. After graduating he worked as a research assistant studying Carboniferous palynology and the comparative biomechanics of Permian and extant winged conifer seeds. |
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Meriel Melendrez
Former Research Assistant For her honors thesis Meriel worked on her project. "Stomatal variations with height in remarkably tall trees, Sequoia sempervirens." Meriel graduated with a B.A. in Integrative Biology in Spring 2012. |
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Stephanie Ranks
Former Research Assistant Stephanie graduated with a triple major in Integrative Biology, English, and Celtic Studies. She studied conifer phylogenies with a special focus on conifers, with the goal of mapping conifer winged seed evolution with respect to tree height. Stephanie carried out PhD research at Yale University on early modern English literature and history, and is currently the Title IX Coordinator for Yale College. |
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Lenny Kouwenberg
Former Associate Specialist and Lab Manager At the very beginning of the LooyLab—even before Cindy's arrival in Berkeley—it was Lenny who took the first steps in building our lab in the Valley Life Sciences Building. Lenny's main research interest was in how plants respond morphologically and physiologically to environmental stress and how this response can be quantified to use as proxies for paleoenvironment when measured on plant fossils. |
