The lab

Thais Vasconcelos, PhD
(Principal Investigator)
The foundation of my research is to seek generalities, or “rules”, in flowering plant evolution, by focusing on the major biogeographical patterns observed in their phenotypes. (my first name is pronounced “tah-EES”) CV here tvasc@umich.edu | Thais’ GitHub | Thais’ bluesky | Thais’ Google scholar

Lena Heinrich
(PhD student)
Lena is broadly interested in plant-pollinator interactions, evolution, and behavioral ecology. Her work aims to explore the ecological and evolutionary drivers of functional and life history trait variation in bees and investigate how these traits mediate interactions between bees and plants across different environments. lenarh@umich.edu

Paulo Henrique Gaem, MSc
(PhD student)
Paulo is interested in systematics and evolution of highly diverse tropical plant lineages. His work aims to investigate the relationship between traits and the environment, phylogenetic relationships, biogeography, and trait divergence between sister taxa in neotropical myrtles (Myrtaceae, Myrteae), a hyper-diverse and morphologically homogeneous lineage. phgaem@umich.edu | Paulo’s Research Gate | Paulo’s Google scholar

Dylan Sheng
(PhD student)
Dylan is interested in how species originate, how they got to where they are today, and the processes that generate new species. He is interested in utilizing herbarium collections, field work, and molecular data to answer these questions. dylsheng@umich.edu

Lázaro Conceição, PhD
(Postdoctoral Fellow)
Lázaro is interested in the systematics, biogeography, and evolution of Myrtaceae. His research focuses on species delimitation within highly diverse and taxonomically complex tropical plant lineages, using Neotropical myrtles as a model system. To address this, he is building a robust phylogenomic framework for a target clade within the group. lconceic@umich.edu | Lázaro’s Research Gate | Lázaro’s Google scholar