Check out what's happening in the lab!

​5 June 2026 - Congrats to our new undergraduate research assistants Bailey Brethren, Clara

King, Mitchell Keller, and Ally Swenson on completing their onboarding and joining our team!

      Stay tuned to hear about what they'll be up to this summer!

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5 May 2026 - Congratulations to two graduating members of our team: Anika Tsutsumi and Erin Hassett.

      Anika and Erin have been critical members of our research team, and we appreciate all their hard

      work. We will miss you both!
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1 May 2026 - Welcome new lab members: Bailey Brethren, Clara King, Mitchell Keller, and Ally

      Swenson! We are excited and grateful to have you join our summer research team!​

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30 March 2026 - Great work, Andrea Lopez, for presenting a wonderful Master's Thesis Proposal

      seminar!
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25 March 2026 - Congratulations to our research support specialist, Erin Hassett, for passing her PhD

      defense! Her thesis is titled: Spatial Heterogeneity in Wetland Hydrology and Subsurface

      Biogeochemistry Affect Greenhouse Gas Fluxes: a Field and Process-based Modeling Approach.

      Congrats, Dr. Hassett! 🎉
 

16 March 2026 - Congrats to Andrea Lopez for a great talk at the Eastern Branch Meeting of the

      Entomological Society of America 🎉!  Her talk was titled: “How do spotted lanternfly (Lycorma

      delicatula) counts in Virginia vineyards vary across the growing season”. This was a collaboration

      with the USDA-ARS Areawide Spotted Lanternfly Suppression Project.
 

20 February 2026 - Welcome back from maternity leave, Stacy! And welcome to our newest little lab

      member, Ella Endriss!​ 🎉

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4  December 2025 - A HUGE thank you to Christina Johnson for being our lab manager this past year.

      We are sad to see you go, but wish you all the best in your future career! You will be missed!​
 

24 October 2025​ - Congratulations, Taylor Darnell, for receiving an ISC graduate student grant 🎉! He

      was awarded $2500 from the Invasive Species Collaborative to study the effects of Japanese

      knotweed stem characteristics on regeneration following aquatic vs. terrestrial dispersal. 

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18 October 2025 - ​The ISRE lab showcased invasive species at Hokie Bug Fest! Thanks to Taylor Darnell,

      Andrea Lopez, and Anika Tsutsumi for running the outreach table—and to the rest of the ISRE lab

      members who worked behind the scenes to make this event a success!
 

30 September 2025 - Congratulations, Andrea Lopez, for being awarded a $500 Invasive Species

      Collaborative (ISC) travel award to present at the Eastern Branch Meeting of the Entomological

      Society of America  🎉! Well deserved!

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​11 September 2025 - Congratulations, ​Andrea Lopez, for receiving 2nd place in the Graduate Student

      Extension Talk Competition during the 2025 Kentland Farm Field Day 🎉! She talked about the

      impacts of invasive Tree-of-Heaven, and gave a short and visual demonstration on how to tell apart

      common look-a-likes.

 

1 September 2025 - We are excited to announce the launch of a new Extension Subcommittee under the Invasive Species Collaborative (ISC).  As a first step, we envision that this subcommittee can focus on identifying and filling critical gaps in Virginia’s publicly available invasive species resources. Contact us to learn more!