Hello! I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Hull lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I study nuclear behavior in the fungus Cryptococcus deneoformans. I recieved my Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I was co-advised by in the Prof. Anne Pringle and the Prof. Cameron Currie. My thesis work focused on the evolution of the fungal symbionts of fungus-growing ants, specifically how genetic diversity is organized and maintained in both the fungal mutualist Leucoagaricus and it's parasite Escovopsis. I am interested in the evolution of mutualisms, the evolution of sex, and how both of these affect genetic variation, particulary in fungi. I love thinking broadly and critically about the terminology used to discuss sexual reproduction, and how that in turn affects the questions we (as scientists) ask about sex.

Cryptococcus undergoing sexual development, evidenced by the production of hyphae with basidia and spores at the end.