April 2026 News

• Brooke Beardshall participated in the First-Year Graduate Student Symposium on April 10th, where she presented her research titled “Challenges of Predicting Pine Invasions in South America: Opportunities for AI-Based Approaches.” Her presentation explored the modeling difficulties involved in forecasting the spread of invasive pine species across South America, and the promising role of AI in addressing these global environmental challenges. 
  
• In addition to the above, Brooke received an Honorable Mention from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
• Alex Jiménez-Martin attended the 4th Global Soil Biodiversity Conference in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada from April 12th-15th. There, she learned about interesting new research on soil ecology, and tuned in to experts discussing challenges we face when studying soil biodiversity and how to share our knowledge with local communities. She also presented her poster on how female and male plants of Ilex vomitoria differ in soil communities. 
• On April 18th, Saheed Jimoh joined a team of volunteers to judge undergraduate poster presentations at the Natural Science Undergraduate Research Symposium (NSURS) at the BRC. It was an inspiring experience to step away from plant ecological research and evaluate the brilliant and emerging researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine. He walked away with new insights into fields beyond his research niche, appreciating the interdisciplinary nature of science.
• Iliana Moore attended the 2026 Lab Manager Leadership summit in Phoenix, Arizona from April 20th-22nd. There, she attended workshops and talks focused on lab safety advances, leadership approaches, improving collaboration and communication, and more—knowledge and skills that will be applied to the McCary lab’s current projects. She also networked with a wide variety of lab leaders and staff from both academia and industry.