People

[Team GEoM]

Laura Jennings

Research assistant - Laura is the driving force behind the Indonesian Tropical Important Plant Area network combining in-depth knowledge of southeast Asian flora and geography to document where megadiversity is - so that it can be best protected.

Shawn O’Donnell

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Shawn has broad interests from palynology, to conservation and legume systematics. He brings high class plant ID skills and long-term field experience. His role in the team is focused upon plant conservation across national boundaries in southeast Asia.

Osanna Chu

PhD student - Osanna studies island plant macroecology from phylogenetic and functional diversity in Indonesian forest plots to global analysis of island plant richness and endemism. Funding from CENTA NERC DTP to Birmingham University, in collaboration with Tom Matthews, Laura Graham, Jon Sadler, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert and Tom Martin.

Jamie Hartup

PhD student - Jamie’s focus is the island of New Guinea. Pulling together the island’s first plot network and getting to grips with peatland distribution. Funding from ACCE NERC DTP to Liverpool University, in collaboration with Freddie Draper and David Edwards.

Jimmy Wanma

PhD student - Jimmy has built the most thorough elevation gradient of forest plots across the Bird’s Head peninsula of West Papua, Indonesia. Funding from Badan Riset Inovasi Daerah Papua Barat to Universitas Indonesia in collaboration with Prof Charly Heatubun, Prof Jatna Supriatna and Dr Mega Atria.

Yixi Wang

PhD student - Yixi’s focus is on the evolution of montane diversity gradients on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. She tests theory using simulation comparisons of empirical evolutionary reconstructions of plants. Funding from the China Scholarship Council to Sichuan University in collaboration with Aberdeen University and Leonel Herrera-Alsina.

Cecil Lee-Grant

PhD student - Cecil studies megadiversity evolution across the island of New Guinea using the megadiverse study clade Cyrtandra. She fuses tests of evolutionary and ecological theory to grow our understand of the formation of the planet’s most species rich island flora. Funding from the Imperial NERC DTP in collaboration with Gemma Bramley, Hannah Atkins, James Rosindell and Alex Zuntini.

Klara Atouguia Nunes

MSc student - Klara’s MSc project in collaboration with Queen Mary’s University of London is testing the relationship between diversity, abundance and biomass in tropical forests and how dependent it is upon insularity and disturbance.

Alumni

Katie Arnton - PhD industrial placement Red listing West Papuan enedemic species and poster creation for schools in Pegunungan Arfak.

Michael Rees - MSc research on trait uniqueness across islands.

Mackenzie Laverick - MSc research focused upon trait dependent change on the earth’s tallest island mountain.

Alex Bradbury - MSc research on metal accumulation impacts upon tree species traits in Sulawesi.