Tom Booker (he/him) principal investigator (email: thomas.booker [at] ubc [dot] ca).

Tom is an assistant professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC. His research uses population genomics and evolutionary biology to study adaptation.

Abi Brown (she/her) - MSc Student

Abi is an MSc student working on identifying environmental and ecological drivers of local adaptation in forest trees through Bayesian analysis of provenance trial data. Abi previously graduated from the BSc in Conservation program in Forestry at UBC. Aside from being a huge plant nerd, they are also passionate about birding, fibre arts, and painting :)

Chaebin Lee (she/her) - PhD Student

Chaebin is a PhD student using population genomics to study the evolution of local adaptation in forest trees, particularly in the context of population range expansion. Her research interests broadly span plant molecular evolution and conservation genetics, driven by the goal of finding solutions to the global challenges facing trees through the lens of evolutionary biology and conservation programs. Before joining the Booker Lab, she earned her BSc and MSc in Forest Environment Science at Seoul National University under the supervision of Kyu-Suk Kang. Chaebin has also gained research experience at the National Institute of Forest Science in Korea and was engaged with UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere (MAB) program in France, contributing to biodiversity projects.

Meg Smith (she/her) - PhD Student

Meg is working on a reference genome for the interior variety of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca). The goal of this work is to compare the genomes of the interior and coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii), for which there is already a reference genome, and identify structural variants that may be linked to local adapted differences. More broadly, this project seeks to increase our understanding of how structural variants may influence patterns of intraspecific diversity in conifers and further the use of genomic technologies in forest management. Meg is from Halifax, NS and completed my BSc (Hons) at Dalhousie University (class of 2024). In her spare time, Meg enjoys nature photography, hiking, reading, writing, and anything crafty (knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, you name it). She loves coffee, pasta, and her two pets, Alice and Riley (see pets page for photos)!

Rafael Candido-Ribeiro (he/him) - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Rafa is a post-doc working with Tom and Sally Aitken on the population genomics of Douglas-fir. Rafa has been working on methods for genotyping individual trees to develop methods that are low on cost and high in quality. Before starting his post-doc Rafa was a PhD student with Sally Aitken.

Yan Zhao (she/her) - Undergraduate Student Researcher

Yan was awarded an NSERC USRA to work on the population genomics of complex traits. Specifically, Yan is working on a project examining the maintenance of quantitative genetic variation in genomes that possess large non-recombining regions. (she/her)

Teague Moffitt (he/him) - Directed Studies

Teague is an undergraduate working on the genomic architechture of local adaptation in Douglas-fir. Teague is examining genotype-environment associations in the context of a chromosome-scale genome assembly for a conifer.

Tianlin Duan - Postdoc

Tianlin was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab and used population genomic simulations to study the genomic footprints that the evolution of local adaptation leaves behind. Before coming to UBC, Tianlin did her PhD at the University of Uppsala with Martin Lascoux. She loved it so much she decided to go back for another postdoc!