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Fields of study
Plant-pathogen evolution in agroecosystems
Research interests
Explorations of the evolutionary aspects of plant disease epidemics with the goal to inform the management of agroecosystems.
Advisor
John Vandermeer
Vandermeer Lab
News
Miller begins Montana State postdoc
Recent graduate Dr. Zach Miller begins a postdoctoral fellowship in mid-April at Montana State University to research the interactions among plant viruses, a tiny mite-vector, weed species and wheat. He will be working with Drs. Fabian Menalled and Mary Burrows. Miller is excited to be back in the mountains and he reports that his twin daughters are making many new friends. Happy trails!
Miller places second
in USA 50 Mile Run
EEB graduate student Zach Miller ran the Tussey Mountainback 50 Mile in the USA 50 Mile Championship and finished in second place running 6:07:13. Wow.
 Prized pictures
The tallies have been made and the winning photos from the EEB student and faculty photo contest are as follows: First place goes to Zach Miller, EEB graduate student, for “Zach Miller and a curious visitor.” (left) Two photos submitted by Lucía Luna tied for second place: “Professor Barry OConnor looking for mites in mice specimens under his microscope, Cutervo National Park, Cajamarca, Peru, ~3000 m,” (right) and “Lucía Luna preparing specimens at Cutervo National Park.” Former postdoctoral fellow, Soochin Cho, captured third place with “grasshopper on top of a sunflower.”
Thank you to everyone for making this contest so fun and successful. We received 155 photo and 35 video submissions total! There were ten finalists. It was a pleasure to view all the photos and videos and see you all at work out in the field or in the lab. (more)
Go Zach, go!
Zach Miller, Ph.D. student, captured first place in the 54-mile Mountain Masochist Trail Race in Virginia. He is on the cover of UltraRunning magazine this month. Miller placed second in the JFK 50 Mile in Maryland. Both races were in November.
Miller was browsing through magazines at Running Fit recently when he was surprised to see himself on the cover of the magazine. He ran the Mountain Masochist in just over seven hours. Other events he takes part in other than “parenting, childcare and housework,” include triathalons but he mainly competes in trail ultramarathons. His running career got its start when he was living in Utah and he used his training to explore the mountains. “My optimism got me lost or just a long way from my car many times. Soon my runs were four to six hours.” At the time, he didn’t know anyone else did this but some friends told him about races. “I entered a local race and won it and have been competing ever since.” Go Zach, go! (Read a story about Zach in his hometown newspaper.)
And the poster prizes go to…
Zach Miller, Ph.D. candidate, and Jessica Middlemis-Brown, Ph.D. student, are the winners of the Young Scientists Symposium poster session.
Miller’s topic was “The diversity of fungal pathogens infecting host plant species as a function of plant species range and morphology: phylogenetic independence and the pace of community assembly.” Middlemis-Brown’s research topic was “Density-dependence in the terrestrial stage of the wood frog, Rana sylvatica.” The symposium speakers judged the contest. The awards are $1,000 for the candidate, $500 for the student, to help with research-related expenses.
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