CPING Principle Investigators

Four research universities, or "hubs" make up the center of CPING.
Along with six primary investigators, CPING now has 143 participating scientists, professors, and students nationwide

Principal Investigators

Nic Kooyers
Trifolium repens - White Clover
website

Dr. Kooyers is an assistant professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette with interests in adaptation of natural plant populations. His CPING research will focus on the timing of multiple invasions of white clover, Trifolium repens, into North America, as well as the establishment of spatial variation in defensive cyanide production in introduced populations.

Maribeth Latvis
Salsola tragus - Russian Thistle
website

[email protected]

Dr. Latvis is an assistant professor and director of the University of Arkansas Herbarium. She is interested in speciation and hybridization, particularly within the parasitic plant family Orobanchaceae. Her CPING research will focus on the roles hybridization and admixture with native Salsola species have played on establishment of the invasive Russian thistle, Salsola tragus.

Erin Sigel
Salvinia molesta - Giant Salvinia
website

Dr. Sigel is the collections manager of University of New Hampshire's Albion Hodgdon Herbarium with interests in the patterns and processes that shape plant evolution and diversity, particularly among ferns. Her CPING research investigates the genetic diversity of the invasive wetland fern, giant Salvinia, Salvinia molesta, which is unusually high for an asexual allopolyploid species.

Craig Barrett
Microstegium vimineum - Japanese Stiltgrass
website

Dr. Barrett is an associate professor at West Virginia University with interests in plant speciation and diversity, particularly among monocots. His CPING research focuses on genetic variation in Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum, particularly with respect to transposable element variation and whether TEs play a role in adaptation of invasives to novel enviroments.

Michael McKain
Sorghum halepense - Johnsongrass
website

Dr. McKain is an associate professor at the University of Alabama with interests in plant genomics, systematics of monocots, and bioinformatics. His CPING research focuses on the roles polyploidy and hybridization with an agricultural congener (Sorghum bicolor) have played on the establishment and proliferation of Johnsongrass, Sorghum halepense.
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James Beck
Salvinia molesta - Giant Salvinia
website

Dr. Beck is an associate professor at Wichita State University with interests in plant biodiversity and evolution, particularly among polyploids and ferns. Dr. Beck will be lending his phylogenetic expertise to CPING project, especially work on Salvinia molesta, and will be developing teaching materials for upcoming CPING genomics workshops.

Project Managers and Postdoctoral Researchers

Brittany Sutherland
Former Project Manager and Research Scientist

Fernando Hernandez
Bioinformatics Contractor

[email protected]​

Dr. Sutherland was the project manager of CPING until August 2022. She is now an assistant professor at George Mason University and functions as an additional Co-PI within the network. Her CPING research examines the population genomics of Salvinia molesta across the southeastern US. Her broader research interests are in polyploidy and plant evolution.

Dr. Hernandez is an evolutionary geneticist that has focus on understanding the invasion of wild and cultivated sunflowers into Argentina. He works as a bioinformatics contractor with all labs in CPING, focusing on synthesizing results between the different research hubs.

Brandon Hendrickson
Former Postdoctoral Research Associate

Oyetola Oyebanji
Former Postdoctoral Research Associate

[email protected]

Dr Hendrickson was a postdoctoral researcher with CPING from 2022-2025 and continues to collaborate examining the invasion genomics in white clover. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

[email protected]

Dr. Oyebanji was a postdoctoral researcher with CPING from 2023-2025 working on invasion genomics of Salsola tragus. He is now a Postdoctoral Researchers at BRIT.