Participants

Four research universities, or "hubs" make up the center of CPING.
Along with six primary investigators, CPING will comprise over 100 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

Dr. Latvis is an assistant professor at South Dakota State University with interests 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 an assistant professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette 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 assistant 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 assistant 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.

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.

Staff

Brittany Sutherland
CPING Program Manager

Dr. Sutherland has broad interests in polyploidy and plant evolution. She handles day-to-day CPING administration. She also helps with data collection and analysis for CPING projects, and developing materials for future CPING genomics bootcamps. If you have any questions about CPING or would like to get involved, send her a message!