Welcome to the Ashman Lab
Ashman Lab members - a community of scholar-educators
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Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman
Distinguished Prof.
Dr. Ashman’s research program mines the interrelationship between ecology and evolution and focuses on plant biology. It spans scales of single interacting populations to diffuse interactions within whole communities, and from evolutionary genomics to ecological genetics. Current projects in her lab are based in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Mexico and China revolve around four major foci: 1) The contribution of polyploidy to functional and genomic biodiversity; 2) Ecological and evolutionary studies of separate sexes and sex chromosomes; and 3) The influence of biotic and abiotic features on plant-pollinator interactions, and their effects on phenotypic evolution. 4) The role of plant-pollinator interactions in plant coexistence in biodiverse areas and in the face of shifting species compositions (extinctions/invasions) and climate change; 5) Urban plant ecology and the importance of pollinator-mediated interactions to plant fitness and biodiversity; 6)Pollinators as viral vectors. Dr. Ashman is a UPitt Chancellor’s Distinguished Researcher, EO Wilson Awardee, Outstanding Mentor Awardee and has published over 175 research papers. She has served on the Editorial boards of The American Naturalist, Ecology, and New Phytologist, as well as Secretary and Executive Council member of American Society of Naturalists, and Society for the Study of Evolution. She is deeply committed to outreach and expanding diversity within science.
Zephyr
lab ESA
Zephyr is not a fan of laptops but loves making friends
Dr. Briante Najev
Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Najev received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 2025 under the guidance of Dr. Maurine Neiman (University of Iowa) and Dr. Amy Krist (University of Wyoming). Her dissertation addressed the consequences of ploidy elevation on life-history traits, testing the hypothesis that nutrient limitation is a major driver of ploidy variation. Her postdoc with the Ashman & Turcotte labs will investigate how environmental stressors influence functional traits of polyploid v. diploid duckweed and impact polyploid v. diploid coexistence.
Keila Jellings
Graduate Student
Keila is a 2nd year graduate student with both a B.S. in Plant Science and Microbiology from Purdue University. She is a pollen & polyploidy enthusiast interested in polyploidy, microbiomes and plant-pollinator interactions.
Hannah Assour
Graduate Student
Hannah 6th year graduate student interested in polyploidy and urbanization. She is co-advised with Martin Turcotte.
Dr. Nathalia Streher
Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Streher received her MS and PhD from the University of Campinas in Brazil. Nathalia is broadly interested in the ecology and evolution of plant-pollinator interactions. Her research investigates how pollinator-mediated interactions influence plant community structure and dynamics. In her postdoc work, she is exploring how polyploidy drives phenotypic and temporal changes that can shape plants' pollination niches using herbarium specimens
Dr. Eric Yee
Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Yee is interested in how abiotic stressors in cities shape plant trait adaptation and evolution on both local and continental levels. He received my PhD in Earth & Planetary Sciences from Johns Hopkins University in Dec. 2023 on local heavy metal hyperaccumulation on urban lawn weeds (Plantago spp.), and morphological, physiological, and phenological adaptation to the urban heat island on cosmopolitan lawn weed species. is now conducting postdoctoral work on the importance of abiotic interactions on the establishment of polyploid populations in collaboration with the Turcotte lab.
Dr. Amanda Rawstern
Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Rawstern received her PhD from the University of Miami in Sept. 2025 studying microbial community assembly and plant-microbe interactions. Amanda is interested in integrating ecological, genomic, and computational approaches to investigate questions in plant-microbial ecology. In her postdoc work, she is studying how polyploidy in plants shapes microbiome structure and function in collaboration with the Mayrose lab at Tel-Aviv University.
Dr. Lacey Rzodkiewicz
Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Rzodkiewicz is studying coexistence in polyploid-diploid duckweeds
Alba Rodriguez Parra
Visiting Graduate Student
Alba is a 2nd year graduate student from the University of Seville (Spain). She is particularly interested in phenotypic and transcriptome plasticity in polyploids systems.
Emily Harper
Undergraduate
Elizabeth Lawrence
Lab Manager
She keeps us all from falling apart !
Madison Conn
Undergraduate
Maddie is a senior Environmental Science major with a particular interest in plant-pollinator interactions and how climate change affects plant population dynamics.
Evie Perry
Undergraduate
Evie is a junior Environmental Studies major with a certificate in sustainability. She is particularly interested in entomology and environmental policy.
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Sam Hickman
undergraduate
Sam is interested in pollen!
Daniel Janeic
Undergraduate
Loghan Hawkes
Undergraduate
Loghan is a neuroscience major and artist. They are illustrating our newest children's book.