Sawyer Adams, left, with Allan Gonzalez, right. Photo by Jackson Landers.
The Hulcr Lab now has a new lab manager.
Allan Gonzalez, our talented out-going manager, is moving to South Africa to begin graduate work at the University of Pretoria.
With a background in community ecology before joining the Hulcr Lab, Gonzalez intends to use his new ambrosia beetle expertise to study the polyphagous shot hole borer (Euwallacea whitfordiodendrus) and the fungus associated with it. An outbreak of the invasive beetle has exploded across South Africa and has devastated urban vegetation in many cities.
“I want to see how it’s impacting native trees in the Eastern Cape of South Africa,” Gonzalez says.
In addition to his duties managing the lab, Gonzalez also contributed to several papers as a co-author and spearheaded research for a pest management company.
The lab welcomes our new manager, Sawyer Adams, who will graduate from the University of Florida this spring with a botany degree. She began work at the Hulcr Lab in March in order to begin a transition alongside Gonzalez. Adams brings a new type of expertise into the lab as our only botanist.