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Caroline A.E. StrömbergPrincipal Investigator
Estella B. Leopold Professor of Biology & Curator of Paleobotany Adjunct Professor, Earth and Space Sciences Caroline is a paleobotanist and paleoecologist interested in how plants have shaped Earth’s ecosystems through time. She is fascinated by evolution, especially how it is influenced by ecology. There is a special place in her heart for the most awesome of all plants: grasses. [email protected] | CV | Google Scholar | @caestromberg |
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Rosalie HermansPostdoctoral Researcher, UW
Rosalie obtained her PhD in Archaeology from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) in February 2026 with a heavily phytolith-based thesis ("Typological and morphometric analyses of phytoliths in modern plants: Developing tools for archaeological and palaeoecological research"). She spent time in the Strömberg Lab back in 2022-23 to learn phytolith 3D approaches, and is now back as a postdoctoral researcher to finish up and expand on the work on the evolution of phytolith 3D morphology across Poaceae and how morphological analysis can be applied in the fossil record. [email protected] | CV | Website |
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Tim GallaherVisiting Scholar, UW (formerly Postdoctoral Researcher in the lab 2016-2020)
Postdoctoral Researchers, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, HI Tim is a plant systematist and anatomist focused on understanding the evolutionary and biogeographical history of widespread angiosperm lineages, particularly Poaceae and Pandanaceae, and the assembly of the tropical Indo-Pacific coastal strand community. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration and an MS and PhD (Botany) from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. His graduate research concerned the systematics, phytogeography, and ecological interactions of the Pandanaceae and the interactions of coastal vegetation and tsunami waves and phytogeography of the Vernonieae tribe (Asteraceae). Tim did a postdoc in Lynn Clark’s lab at Iowa State University where he worked on the evolution of grass leaf anatomy and morphology. At UW, both as a postdoctoral researcher and currently, he participates in work on 3D visualization, 3D printing and geometric morphometric analysis of grass silica short cell (GSSC) phytoliths across the Poaceae. [email protected] |
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Paige Wilson DeibelPaleobotany Collections and Lab Manager, Burke Museum
Paige is originally from the northeast and received her BA from Dartmouth College in 2014. She studies climate, environment, and vegetation during the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene as recorded in the Hell Creek area, MT, with special focus on the K-Pg mass extinction event. She received her PhD from UW in 2022, co-advised by UW vertebrate paleontologist, Greg Wilson. Paige's current role is Lab Manager of the Burke and Biology Paleobotany lab spaces as well as Collections Manager of the Burke's 70k+ plant fossil collection. [email protected] | CV | Website | @waigepilson |
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Ben LloydGraduate Student, ESS
Ben is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and received a BA in Geology from Colorado College in 2019. His undergraduate research focused on the earliest Cenozoic of Colorado, where he investigated changes in plant communities, climate, and the carbon cycle in the aftermath of the K-Pg mass extinction event. After graduating, he stuck around Colorado Springs to work for his alma mater, where he ran field trips and taught labs for the geology department. After a brief early-COVID stint in paleontological consulting, he moved to DC to work for the Smithsonian’s Fossil Atmospheres Project. There, he grew ginkgo trees in elevated CO2 to develop and refine proxies for past atmospheric composition. He arrived at UW in 2022, where he is researching the dynamics of the expansion of C4-dominated grassland ecosystems across Australia. [email protected] | CV | Website |
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Melanie ChamGraduate Student, Biology
Melanie is a paleobotanist interested in ecosystem changes and recovery associated with disturbance and climatic shifts. Melanie earned a BA in Earth & Environmental Science and Archaeology from Wesleyan University. Her undergraduate research with Dr. Dana Royer focused on ecophysiology by observing leaf micromorphology (e.g. stomata). She developed a method to estimate photosynthetic carbon assimilation rates using middle Miocene leaves from Idaho. After completing undergrad, she did a Fulbright in India at the Central University of Punjab with Dr. Bandana Samant during which she estimated late Cretaceous atmospheric CO2 levels using leaf mesofossils from the Deccan region. At UW, Melanie hopes to study changes in vegetation composition and plant physiology in the Pacific Northwest through the Miocene using both micro and macro plant fossils. [email protected] | CV |
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Postgraduate ResearchersIeshita Biswas
Ryan Thummel Luziana Cohen Atlas Lee Lillian Chao Ash Horn Undergraduate ResearchersKorina Medina
Rafe Davenport Olivia Frizzell Leo Askeland Nikhil Kini Joshua Ambrosio Ansuya Noor Somashekar Jewel Wass de Czege Sandi Shahini Burke Leaf Prepper Volunteers
Other UW PaleobotanistsRick Dillhoff
Evolving Earth Foundation Burke Museum Research Associate Tad Dillhoff Evolving Earth Foundation Burke Museum Research Associate Paul Kester Burke Museum Research Associate Christopher Schiller Pacific Lutheran University Burke Museum Research Associate Stephanie Zaborac-Reed University of Alaska, Fairbanks Linda Reinink-Smith |
Lab AlumniFormer Graduate Students
Former Postdoctoral Researchers
Former Visiting Graduate Students
Venanzio Munyaka (PhD student; Baylor University) (2022)
Mariam Bundala (PhD student; U Calgary) (2022) Rosalie Hermans (PhD student; Free University of Brussels; Evere, Belgium) (2021-2022) Kristyna Hoskova (PhD student; Charles University; Prague, Czechia) (2022) Former Postgraduate Researchers
Former Undergraduate Researchers
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