{"id":14,"date":"2026-07-13T09:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T13:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2026-07-13T10:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:37:35","slug":"meet-the-lab","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/meet-the-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"MEET THE LAB"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr. Rachel Spigler <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Rachel is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Biology<\/a> at Temple University<\/a>. She received her BS, summa cum laude<\/em>, in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona and her PhD in Botany (now Plant Sciences) at the University of Georgia. At Georgia, she was co-advised by Shumei Chang & Stephen Hubbell. She worked as a Postdoctoral Associate with Tia-Lynn Ashman and, subsequently, Susan Kalisz prior to joining the Department of Biology at Temple. When not thinking about flowers, Rachel likes to spend time with her family (including her adorable cats), read a book in a hammock, travel, and attempt to play the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Katie McManus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Katie is a PhD Candidate who joined the lab Fall 2021. She is interested in insect ecology & pollinator conservation. She previously researched the effects of climate change on plant physiology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the impacts of agriculture on milkweed for monarch conservation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Katie earned her BS in Biology from the University of Scranton in 2019. She enjoys running, doing yoga, reading memoirs, and rollerskating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wesley Greer IV<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wesley is an undergraduate researcher in the lab. He recently received his BS in Physics and will be moving on to graduate school for Philosophy. Wesley is a broad thinker who is applying his impressive math skills to modeling the evolution of selfing in plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amaranna Egwim<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Amaranna is an undergraduate researcher in the lab. A Biology major, she has interdisciplinary interests in medicine and plant biology. Amaranna developed a protocol for germinating the ridiculously tiny Sabatia angulari<\/em>s seeds in Petri dishes to enable accurate estimates of germination rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Past Lab Members<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are fortunate to have worked with amazing postdoctoral associates, graduate students, technicians, and undergrads over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Postdoctoral Associates<\/strong>
Claire Godineau
Matt Chmielewski
Lauren Frazee 
Sarah Emel <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduate Students<\/strong>
Mark Walker, PhD
JJ Smith, PhD
Skyler Naya, MS 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undergraduate Researchers<\/strong>
Kylie Delaney
Brittney Flinn
Ruth Walton
Kat Gallo
Ashley McGrogan
Asma Sharaf 
Jen Cortese 
Bella Bianchi 
Susanna Ostrowski 
Claire Neal
Alyssa Bray
Alaha Abdul Faruq
\u200bMaria Molyashcha
Danielle Kobulsky
Jag Gummadi
D’Era Washington
Alyssa Woodard
Jessical Hart
Stuart Olshevski
Aur\u00e9lie Ky
Hayley Dashnaw
Tanner Simpson
Paige Pammer
Tiyaasa Preston
Curt Harrity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazing Research Techs<\/strong>
Sofia Taberski
MM Baker
Maddy Sabo
\u200bKate Bird
Matthias Gaffney
Mitch LeSage 
Rossana Magui\u00f1a<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Rachel Spigler Rachel is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Biology at Temple University. She received her BS, summa cum laude, in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona and her PhD in Botany (now Plant Sciences) at the University of Georgia. At Georgia, she was… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4089,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/spiglerlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}