Post-Docs | Graduate Students |Lunch Friends| Lab Pets | Alumni
People in the Lab
 | John received a B.A. in Biology from Bucknell University in May 1996. He completed his Ph.D. in Biology at Duke University in 2001, working with Mark D. Rausher. His dissertation explored how the evolutionary dynamics of plant defense traits depended on variation in community composition. He then moved to Annie Schmitt's lab then at Brown University as a Post-Doctoral Researcher, studying how flowering time variation in Arabidopsis thaliana is influenced by climate and the functionality of candidate genes. In addition to these academic pursuits, John drinks inordinate amounts of coffee on a daily basis. He can also be found on twitter [@John Stinchcombe] |
Post-Doctoral Researchers | |
 | Megan Bontrager Megan Bontrager's research focuses on the evolution of geographic ranges and the drivers of local adaptation. She did her PhD at the University of British Columbia, and arrived in Toronto after a postdoc at UC Davis. She’s excited to find some local range edges to study. In her free time she enjoys baking elaborate cakes, watercoloring, and being bad at outdoor sports. Website: meganbontrager.github.io |
Graduate Students | |
 | Julia Kreiner Julia Kreiner is co-advised by Stephen Wright. Her undergraduate work was with Brian Husband, on ploidy levels in the Brassicaceae family. She is interested in the population genomics of weed adaptation to agriculture. |
 | Tia Harrison Tia did her MSc on the comparative population genetics in Medicago lupulina and its associated bacteria. She is currently a co-advised PhD student with John and Megan Frederickson studying rhizobia diversity across latitude and rates of evolution in rhizobia and legume genomes. Besides being an awesome PhD and person, she is very good at teaching yoga. Some of Tia’s greatest accomplishments include successfully appraising her PhD and holding a headstand for one minute. |
 | Georgia Henry Georgia started grad work in the lab in 2016. She is interested in the evolution of range limits. She has amazing coffee making skills, having worked previously as barrista. On a weekly basis, she has an additional project idea that would take 3 people 7 years of work to complete. |
 | Julia Boyle Julia is doing a PhD co-supervised by John and Megan Frederickson. She is interested in exploring plant-microbe interactions and leaf microbiomes. Julia has a love for field work at Koffler Scientific Reserve and will begrudgingly respond to 'Boyle'. In her spare time she enjoys painting and collecting house plants! |
 | Meng Yuan Meng is a PhD student co-supervised by Stephen Wright. She did her undergrad at Sichuan University studying bioinformatics. She is interested in plant gametophytic selection and the evolution of sexual conflict. Meng is a plant nerd and enjoys plant photography but she's terrible at keeping house plants alive. email: my.yuan@mail.utoronto.ca website: https://imengyuan.github.io/ |
 | Joshua Craig Joshua Craig is a Master's student currently studying the population genetics of Daucus carota. He's interested in understanding how different evolutionary forces shape the genome. Although he doesn't have any houseplants of his own, he's an enthusiastic plant researcher and loving foster parent to many carrots. |
 | Amanda Peake Amanda grew up in Zambia, then came to UofT to do her undergrad. Despite the cold winters and lack of elephants in Toronto, she decided to stay to do her PhD in the Stinchcombe lab. She dragonboats and powerlifts in her spare time. Amanda is interested in studying the genetic basis of ecologically important traits. |
Lunch, Coffee, and Happy Hour Associates (aka Lab Friends) | |
 | Tyler Kent Tyler came to us via UC Davis, and is advised by our friend and collaborator Stephen Wright. He joins us for dumplings, twitter [@tylervkent], and paper discussions. He's also bothered by Julia's refusal to wear a bike helmet. |
 | Jasmina Uzunovic Jasmina did an independent reading study with John as a first year, and then approached him after a Bio220 lecture about research spots. In a gesture of foolishness/generosity, he recommended she contact Stephen Wright instead of recruiting her back into the lab. Despite not formally working with John, she's been his TA and we're working on a paper together. We both appreciate good coffee. |
Lab Pets and Friends | |
 Dexter D. Stinchcombe, Lab Pet | Dexter is a Nova Scotian Duck Tolling Retriever. Information about his breed can be found here and here . The middle initial 'D' stands for "dog" and was given by Jack and Piper. He joined the Stinchcombe lab in August 2013. His interests include fetching, sleeping, squeaking his fuzzy man, and eating sticks. You can follow his exploits on Instagram |
 Newman, Lab Friend | Newman is Dexter's step-brother. He goes by the nicknames News, Newmie, Newmie News, and Lord Newman. His interests include sleeping, chewing on his boney, and snuggling. You can follow his exploits on Instagram |