Ilann Bourgeois has joined us as a PostDoc on the project “Urbtrees” which looks into the link between urban tree transpiration, volatile organic compound emissions, and heat mitigation.
Janisse Deluigi has started her Ph.D. on the project “HEAT” which investigates the impacts of heat and drought stress on carbon relations in beech and oak trees growing in monocultures vs. mixtures.
We were also joined by Weiting Hu, an exchange Ph.D. student from the South China Botanical Garden, investigating the effect of increased soil temperature on tree water use.
Three interns started who are going to support multiple research projects: Arianna Milano will be mainly involved in our project on invasive palms led by Thibaut, Giulia Casciano will take part in our project on species interactions effects on plant hydraulics led by Eugenie, whereas Kevin Knecht will support the lab in different ongoing projects in the field and lab. Nora Joos is a new Master student, doing her thesis on a project on atmospheric humidity impacts on plant water relations led by Laura.
Finally, Chris Still is joining PERL in May. He is a professor at Oregon State University and will do a sabbatical stay with us until July 2022.
A warm welcome and an excellent start to all these new lab members!