People

Michael Beman, Associate Professor

mbeman <at> ucmerced.edu

Mike received a B.S. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Stanford in Geological and Environmental Sciences.  Before joining the UC Merced faculty in 2009, he was a postdoc in Marine Environmental Biology at USC, a lecturer at UCLA, and an Assistant Researcher at the University of Hawai’i.  He is a member of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) and the Environmental Systems and Quantitative and Systems Biology Graduate groups, and teaches classes in Biology, Environmental Systems, and Earth Systems Science.

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Jorge Armando Montiel Molina, Ph.D. student

jmontielmolina <at> ucmerced.edu

Jorge completed his Ph.D. in 2021 working in the amazing Merced Vernal Pools and Grasslands Reserve and beyond.  He received a CONACyT-UC MEXUS fellowship, and his work was supported by many other sources.  

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Sonia Vargas, Ph.D. student

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Frank Gutierrez, Ph.D. student

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Brandon Genco, Ph.D. student

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Fidel Machado-Perez, Assistant Researcher

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Former members

Elisabet Perez-Coronel completed her Ph.D. in the middle of the pandemic(!), focussing on methane in high elevation lakes in Yosemite.  She was a UC MEXUS and an ISEECI (Institute for the Study of Ecological and Evolutionary Climate Impacts) fellow, was awarded with the VESR (UC Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve) graduate student grant for her Ph.D. research, and attended several international workshops such as the Hopkins Microbiology Course in 2015, SOLAS (Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study) summer school in 2018, and the Sao Paulo School of Advance Methane Science in 2018.

Jesse Wilson was a Ph.D. student who worked in Palau and Monterey Bay.  He also worked on the PacX Challenge and helped out with just about everything in the lab.  He is now a postdoc in the Bowman Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  

Susan Alford was a The Best Lab Tech Ever from 2009-2010.

Matt Meyerhof conducted his research in Palau and received his M.S. degree in 2011.  

Curtis Hayden conducted his research in Yosemite and received his M.S. degree in 2014.

Molly Carolan worked on sequencing and transcriptomic analysis of ETNP data and received her M.S. degree in 2014.

Ari Cairo worked on various aspects of our ETNP project and received her M.S. degree in 2018.

Kelly Henry was a postdoc in the lab from 2013-2014.  She lead preliminary research at Bodega Marine Lab and worked on nitrogen cycling in Palau.

Sang Park was a Harvard undergraduate who was part of the Yosemite REU program in summer 2010. 

Scott Williams was a UCM undergraduate student who worked in the lab from 2010-2011. 

Julia Cline was a UCM undergraduate student who worked in Yosemite in 2011.

Elizabeth Perkins was a UCM undergraduate student working in Yosemite in 2011.  

Rodney Severson was a UCM undergraduate who worked in the lab for several years and was instrumental in our work on the ‘PacX Challenge’ published in 2014.

Victoria Velez was a UC Davis undergraduate who was part of the Yosemite REU program in summer 2013.

Adrienne Harris was a UCM undergraduate who worked on various topics in the lab for several years.

Koreana Pak was a Haverford undergraduate who was part of the Yosemite REU program in summer 2014.

Mark Reynolds was a UCM undergraduate student working in Yosemite in 2014.

Daniela Alonso was a UCM undergraduate student who worked in the lab for many years on many projects!  She also braved the waters of the eastern tropical North Pacific (ETNP) to help us on a research cruise in 2017.

Angela Yu was a UCM undergraduate who continued on as a laboratory technician.  She also went to sea in 2017, and then played a key role in processing hundreds of samples from the ETNP.

Samantha Vazquez was also a UCM undergraduate student who continued on as a laboratory technician.  She played a key role in processing samples from the ETNP and was also heavily involved in data analysis.

DeVonyo Bills was a UCM undergraduate student who also braved the waters of the ETNP to help us on a research cruise in 2017.