PI: Kevin Simonin
email: simonin@sfsu.edu
office: Hensill Hall 438
Lab: Hensill Hall 445 
CURRENTLY ACCEPTING GRADUATE STUDENTS
Current Students:
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Myriam Serrano - I am a Botanist, an Ecofeminist, and a Hispanic woman who is now a member of the Simonin lab. My goals for my Masters project is to investigate relationships between cell size and embolism. I am particularly interested in variegated leaf species. I will be using the Optical Embolism Method (http://www.opensourceov.org) to image leaves while they are under drought stress. I am interested to compare embolism resistance between the differently colored zones of variegated leaves. Cell size will be determined based on leaf cross sections from the medial to lateral leaf axis. 
Bellal Naderi - 
For my MS Thesis I will investigate circadian regulation of leaf level gas exchange within the Fern lineage. Specifically, I am interested in the evolution and ecological implications of circadian regulation of gas exchange across major groups of terrestrial plants.
Maisie Borg -Broadly speaking, I am interested in the intersection of botany and climate change with an emphasis on ecophysiology, biodiversity, conservation and ecology. For my MS thesis I am investigating the impact of elevated atmospheric CO2 on the genome size and stomatal characteristics of California grassland species.  This research is being conducted in collaboration with the Jasper Ridge Global Change Experiment at Stanford University.
Tasha Kayatsky - My research investigates the water relations of three co-occurring perennial asteraceae within the northern Sierra Nevada; Balsamorhiza sagittata, Wyethia mollis and Helianthella californica. In particular I am interested in characterizing species differences in stomatal sensitivity to changes in soil water availability as influenced by differences in root water storage capacity.  
Former Students:
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Jenifer Mo - As a graduate student Jennifer investigated circadian regulation of water use in gymnosperms. Jennifer's thesis research found no evidence of circadian regulation of stomatal conductance for there gymnosperm tree species, Pinus ponderosa, Pseudostuga menziesii and Sequoia sempervirens. 
Karen Loucos - As an honors student, Karen used stable oxygen isotopes to investigate the pathways for water flow in leaves.
Rhys Pirie - For his honors research, Rhys used stable oxygen and nitrogen isotopes to trace the movement of water and nitrogen within soils and the subsequent uptake by cotton plants.  Rhys is currently working for Alltech Crop Science. 
Millicent Smith - Using common bean as a model system, Millicent investigated compound-speific patterns in leaf and phloem carbon isotope abundance and their relationship to plant water use efficiency.  Millicent is now working towards a PhD. in Dr. Andrew Merchant's lab at the University of Sydney.