December 2025 - Congratulations to our Fall 2025 Graduates - Daja Curtis (BS), Liv DelPrete (BS), and Micah Munden (BS)!

December 2025 - Micah Munden was awarded an Office of Student Research grant to expand our Asian Jumping worm cast/soil microbe project to include fungi (ITS sequencing)!

November 2025 - Ashley Adams, Liv DelPrete, and Morgan Gill were awarded a College of Arts and Sciences SAFE grant to support sequencing microbes present in Asian jumping worm castings and soil.

October 2025 - Anderson Payne, Daja Curtis, and Liv DelPrete were all awarded Office of Student Research grants to support their research projects this semester!

June 2025 - Adams lab and Dr. Alexia Witcombe (Sustainable Development) hosted a successful Soil Health Workshop in collaboration with Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture. This was supported by a CONCERT SUSTAIN grant from RIEEE. 

May 2025 - Ashley and Morgan (along with collaborators from Oregon, UC Merced, and UC Berkeley) had a successful first field season for our USDA Soil Health project evaluating the long term impacts of a one-time compost amendment on soil biodiversity and soil carbon.

May 2025 - Congratulations to all 2025 graduates - Christopher Cafasso (BS), Jessica Frazier (BS), Raven Lester (BS), and Rylee Strassner (MS)!

May 2025 - Congratulations to Rylee Strassner on a successful Master's thesis defense and for her induction into the Cratis D. Williams Graduate Society (awarded to the top 2% of graduates!)

May 2025 - Our lab was well represented at the Department of Biology's Research Day - Jessica Frazier, Morgan Gill, Raven Lester, and Anderson Payne gave poster presentations. Rylee Strassner gave a lightning talk.

Rylee's talk won Best Lightning Talk - see news coverage here:

https://cas.appstate.edu/news/biology-research-day-showcases-broad-spectrum-student-work

April 2025 - Our lab was well represented at App State's Office of Student Research Celebration of Student Research and Creativity event - Christopher Cafasso, Jessica Frazier, Morgan Gill, Raven Lester, and Anderson Payne gave poster presentations. Rylee Strassner gave an oral presentation. 

March 2025 - Our USDA Soil Health grant was recently highlighted in Appalachian Today: https://today.appstate.edu/2025/03/12/adams

March 2025 - Raven Lester was awarded a CAS SAFE grant to support their research on fungal biodiversity in coarse woody debris!

March 2025 - Morgan Gill, Christopher Cafasso, Jessica Frazier, and Raven Lester were all awarded Office of Student Research grants to support their research projects this semester!

Fall 2024 - Jessica Frazier was awarded an Undergraduate Research Assistantship from the Office of Student Research. This award will support Frazier's work on soil organic matter, pH, and phosphorus.

Fall 2024 - Rylee Strassner was awarded an Office of Student Research grant to support her research

Spring 2024 - Rylee Strassner and Christopher Cafasso were awarded an Office of Student Research travel grants to support their attendance at the upcoming Association of Southeastern Biologists Annual Meeting!

Spring 2024 - Christopher Cafasso's Undergraduate Research Assistantship from the Office of Student Research was renewed for another term.

Spring 2024 - Jenna Tullis was awarded an Office of Student Research grant to support her research

Fall 2023 - Christopher Cafasso was awarded an Undergraduate Research Assistantship from the Office of Student Research. This award will support Cafasso as he helps setup longterm research plots at the Gilley Research Station. 

Fall 2023 - Rylee Strassner was awarded an Office of Student Research grant to support her research