welcome to lybrand lab!
We are a soil and pedology lab at the University of California, Davis all about studying minerals, biosphere relationships, and spreading the importance of earth science.
recent news
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SSSA Bouyoucos Summer Conference
Summer 2024 Rebecca, Cassie, and Maddie recently attended the Soil Science Society of America’s Bouyoucos Summer Conference. Rebecca discussed the interdisciplinary nature of soil science research in her plenary talk titled: Connecting Soils to Life on Earth and Beyond. Cassie and Maddie both presented posters and attended a tour of the El Yunque National Forest Soils, which featured an Oxisol! Maddie was awarded a Graduate Student Travel Award to cover the cost of travel and registration. Thank you to SSSA for welcoming the lab to Puerto Rico! Congratulations Maddie
Summer 2024 Congratulations to Maddie who was awarded a Graduate Student Research Grant from the Geological Society of America! Her research will utilize X-ray Computed Tomography to examine the impact of climate, rock type, and biota on mineral weathering of field-deployed substrates. Welcome Aiden
Summer 2024 Welcome to Aiden Lee! Aiden will be joining our lab this summer as a high school intern. He is interested in learning how to work in a research lab and how to study soils. Aiden will be learning how to utilize polarized light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to characterize Icelandic soils collected from sites with contrasting vegetation. We are glad to have you, Aiden! Spring Teaching Term
Spring 2024 The lab celebrates the completion of another successful teaching term! Rebecca instructed SSC120 Soil Genesis, Morphology, and Classification and SAS005 Extraterrestrial Soils. Cassie was also an amazing Teaching Assistant, leading field trips and supporting student research projects! See the Teaching page for more. SSSA International Annual Meeting
Fall 2023 Cassie and Maddie were able to attend the 2023 Soil Science Society of America International Annual Meeting, located in St. Louis, Missouri! They both attended sessions, presented posters, and networked with fellow soil science researchers. Maddie was awarded 2nd place in the Pedology graduate student poster competition! The lab is proud that Maddie and Cassie were able to showcase their work at this year's SSSA meeting! EMSL Annual User Meeting
Fall 2023 The lab recently made a visit to the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the EMSL Annual User Meeting! It was a spectacular opportunity for the team to learn about EMSL capabilities, network with EMSL and visiting scientists, and get excited for future research! Rebecca presented as a keynote speaker in her talk, titled, “Cross-scale analyses of soil, fungi, and carbon delivered by advanced analytical capabilities.” Dragos delivered a flash talk on the topic, “Exploring the complexity of biological weathering with EMSL-based biogeochemical and mineralogical capabilities.” Maddie and Cassie both presented posters and discussed their research goals with local and visiting researchers. Thank you to EMSL for hosting our team! (Read more about the 2023 EMSL User Meeting here: https://www.emsl.pnnl.gov/events/2023-emsl-user-meeting). EMSL User Proposal Funded
Fall 2023 A User Proposal by Rebecca, Cassie, Maddie, and Dragos at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been accepted! The team plans to work closely with EMSL researchers over the next two years to utilize advanced methodologies such as Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-MS), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT). Congratulations everyone! (Read more about the award here: https://www.emsl.pnnl.gov/news/emsl-awards-funding-32-large-scale-research-projects). Welcome Sólveig
Fall 2023 Welcome to Sólveig Sanchez! Sólveig will be joining our lab this fall as a visiting scholar from Iceland. She is studying a Ph.D. on Ecological Restoration and Soil Science at the Agricultural University of Iceland, and is visiting as a part of the U.S Fulbright Research Program. Her work investigates carbon and hydrology in soils of birch woodlands in Iceland. She has brought some of her soil samples to Davis and plans to experiment with the SEM and learn new lab techniques during her time at UC Davis. We are glad to have you, Sólveig! Professional Soil Scientists Annual Meeting
Summer 2023 Rebecca, Maddie, and Cassie attended the Professional Soil Scientists Association of California Annual Meeting in June! This once-in-a-lifetime field meeting took place at Santa Cruz Island and included discussions and field excursions. Everyone had a blast networking with fellow soil scientists and exploring the rugged terrain as a group! A huge thanks to our host Dr. Lyndal Laughrin and the presenters and coordinators who made this trip possible! Cassie and Maddie were both able to attend the meeting by earning scholarships from PSSAC to cover the cost of registration. Congrats to Cassie and Maddie, and thank you to PSSAC! Check out the meeting summary for more information here: https://pssac.org/meetings/2023-annual-meeting Soils Field Course
Summer 2023 The lab celebrates a successful soils field course! This summer, Rebecca co-instructed SSC 105/205, a summer field course in which students travel across the state learning about the properties and formation processes of a diverse range of soils. Some notable sites included the Ecological Staircase and Pygmy Forest, Central Valley chronosequence, and Sierra Nevada bioclimosequence. Graduate students Maddie and Cassie attended the 3-week course along with 12 other undergraduate and graduate students. Planning for the 2024 offering of the course is already underway! Dr. Rebecca Lybrand will be teaching the course in Summer 2024 with plans to visit the Pygmy Forest Ecological Staircase near Mendocino, the Sierra Soils Transect, Redwoods Forest, and more! Tenure at UC Davis
Summer 2023 Congratulations to Rebecca for earning tenure at the University of California, Davis! She is especially thankful to her spouse, parents, family, friends, students, colleagues, letter writers, & mentors for the endless support! |
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