We are so thrilled to welcome Jaycee to Boise and to the lab group, and to welcome Chadwick into a new role as a graduate student!
Lab River Float
We had a great time floating the Boise River in late August, 2025
Microbes & Climate Change Global Strategy Meeting
Back in May, Leonora was invited to be part of the Microbes and Climate Change Global Strategy meeting at the ASM Headquarters in DC. She represented ASM as a mSystems editor and part of the MIcrobe EEB program committee.
ASM Microbe 2025
Leonora, Jess and Jessica had a great time at the ASM Microbe conference in LA! Leonora was part of the EEB organizing committee.
Posters from our group at the 2025 Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research (ICUR)
Grant, Kyah, Katie and Abbagayle all presented posters at ICUR this year. Nice work!
Summer lab gathering and good-bye to Jessica
People from the Bittleston lab group (+ partners) in Leonora’s backyard.
We had a lovely brunch potluck to celebrate our summer researchers and to send off Jessica to her new awesome postdoctoral position at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
Phyllosphere 2025 Conference in Okinawa, Japan
Jessica, Elle, Leonora & Jacob enjoyed the conference and gorgeous surroundings.
All 3 of Jacob's PhD chapters are published!
Great work, Jacob! Check them out:
Heil, J.A., Simler-Williamson, A., Striluk, M.L., Trawick, D., Capezza, R., DeFehr, C., Osorio, A., Finney, B., Turner, K.G., Bittleston, L.S. 2025. Weather and leaf age separately contribute to temporal shifts in phyllosphere fungal community structure in sagebrush. Ecosphere 16(6): e70295. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70295
Boise State News: “Researchers publish first-of-its-kind sagebrush microbiome analysis” April 15, 2025.
Heil, J.A., Geisler, M., Skinner, M., DeFehr, C., Arogundade, A.A., Finney, B. and Bittleston, L.S. 2025. Context-dependent effects of microbial inoculation on sagebrush seedlings during drought stress. Phytobiomes First Look. https://doi.org/10.1094/PBIOMES-04-25-0029-R
Heil, J.A., Bernardin, J.R., Galla, S.J., Bittleston, L.S. 2025. A framework for utilizing leaf-associated microbes to achieve conservation and restoration goals. mSphere 0:e01082-24. https://doi.org/10.1128/msphere.01082-24
Jacob successfully defends his PhD!
Big congratulations to Jacob!!!
And a shout out to the amazing Allison Simler-Williamson for the gorgeous sagebrush ecosystem art!
Leonora's tenure and promotion is approved!
Yay!