Curriculum Vitae

Anah Soble Botran, M.S.

EDUCATION

University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , MS (2024)

Coursework: WRITING 400: Writing in the Sciences, EEB 485: Population and Community Ecology, EEB 516: Principles of Evolution, EEB 494: Teaching College Science, ENVIRON 538: Natural Resources Statistics, EEB 401: Experimental Evolution, WRITING 993: Writing in the Disciplines

Thesis: The evolutionary and ecological consequences of herbicide drift for a dicamba tolerant species. Defended August 9, 2024

Oberlin College, BA (2018)

               Major in Biology with a minor in Geology, GPA 3.78

Related Coursework: BIOL 100: Organismal Biology, BIOL 200: Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, BIOL 213: Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry, STAT 114: Introduction to Biostatistics, NSCI 201: Intro to Neuroscience—the Brain, CHEM 101/102: General Chemistry, BIOL 323/324: Plant Systematics, NSCI 350: Behavioral Neuroscience, BIOL 318: Evolution, GEO 120: Earth’s Environments, GEO 204: Evolution of the Earth, BIOL 311: Epigenetics, CHEM 250: Organic Chemistry, BIOL 411: Conservation Biology Seminar, GEO 370: Paleobiology Seminar, GEO 230: Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, CALC 131/132: Single Variable Calculus 1, Private Reading in Paleobotany, GIS Winter Term Class,  GEOL 240: Environmental Geology, CSCI150:  Intro to Computer Science, CHEM 254: Bioorganic Chemistry

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2022-2024      Graduate Student Instructor and Researcher; Baucom Lab: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

• As a graduate student researcher, I developed field research project to measure plant traits, transcriptome, and interactions with pollinators in response to herbicide drift.
• Planned, designed exhibition plaques, collected data on museum visitors for later NSF EDGE grant presentation.
• Disseminated information about ecosystems through project reports, publications, scientific presentations, and other written and oral communications.

2019-2022      Research Laboratory Technician Intermediate’ Baucom Lab: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

• Coordinated research projects involving natural datasets, GIS, lab and field experiments. Data analysis using R. Managed research teams of undergraduate students. Responsible for plant and insect taxonomy.

INTERNSHIP HISTORY

June-Nov2018 Conservation Land Management Internship, Seeds of Success, Chicago Botanical Gardens and Bureau of Land Management, Rawlins, WY

• Coordinated collection of 20,000 seeds from 25 plant populations for ecological restoration projects.
• Logged and managed data across all seed accessions collected over the season. Site assessments carried out and data collected for GIS.
• Field surveys, monitoring, and research of natural communities and rare and declining species.

Summer 2017 Field Museum Research Experience for Undergraduates in Science Communication and Evolutionary Biology, Chicago, IL

• Fossil collection, data analysis, phenotyping, making education content.

Summer 2016 Summer Intern, Maricopa County Department of Public Health Office of

Epidemiology, Phoenix, AZ

• Qualitative data collection for climate change and public health projects focused on providing cooling units to homebound seniors.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

Mosquito Feeding Preference Experiment, Oberlin College, Fall 2017 –May 2018

• Primary Mentor: Professor Mary Garvin
• House sparrow age influence on preference of Culex pipiens through bioassays.

GIS Mapping of Emerald Ash Borer Spread in Chance Creek, OH Oberlin College, January-May, 2018

• Primary Mentor: Professor Roger Laushman
• Ecosystem factors that influence ash death by emerald ash borer in Chance Creek, OH dead ash forest.

REU Project: Methods in studying PETM Canopy Density, The Field Museum, Chicago, IL, Summer 2017

• Primary mentor: Dr. Regan Dunn
• Determining historic canopy density by imaging fossilized leaf cuticles and building a dataset using modern epidermal leaf.

Squirrel Attentiveness to Chickadee Alarm Calls, Oberlin College, Winter Term and Spring 2017

• Primary mentor: Professor Keith Tarvin
• Observing and assessing squirrel attentiveness behaviors in reaction to pre-recorded bird alarm calls to assess eavesdropping.

Determining the basis of lateral root growth in Arabidopsis thaliana, Oberlin College, Winter Term 2016

• Primary Mentor: Professor Marta Laskowski
• Developing A. thaliana mutants that are missing Auxin transport proteins and assessing their root development.

TEACHING

University of Michigan

W24 EEB 372: Ecology Lab Graduate Student Instructor Writing Section                60 students

F24 EEB 372: Ecology Lab Graduate Student Instructor                                                    21 students

W23 EEB 372: Ecology Lab Graduate Student Instructor                                                  22 students

F22 Biology 171: Ecology and Evolution Graduate Student Instructor                      60 students

Oberlin College

F 2015- S 2018 Oberlin Workshops and Learning Sessions: Biology 100: Organismal Biology

S 2016 Peer Tutor in the Quantitative Skills Center: Chemistry 101/102

PUBLICATIONS

In Review, In Revision, or In Prep

• RS Baucom, V Iriart, A Soble, M Armstrong, and T-L Ashman. Off-target drift of the herbicide dicamba disrupts plant-pollinator interactions via novel pathways. In Review. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.20.599889
• N Johnson, G Zhang, A Soble, and RS Baucom. 2024. Dicamba drift alters patterns of chewing herbivory in three common agricultural weeds. In Revision. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.21.504705

In Print

• Nia Johnson, Grace Zhang, Anah Soble, Stephen Johnson, Regina S Baucom. (2023) . “ The consequences of synthetic auxin herbicide on plant-herbivore interactions.” Trends in Plant Science. 28(7):765-775 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2023.02.003. Manuscript available via EcoEvoRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.32942/X2KW2M
• Sonal Gupta, Alex Harkess, Anah Soble, Megan Van Etten, James Leebens-Mack, Regina S Baucom. (2023). “Inter-chromosomal linkage disequilibrium and linked fitness cost loci influence the evolution of nontarget site herbicide resistance in an agricultural weed.” New Phytologist. 238(3). . doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18782. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.04.438381
• Megan Van Etten, Anah Soble, Regina S Baucom. (2021). “Variable inbreeding depression may explain associations between the mating system and herbicide resistance in the common morning glory.” Molecular Ecology 30:5422-5437. Resistance evolution special feature. Manuscript available via bioRxiv. doi: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.25.313940v1or via https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.15852
• Mary C. Garvin, Amy Austin, Kevin Boyer, Madeleine Gefke, Celestina Wright, Yemko Pryor, Anah Soble, and Rebecca J. Whelan. (2018).  “Attraction Of Culex Pipiens To House Sparrows Is Influenced By Host Age But Not Uropygial Gland Secretions.” Insects 9(4): 127. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects9040127

AWARDS

Matthaei Botanical Gardens Research Award, University of Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Ecology Graduate Affairs Committee, April 2023

Dr Nancy Williams Walls Award for Field Research, University of Michigan Ecology and Evolutionary Ecology Graduate Affairs Committee, April 2023

Leo S Millar Memorial Prize, Oberlin College Biology Department, May 2018

Joshua Levitt Memorial Prize, Oberlin College Biology Department, May 2017

John F Oberlin Scholarship, Oberlin College, Fall 2014

PRESENTATIONS

• January 2024. Michigan Botanical Society, Huron Valley Chapter talk Ann Arbor, MI: Hormetic Dose Response to herbicide drift in Oxalis stricta.
• January 2024, Stewardship Conference Poster Lansing, MI: Hormetic Dose Response to herbicide drift in Oxalis stricta.
• August 2023, BI/O Outreach in Parnell Correctional Facility Jackson, MI: Agriculture and Plant Ecology
• April 2023, Green Life Symposium Ann Arbor, MI: Transgenerational Floral Trait Plasticity Under Dicamba Drift in a Non-Target Wild Plant
• August 9, 2018, Ecological Society of America Conference New Orleans, LA. Presenting my GIS mapping project on the spread of Emerald Ash Borer and Ash death in Chance Creek, OH
• October 2017. Celebration of Undergraduate Research at Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH. Presented PETM Forest Canopy methods to peers at Oberlin College.
• August 2017. REU Symposium at the Field Museum, Chicago, IL.  Reconstructing PETM forest canopies. 

VOLUNTEERING

Friends of the Rouge: Winter and Spring Bug Hunts, 2024-

BI/O: Science Outreach Organization Organizing Board May 2023-

Bureau of Land Management Classroom Outreach in Elementary Schools, Fall 2018

America Reads Tutor, Oberlin City Schools, August 2014- May 2016

MEDIA AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

• Morning Glory Display Garden Exhibit (2023-2024) University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens
• Personal Blog Posting for Michigan Science Communication Convention: Recent Innovation in Pollution Detection: Sublethal effects (2023)
• Conservation Land Management Internship Blog part 1 (2018)
• Field Museum Science Communication video (2017): Made as a part of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates.
• Articles in the Synapse Oberlin College Intercollegiate Science Magazine:
  • Issue 4 Page 8: The Future of Science Education in Elementary School
  • Issue 8 Page 8: Carl Linnaeus: Conceited Genius of Just Conceited
  • Issue 15 Page 4: Think One Person Can Change the World? Plants Already Have
  • Issue 16 Page 16: Talking to Climate Deniers: A Road Map to Changing Minds

WORKSHOPS ATTENDED

• Summer 2017. Phylogenetic workshop, Field Museum. Basics of phylogenetics and using R to construct a phylogeny,
• Summer 2017. Computational Biology, Field Museum. Oracle VM Virtual Box.
• January 2018: GIS 101 Winter Term, Oberlin College.
• June 2018: Conservation Land Management internship workshops and learning sessions
  • Seeds of Success Collection Techniques
  • Western Plant Taxonomy
  • Measuring and Monitoring Plant Populations

MENTORSHIP

• Olive Tatara Spring 2023 onward, University of Michigan UROP program: Current College Junior
• Elise Kanefsky, Winter 2023 onward University of Michigan UROP program: Current College Senior honors student
• Betania Cornejo, Summer 2023 Washtenaw Community College hrough University of Michigan UROP program: Currently Environmental Science Associate living in Chile

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Coding in Python, R, MATLAB
• Image J, R Studio, Excel, Arc GIS, Adobe Illustrator, SPSS and MATLAB
• Microbiology lab sills
• Plant identification and keying to species in the field. Ability to ID on site to family in most ecosystems, to genus or species in the Western US and Midwest.
• Science Writing and Communication
• Field techniques in ecology and geology
• Growth room and Greenhouse plant care.
• Collecting, maintaining and preparing herbarium specimens.
• Collecting, maintaining and preparing fossil specimens.
• Michigan Herbicide Application License obtained July 2021 and active until December 2024.
• Conversational Spanish.