the team



Join us!


Allison Yin/AP Images for HHMI

Principal Investigator

Moisés (Moi) Expósito-Alonso , PhD
(he/him/él)


(2024-on)Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology, Department of Integrative BIology, University of California BerkeleyFreeman Hrabowski Scholar, Howard Hugues Medical Institutes (HHMI)Member of the Innovative Genomics Institute
Evolutionary ecologist, plant biologist, and geneticist Moises (Moi) Exposito-Alonso is a Carnegie Staff Associate at the Departments of Plant Biology and Global Ecology from the Carnegie Institution for Science and Assistant Professor (by courtesy) of Biology at Stanford University. Moi received a B.S. in biology from the University of Seville, Spain and an MSc degree in quantitative and population genetics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He earned his Ph.D. in 2018 supervised by Detlef Weigel through the EDGE program (evolution, development, ecology, genetics)  at the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Tübingen, Germany. After a few months-long-postdoctoral fellowship in statistical genetics at the University of California Berkeley with Rasmus Nielsen, he joined the faculty at Carnegie and Stanford in 2019. In 2024, Moi transitioned his lab to the University of California Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Global Change Biology in the Integrative Biology Department and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Moi aims to mentor creative scientists that apply ecology, evolution, and genetics principles to understand nature and its relationship with climate
@MExpositoAlonso
moi@moilab.science moiexpositoalonso@berkeley.edu
Moi's Google ScholarMoi's CV

https://www.hhmi.org/scientists/moises-exposito-alonso 
https://ib.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/moi-exposito-alonso 

Postdocs

Meixi Lin, PhD

Postdoc, Stanford CEHG Fellow '23 & Smith Conservation Research Fellow '23-25
Meixi aims to develop ways to track genetic health of ecosystems with geo-tagged genomes and real-time satellite information. 

meixilin@berkeley.edu Meixi's Google Scholar

Xing Wu, PhD

Postdoc, Stanford CEHG Fellow  '24
Xing is interested in developing polygenic methods to understand complex adaptive architectures in plants.



xingwu@berkeley.edu Xing's Google Scholar


Jinseul Kyung, PhD

Postdoc
Jinseul is interested in understanding the evolutionary dynamics of plants amidst environmental shifts, particularly drought. Her work delves into uncovering the strategies plants employ to adapt and thrive under such conditions.

jinseul@berkeley.edu 




Alyssa Phillips, PhD

Postdoc (co-advised by Benjamin Blonder)
Alyssa aims to develop landscape genomic models for quaking aspen management that incorporate the biological complexities of polyploidy and dioecy.
arphillips@berkeley.edu Alyssa's Google scholar 

Ruth Epstein, PhD

Postdoc
Ruth is interested in understanding molecular pathways involved in mutation and recombination and the impacts of variation in evolutionary rates in rapid adaptation processes including plant domestication.
ruthkepstein@berkeley.edu 

Graduate students

Lauren Gillespie

PhD Student in Computer Science  | Artificial Intelligence, NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Stanford TomKat Center Fellow (co-advised, Goodman Lab)
Lauren aims to develop deep learning methods for biodiversity modeling to understand both better.
@leg2015gillespl@stanford.edu gillespl@berkeley.edulgillespie@carnegiescience.edu Lauren's academic websiteLauren's Google Scholar

Laura Leventhal

PhD Student in Biology | Ecology & Evolution , NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Laura aims to investigate the spatial and temporal structure in plant populations and how these inform adaptations to climate change.
@laura_leventhallleventh@stanford.edulleventhal@berkeley.edu lleventhal@carnegiescience.edu 

Tatiana Bellagio

PhD Student in Biology | Ecology & Evolution. Fulbright Fellow
Tati aims to understand the predictability of evolution using population genetics theory and techniques.

tbellg@berkeley.edutbellag@stanford.edu tbellagio@carnegiescience.edu

Kristy Mualim

PhD Student in Biology | Ecology & Evolution
Kristy works to apply machine learning models to genomics data and is now incredibly excited to start applying them to plants to understand their adaptability to climate change. 
@ksmualimkmualim@berkeley.edukmualim@stanford.edu kmualim@carnegiescience.edu Kristy's Google Scholar

Jules Perez

PhD Student in Computational Biology  | Center for Computational Biology, NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Jules is interested in computational approaches to population genetics, conservation genomics, and in studying evolution in regards to climate change.
jules_perez@berkeley.edu 

Anthony Sarkiss

Rotating PhD Student in Plant & Microbial Biology 
asarkiss@berkeley.edu 

Ken Chen

Rotating PhD Student in Plant & Microbial Biology 
ken_chen@berkeley.edu 

Paloma Perez

Rotating PhD Student in  Molecular & Cell Biology
palomaperez@berkeley.edu 

Staff researchers

Benjamin Jin

Staff Research Associate II  |  B.S. in Biology, Stanford University | he/him/they/them
Ben is interested in the molecular biology/genetics that underlie complex traits in plants, and how such traits could be relevant to adaptations within a changing environment.
benjaminjin@berkeley.edu 

Joseph (Joey) Mann


Research Technician II (through HHMI) |B.S. in Genetics and Plant Biology, University of California, Berkeley | He/him/they/them
Joey is interested in the molecular genetic basis of different adaptations in separated populations of plants, specifically related to rhizosphere ecology and architecture, and fungal interactions.
jmann2@berkeley.edu 

Andrew Fairclough


Staff Research Associate I
Starting 2025

Hamilton NGS STAR

Liquid handling robot (MOA 🦤)



MOA is interested in processing large amounts of DNA/RNA samples and likes to be very organized about it.

Undergraduates

Andy Huynh 

Research Assistant  |  B.S. in Computer Science, Stanford University
Andy is interested in developing machine learning tools for ecological and conservation science. He will pursue a co-term in CS this upcoming year.
avhuynh@stanford.edu

Elena Sierra

Research Assistant | B.S. in Electrical Engineering, focus in Information Systems & Science, Stanford University
Elena is interested in developing machine learning models for sustainability efforts, focusing on biodiversity monitoring. She will pursues a co-term in Computer Science with a focus in Artificial Intelligence this upcoming year.
esierra@stanford.eduesierra@cs.stanford.edu esierra@carnegiescience.edu 


Meghan Tandean

Undergraduate  at University of California Berkeley
mtandean@berkeley.edu 

For more information on opportunities to join our lab, see the subpage Join us! 




alumni

Oliver Selmoni, Postdoc, 2022-2024 - Now Postdoc at University of Zurich,

Ken Thompson, Postdoc, HFPS 2021-2024 (Schumer lab) - Now Mitacs Elevate Fellow at the Ontario Centre for Biodiversity Genomics

Megan Ruffley, Postdoc, NSF PGRF Fellow 2020-2024 - Now scientist at Simplot company

Emily Koke - Research Assistant 2023-2024 - Now Research Assistant in the Carnegie Institution for Science

Lucas Czech - Postdoctoral Scholar 2020-2023- Now  Postdoctoral Scholar at GeoGenetics center in Copenhagen

Salim Soltani - Visiting Graduate Student  2023 

Diego Rafael Perez - Undergraduate Research Assistant 2023 - undergrad at Stanford

Nicolas Camacho  - Research Assistant 2023 - Graduated Stanford 

Mali Esfahanian, PhD - Research Associate  (Postdoc level scientist) 2021-2023 - Now Senior Scientist at Cquesta, CA.

Norzin Tenzin - Biology PhD student rotating 2023 - now RAISE Graduate Student at Stanford University

Ethan Gurwitch - Summer intern 2023 - now undergraduate at Duke University

Oliver Bossdorf, PhD - Sabbatical Professor 2023 

Seba Toro Arana - Biology PhD student 2021-2023 - now PhD student in the Dinneny Lab at Stanford University.

Kaiku Kaholoaa - Hopkins Marine station PhD student rotating 2022-2023 - now PhD student in the Palumbi Lab at Stanford University.

Zouberou SayibouUndegraduate Research Assistant  2022-2023 - now pursuing M.S. in Computer Science at Stanford

Keegan Pham - Research Assistant 2022-2023 - now plant transgenic specialist at BioDrive

Tenzing Kalsang - Undergraduate Research Assistant 2023 - now undergraduate at Stanford

Shannon Hateley, PhD - Postdoc 2020-2023 - Now computational biologist at Google X, CA

Kelly Huang - Undergraduate Research Assistant 2022 - now undergraduate at Stanford

Marlot Westera - Master Student 2021-2022 - now PhD student at Amsterdam University, NL

Clara Kieschnick - Undergraduate Research Assistant 2020-2022 

Katie Baker - Undergraduate Research Assistant 2022 - now undergraduate at Stanford

Christie Patel - Summer Intern 2022 - now undergraduate in Cambridge University, UK

Ru Peng - Research Assistant 2019-2022, now PhD student at Washington University, St.Louis, US

Matt Gill - Genetics PhD student rotating Spring 22, now PhD Student in Bhatt lab at Stanford University School of Medicine

Erin Zess, PhD - Postdoc 2021, now group leader in Benson Hill, Missouri, US

Jennifer Serrano Rojas - Biology PhD student rotating Summer 21, now PhD student in the O'Connell Lab at Stanford

Alanna Pyke - Genetics PhD student rotating Fall 20, now PhD student in the Sherlock Lab at Stanford

Eva Sehr - Bioinformatics Master student, FH Campus Wien 2019-2020, now scientist at Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria

Andrea Ramirez - Biology PhD student rotating Winter 20, now PhD student in the Dinneny Lab at Stanford

Veronica Pagowski - Biology PhD student rotating Fall 19-Spring20, now PhD student in the Lowe Lab at Stanford

Some cute pictures of the lab! our timeline

Fall 2019 Moi with Ru Peng, the first lab member and first Illumina kits for sequencing ;)

Dec 2020 MOILAB winter party (of course in ZoomLand!)

Summer 2021 first MOILAB retreat!

Spring 2022

Summer 2022 (with Kristy, Oliver and Megan photoshoped, you cannot tell right? 🤣)

Summer 2023 lab retreat in Yosemite (with Megan and Xing missing!)

Lab organizing BAPG 2024 at Berkeley with new T-shirts!