Damian J. Hernandez

PhD Candidate
University of Miami
Coral Gable, Florida, United States

I'm a PhD student in Dr. Michelle E. Afkhami's lab at the University of Miami. I study how organisms integrate environmental cues at the molecular level and how that integration cascades to bigger processes impacting whole organisms, communities, and ecosystems. I study these processes using plants and their microbiome as model systems. This makes me use a whole suite of tools and theories from ecology and molecular biology, but, if we're being honest, might be more indicative of my stubbornness to figure something out than a coordinated training effort.

Send me an email if you want to chat!

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Presentation(s):

• COS 7-5 - Microbes at the center of networks are keystone species during early colonization of a natural ecosystem.

  Monday, August 15, 2022
  2:30 PM – 2:45 PM EDT

• COS 88-6 - Evolution of large gene families allows context-dependency in microbial symbiosis

  Tuesday, August 16, 2022
  2:45 PM – 3:00 PM EDT

• COS 219-2 - Habitat heterogeneity generates distinct soil microbial communities and mycorrhizal transitions in the endemic Florida scrub

  Thursday, August 18, 2022
  8:15 AM – 8:30 AM EDT