elissasoroj.github.io

Trying to color-coordinate with the plants since 2015

Hi! My name is Elissa

I am a joint PhD student at E3B Columbia and the graduate studies program at NYBG. I’m interested in studying the evolution of morphological diversity in various strange and wonderful plant groups, including Pedicularis, ferns, and lycophytes:

B.C. (Before Columbia)

I worked at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, where my affinity for dead things served me well…

Picking up dead things since my Mom couldn't tell me not to

At YPM I managed digitization activities for the Western Interior Seaway NSF TCN Grant. The goal of the grant was to digitize and photograph all the fossil specimens from the Western Interior Seaway in YPM’s collection, like these lovely ammonoids:

I am quite old I am also very old

Did you know 100 million-year-old fossils could look so good?

Prior to working at YPM I earned my undergraduate degree from Brown University where I studied bat wing morphology in the Aeromechanics and Evolutionary Morphology Lab. For my indepedent research I used histology to characterize the morphology of the trailing edge, but I also had the great pleasure of training bats to fly through tiny windows.

glorious bat flight in slow motion What can I say, I like to hold things and look at them

Don't let coronavirus fool you, bats are both amazing and adorable

Illustration

I’m also a scientific illustrator and I love to nerd out about science communication