Who we are
bioBUDS was created in 2019 by Biology PhD students Ev Nichols and Billie Goolsby with the support of our faculty advisor and other brilliant folks at Stanford. We are now on the third iteration of the current teaching team are PhD students in the biosciences studying a wide variety of topics: poison frogs, plants, fly brains, and more.
2025-2026 Teaching Team
Siobhán L. Bridson
Pronouns: she/her
Pronouns: She/they
Siobhán is a fourth year Biology PhD student in Dominique Bergmann’s lab. She grew up in Oxford, UK and moved to California for grad school. Siobhán is broadly interested in how tissues are patterned across land plant evolution. She currently thinks about how plant cells sense their own size and studies how stomata – microscopic pores on the surface of leaves – are formed in flowering plants and ferns. Outside of lab, Siobhán loves reading, skiing, and all things food-related.
Chloe Golde
Pronouns: She/Her
Chloe is a second year PhD student from Long Island, New York. She is in the Fukami Lab and studies nematode/bacteria symbiosis. When she’s not in lab she loves spending time with her cat Waluigi.
Nadia Haghani
Pronouns (she/her)
I'm Nadia, a fourth year Biology PhD student in Molly Schumer's lab! I grew up in sunny San Diego, California where I spent most of my summers surfing or playing soccer, which I still continue to do on the Stanford women's club soccer team. I study the genetics/evolution of pigment traits in swordtail fish, and outside of research, I am passionate about equity in STEM!
Cesar Mena
Pronouns: he/him
Cesar is a third year PhD student in the O'Connell Lab here at Stanford. He is from Long Beach California but moved up to the bay back in 2017 where he started his undergrad at UC Berkeley received his B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2021. He then went on to work as a lab tech in the Dillin Lab at UC Berkeley where he studied mitochondrial stress response pathways. He is now pursuing a PhD in Biology and is focusing on studying chemical defenses and animal behavior in the poison frog Oophaga pumilio. For fun he likes playing video games, going on hikes, and trying new coffee spots in the city.
Mikaela Wilson
Pronouns: She/her
Mikaela Wilson is a third-year PhD candidate in Dr. Tom Clandinin’s lab at Stanford University. She grew up in Texas and rural Louisiana, where she spent her childhood catching lizards and racing crawdads with her Cajun family. After earning her B.S. in Biology at St. Edward’s University in Austin, she pursued a range of research projects, from investigating the foraging behavior of red harvester ants to studying the effects of aging on neural stem cells in the brain. Now in the Clandinin lab, Mikaela combines her interests in animal behavior and neurobiology to explore fundamental questions about how we define sleep and its functions in the brain, using the fruit fly as a model system.
Molly Schumer
Faculty Advisor
Pronouns: she/her
Molly Schumer grew up in rural Washington where she fell in love with the natural world. Her lab at Stanford studies the evolution and genetics of natural populations. Outside of lab she loves spending time with her two kids, husband, and giant dog Teddy, hiking, and eating delicious food.
Previous BioBUDS Instructors: Subheading: The creators
Dr. Ev Nichols
Ev is originally from Akron, Ohio and completed her PhD in 2024 in the Shen Lab. Currently, she is a postdoc in the Butler Lab at UCLA studying spinal cord development. Outside of lab, she enjoys meandering walks, appreciating art, and reading under the sun.
Dr Iris Möllhoff
“Iris’ research focuses on understanding the role of unusual lipids in cross-kingdom interactions. She worked on tomato polyacetylene metabolism and its impact on microbial growth. In her free time she likes to garden, try out new dessert recipes, and chat with her family overseas. Iris is also an avid orchid mom!”
Dr Taylar (Ty) Hammond
Billie Goolsby
Pronouns: She/they
Billie is from Atlanta Georgia. She is in Dr. Lauren O'Connell's lab studying what makes some poison frogs such good parents. She's hard of hearing and enjoys doing science outreach. In her free time, they make art.
Other Instructors
Seba Toro Arana