Kian completed his BS in Biology in 2022 at Fort Lewis College in Durango Colorado. He joined the Jason Stajich lab at University of California Riverside as a Plant Pathology PhD student in 2023.
Kian’s research surveys the mycobiome of biological soil crusts, characterizes the genomic features of extreme adapted fungi, and deciphers the cryptic relationships between ancient plants and fungi. He is an avid lover of nature and spent most of his time outside of the lab hiking and reading Jack London.
His career aspirations included working for a biotechnology company as a bioinformatics analyst or engineer.