Kian completed his BS in Biology in 2022 at Fort Lewis College in beautiful 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, charactarizes 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 spends most of his time outside of the lab hiking, reading Jack London, and daydreaming about mycology.
Kian hopes to one day work for a meseum, National Laboratory, conservation nonprofit, or the US Forest Service as a researcher or data scientist.