Taylor Cavallaro

Taylor graduated from the University of Arizona in May 2024 with a B.S. in Plant Sciences and a minor in French. As an undergraduate, he worked with Dr. Tanya Quist and the University of Arizona Campus Arboretum, serving in stewardship of the campus’ diverse and historic living-plant collections. Later, Taylor worked with Dr. Betsy Arnold, using molecular ecology techniques to study the evolutionary ecology of fungal endophytes in arid environments. He contributed to diverse research projects – in the lab, and in the field – in natural ecosystems and in agricultural settings. 

In 2023, Taylor was awarded an NSF REU traineeship in Arctic fungal ecology. He developed and executed a self-led research project to examine how plant functional type and soil type affect fungal community composition in woody plants in tundra ecosystems. Taylor traveled to southern Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic to conduct field sampling with Dr. Arnold and her team in July of 2023. At graduation, he was recognized with the University of Arizona’s Provost Award for his contributions in research, leadership, and service to the community. 

Taylor is broadly interested in the biodiversity, ecology, and evolution of plant-fungal symbioses. He is also very interested in fungal genomics, and epigenetics. At Stanford, Taylor wants to merge these interests to investigate epigenetic drivers of interactions between plants and fungi, moving towards an ecological epigenetics framework to understand evolutionary trajectories of plant-associated fungi in the context of global change.