THE WHITEMAN LABORATORY
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      • Dr. Samridhi Chaturvedi
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      • Jessica Aguilar
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      • Diler Haji
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      • Eric Rogers
      • Ted Chor
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      • Kelly D'Ambrogia
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      • Andy Gloss
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      • Dr. David Hembry (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Jennifer Koop (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Anna Nelson Dittrich (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Rick Lapoint (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
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      • Christina Meyer
      • Parris Humphrey
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      • Amir Abidov
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      • Lauren Johnston
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      • Erika LaPlante
      • Matthew J. Velasquez
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Benjamin Goldman-Huertas, Ph.D. 

University of California, Berkeley
Department of Integrative Biology
329 Weill Hall #32000
Berkeley, CA 94720-3200

Email: bgoldmanh [at] berkeley [dot] edu

Picture

Education

  • Ph.D., Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 2018
  • A.B. Biology, cum laude, Harvard University, 2005

Research Interests

Herbivorous insects dominate terrestrial diversity and most insects demonstrate some degree of specialization on their host plants. I am interested in the evolution of plant-herbivore interactions, particularly changes in insect sensory systems correlated with specialization on host plants. Using an approach combining imaging, behavioral assays, and genomics in our model herbivore, Scaptomyza flava, and other close relatives, I hope to elucidate the functional and genetic determinants of specialization in insects.

Publications

Goldman-Huertas B., R.M. Mitchell, R.T. Lapoint, C.P. Faucher, J.G. Hildebrand, N.K. Whiteman (In Press) Evolution of herbivory in Drosophilidae linked to loss of behaviors, antennal responses, odorant receptors and ancestral diet. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 10.1073/pnas.1424656112

Gloss A.D., A.C. Nelson-Dittrich, B. Goldman-Huertas, N.K. Whiteman (2013). Maintenance of genetic diversity driven by plant–herbivore interactions. Current Opinions in Plant Biology. 16(4): 443–450.
10.1016/j.pbi.2013.06.002

Russell, J.A., C.F. Funaro, Y.M. Giraldo, B. Goldman-Huertas, D. Suh, D.J.C. Kronauer, C.S. Moreau & N.E. Pierce (2012) A veritable menagerie of heritable bacteria from ants, butterflies, and beyond: broad molecular surveys and a systematic review. PLoS One. 7(12): e51027.
10.1371/journal.pone.0051027

Li J., B. Goldman-Huertas, J. DeYoung, J. Alexander III (2012) Phylogenetics and Diversification of Syringa Inferred from Nuclear and Plastid DNA Sequences. Castanea 77(1): 82–88. 10.2179/11-016

Ramírez S.R., T. Eltz, M.K. Fujiwara, G. Gerlach, B. Goldman-Huertas, N.D. Tsutsui, N.E. Pierce (2011) Asynchronous diversification in a specialized plant-pollinator mutualism. Science 333(6050): 1742-1746. 10.1126/science.1209175

Vila R., C.D. Bell, R. Macniven, B. Goldman-Huertas, R.H. Ree, C.R. Marshall, Zs. Bálint, K. Johnson, D. Benyamini, N.E. Pierce (2011). Phylogeny and paleoecology of Polyommatus blue butterflies show Beringia was a climate-regulated gateway to the New World. Proc. R. Soc. B. 278(1719):2737–2744. 10.1098/rspb.2010.2213 

Funaro C.F., D.J.C. Kronauer, C.S. Moreau, B. Goldman-Huertas, N.E. Pierce, J.A. Russell (2011) Army ants harbor a host-specific clade of Entomoplasmatales bacteria. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 77(1): 346–350. 10.1128/AEM.01896-10

Russell J.A., B. Goldman-Huertas, C.S. Moreau, L. Baldo, J.K. Stahlhut, J.H. Werren, N.E. Pierce (2009) Specialization and geographic isolation among Wolbachia symbionts from ants and lycaenid butterflies. Evolution 63(3): 624–640. 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00579.x

Russell J.A., C.S. Moreau, B. Goldman-Huertas, M. Fujiwara, D.J. Lohman, N.E. Pierce (2009) Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 106(50): 21236-21241. 10.1073/pnas.0907926106

Honors and Awards

  • 2014: 2014: 1st Place Pacific Branch Entomological Society of America PhD student oral competition
  • 2013: NSF IGERT Fellowship in Comparative Genomics Fellow, The University of Arizona
  • 2013: Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority (CSURM) Fellowship
  • 2012: Galileo Circle Scholarship
  • 2011: Travel Award, Center for Insect Science, The University of Arizona
  • 2011, 2013: Travel Award, Graduate and Professional Student Council, The University of Arizona
  • 2010: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Conferences

  • June 8–12, 2014: The Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution Conference, San Juan, PR. Presented poster “Evolution of herbivory in Scaptomyza (Drosophilidae) associated with loss of critical yeast volatile receptors.”
  • April 6–9, 2014: Entomological Society of America Pacific Branch Meeting, Tucson, AZ. Delivered talk “Evolution of herbivory in Scaptomyza (Drosophilidae) associated with loss of critical yeast volatile receptors.” Awarded 1st place in PhD I oral presentation competition.
  • April 3–5, 2014: Deep Genomics Symposium, Tucson, AZ. Presented poster “Evolution of herbivory in Scaptomyza (Drosophilidae) associated with loss of critical yeast volatile receptors.”
  • February 24–March 1, 2013: Gordon Research Conference: Plant-Herbivore Interactions, Ventura, CA. Presented poster “Remodeling of chemoreceptor repertoires associated with a transition to herbivory in drosophilids.”
  • July 6–10,2012: 1st Joint Conference on Evolutionary Biology, Ottawa, Canada. Delivered talk “Molecular evolution of chemoreceptor genes in Scaptomyza (Drosophilidae).”
  • October 2–5, 2011: 6th International Symposium on Molecular Insect Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Poster: “Host-plant specialization and the morphology of the Drosophila antennal lobe.

Background

I was born in New York and raised in Puerto Rico where, growing up next to tree frogs and bioluminescent bays, I caught a bad case of biophilia. For my bachelors degree I moved to the mainland and attended Harvard University. There I was a research assistant at the Harvard University Herbaria where I worked on a molecular phylogeny of the lilacs. After graduation I was hired as a curatorial assistant in the Entomology department of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. I worked on a number of projects including imaging the MCZ butterfly collection, generating a molecular phylogeny of the butterfly family Lycaenidae, and surveying the bacterial symbiont diversity of ants and butterflies. At the University of Arizona I studied the evolution of chemoreception and behavior, specifically olfaction, in a recently evolved group of leaf-mining flies in the genus Scaptomyza, closely related to the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. After graduation, I was a post-doc with Lisa Nagy, studying development in the flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, using functional genetics and genomics. Here at Berkeley in the Whiteman lab, as a specialist researcher, I will be applying functional genetic and genomic approaches to studying the evolution of herbivory and chemosensation in Scaptomyza.
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Pictures clockwise from the top left: Bush full of Ministrymon leda hairstreaks, Gates Pass at Saguaro National Park; at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum; behavioral assay in construction; image of Scaptomyza flava brain neuropil, Robber fly at Sabino Canyon
Photography by Kristin Waller and Rick Lapoint.
The Whiteman Lab | Integrative Biology | University of California | Berkeley, CA 94720

Photographs are copyright protected by Noah Whiteman, Whiteman lab members, or were obtained through Creative Commons licenses.
  • Home
  • Group Members
    • Principal Investigator, Dr. Noah Whiteman
    • Research Specialist Susan Bernstein
    • Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Associates >
      • Dr. Samridhi Chaturvedi
      • Dr. Moe Bakhtiari
      • Dr. Benjamin Goldman-Huertas
      • Dr. Carolina Reisenman
    • Graduate Students >
      • Jessica Aguilar
      • Nicolas Alexandre
      • Diler Haji
      • Julianne Pelaez
      • Hiromu Suzuki
      • Rebecca Tarnopol
      • Kirsten Isabel Verster
    • Undergraduate Students >
      • Saron Akalu
      • Jaden Ha
      • Selah-Marie Grogan
      • Gillian Oaks
      • Ashleigh Takemoto
      • Jossie Tamsil
    • Former members >
      • Eric Rogers
      • Ted Chor
      • Dr. Teruyuki Matsanaga
      • Anna Pham
      • Anna Leipertz
      • Michael Astourian
      • Ashley Bendl
      • Elizabeth Ordeman
      • Bridget Cheng
      • Irene Liang
      • Gillian Montross
      • Esteban Rodas
      • Giovani Pimentel-Solorio
      • Faye Romero
      • Marissa Sandoval
      • Shivani Sundaram
      • Kannagi Yashroy
      • Derrick Yip
      • Haarini Sridhar
      • Sneha Agrawal
      • Dr. Marianna Karageorgi
      • Kevin Miao
      • Dr. Rebecca Duncan
      • Kelly D'Ambrogia
      • Jiarui Wang
      • Tim O'Connor
      • Judith Okoro
      • William Farley
      • Dr. Cathy Rushworth
      • Andy Gloss
      • Alana Augur
      • Hoon Pyon
      • Julianne Ray
      • Dr. Simon "Niels" Groen
      • Dr. David Hembry (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Jennifer Koop (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Anna Nelson Dittrich (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Rick Lapoint (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Paul Nabity (USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Christina Meyer
      • Parris Humphrey
      • Lea Flechon
      • Research Specialist, Tim Rast
      • Amir Abidov
      • Allan Castillo
      • Matt Cravens
      • Mitchell Feldmann
      • Jason Giles
      • Lauren Johnston
      • Noel Kitchen
      • Erika LaPlante
      • Matthew J. Velasquez
    • Internal page >
      • Protocols
      • Recommended Reading
  • Research
  • Publications
  • DEI
    • #leadership
    • #participation
    • #recruitment
    • #belonging
    • #accountability
  • Join
  • Contact
  • "Monarch Fly"