June 5, 2000 New Faculty Gregory Gilbert Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Gregory Gilbert is an ecologist who specializes in plant diseases. His research is focused on understanding the role of plant diseases in regulating the dynamics of natural and agricultural ecosystems. His work centers on tropical forests and California's coastal prairies. Gilbert was an assistant professor of environmental science, policy, and management at UC Berkeley before arriving at UCSC in January. He earned his Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His undergraduate degree from the State University of New York is in environmental and forest biology. He was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Binbin Guo Assistant Professor of Economics Binbin Guo is a finance specialist whose research is focused on three areas: asset pricing, mutual and hedge fund performance, and volatility estimation of financial markets, including the stock, exchange-rate, bond, and derivative markets. Guo arrived at UCSC in January following two years as an associate for Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University in economics and finance. His undergraduate degree is in nuclear physics from Tsinghua University.