I am a fifth-year PhD student in the lab of Armin Moczek at Indiana University. My research focuses on the developmental and genetic mechanisms, as well as evolutionary consequences, of phenotypic plasticity. Specifically, I investigate the developmental mechanisms that enable nutrition-responsive growth and how these mechanisms are themselves evolving and contributing to diversity in scaling relationships. I also study the role of ancestral plasticity in facilitating rapid evolution in the face of novel conditions. In the Moczek lab, I use extraordinarily diverse horned beetles of the genus Onthophagus to address these questions. 

Updates:

Nov 7th 2017- My paper The role of ancestral plasticity in evolutionary diversification: population density effects in horned beetles was just accepted in Animal Behaviour!

Oct 21st 2017- I had a great time at Science Fest teaching dung beetle biology. Science Fest had an amazing turn out of 1,350 visitors!

Oct 16th 2017- Our niche construction paper in collaboration with Daniel Schwab was featured in the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis blog. click here

Sept 24th 2017- Our niche construction paper in collaboration with Daniel Schwab just came out in Ecology Letters! click here

Aug 21st 2017 - Gave a talk on Nutrition responsive growth and scaling relationships: insulin signaling and interacting pathways regulate horn development in the beetle Onthophagus taurus at Pan-Am Evo Devo in Calgary!

May 11-14 2017 - Attended a workshop on Cause and Process in Evolution at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Vienna!