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I am a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Erik Ragsdale at Indiana University. Both my postdoctoral and PhD work has focused on the developmental and genetic mechanisms, as well as evolutionary consequences, of phenotypic plasticity. For my PhD, I used horned beetles from the genus Onthophagus to investigate the mechanisms that enable nutrition-responsive growth, and how these mechanisms themselves have evolved and contributed to the diversity in scaling relationships. I also studied the role of ancestral plasticity in facilitating rapid evolution in the face of novel conditions. As a postdoctoral researcher, my work now uses extraordinarily diverse diplogastrid nematodes to study how the mechanisms of polyphenic development have evolved across closely related species.
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Updates:
February 11th 2019- I just joined the Ragsdale Lab as a postdoc. More details on my research to come soon!
January 11th 2019- After 5 and 1/2 years of work I successfully defended my dissertation! pdf
January 7th 2019- It was great to participate in SICB’s Allometry, Scaling and Ontogeny of Form Symposium. Thanks to the organizers for inviting me.
September 2018- I am excited to announce that I will be graduating in January and joining the Ragsdale Lab as a postdoc!
April 26th 2018- Visited Duke and gave a talk at their Population Biology and Evo-Devo Seminar Series. Thank you so much for inviting me!
Jan 8th 2018- I had a great time at SICB! I gave a talk on my work on the role of plasticity in evolution and a poster on my gene expression plasticity project.
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!
January 11th 2019- After 5 and 1/2 years of work I successfully defended my dissertation! pdf
January 7th 2019- It was great to participate in SICB’s Allometry, Scaling and Ontogeny of Form Symposium. Thanks to the organizers for inviting me.
September 2018- I am excited to announce that I will be graduating in January and joining the Ragsdale Lab as a postdoc!
April 26th 2018- Visited Duke and gave a talk at their Population Biology and Evo-Devo Seminar Series. Thank you so much for inviting me!
Jan 8th 2018- I had a great time at SICB! I gave a talk on my work on the role of plasticity in evolution and a poster on my gene expression plasticity project.
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!
