Position Title
Associate Professor
- Evolution and Ecology
Research Interests
Our research investigates the causes and consequences of behavioral diversity and plasticity, with a focus on how evolution has shaped the developmental processes that generate individual behavioral variation. We use clonal mollies to disentangle genetic, maternal, and environmental influences on the development of behavior and understand how and why individuals exhibit unique behavioral patterns. Our goal is to understand how individuals use and integrate cues from their genes, parents, and experiences to build their phenotypes from both ultimate and proximate perspectives. Our lab-based research combines manipulative experiments with high-resolution behavioral tracking and molecular methods, including RNA extraction, immunohistochemistry, and microscopy.
Center Affiliations
Graduate Program Affiliations
- 2006 B.S., University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Department of Biological Sciences
- 2013 Ph.D., University of Illinois, School of Integrative Biology