BMS 391 - Laboratory in Human Physiology

Post-doctoral Scholar, University of Chicago 

Post-doctoral Associate, University of Western Ontario 

Ph.D., University of California, Berkely, Environmental Science, Policy and Management 

M.S., Portland State University, Biology 

B.S., Michigan Technological University, Biological Sciences

I am first and foremost an integrative organismal biologist, with a primary interest in the deep understanding of animal communication systems. I believe that the best research approach is multiscale, from the physics of sensory organs, to how species fit into broader ecological and evolutionary patterns. My scholarship is situated in many fields, including physiology, biophysics, behavior, ecology, and evolution. With this background, I leverage a variety of methods to elucidate the proximate how of a phenomenon within the important evolutionary context of the why.

My lab works primarily in arthropod communication systems, with past projects including the biophysics of cricket hearing, the physics and ecology of cricket sound production, and understanding how temperature influences the physiology and mating behavior of jumping spiders. My lab currently focuses on the jumping spider locomotion system. This unique “semi-hydraulic” system is used both in locomotion (especially jumping) and in flashy sexual display “dances”. My lab seeks to understand how both natural and sexual selection interact to influence this unusual locomotion system.  I approach this system from a variety of angles, including: (1) behavioral experiments evaluating courtship and mating behavior, (2) morphology studies measuring different aspects of the external morphology and internal locomotion system, and (3) high speed camera studies of jumping and other types of movement. There are many potential approaches to study this topic, and many projects for undergraduates in my lab. I am eager to speak with students and brainstorm potential project ideas.