Fantastic plastic

I’m an associate professor of evolutionary and behavioral ecology at Emporia State University.

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I conduct research on the causes and consequences of behavioral plasticity, with a particular focus on the influence of conspecifics and heterospecifics on the patterns of plasticity in fitness-related traits.

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I was previously a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Rebecca Kilner‘s group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge to explore how developmental plasticity may initiate divergence with Nicrophorus burying beetles. We used experimental evolution to test how different environments promote variation and shifts in morphological and behavioural traits. Much of this work is still in prep, so stay tuned for our forthcoming publications!

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Before Cambridge, I was a Fondation Fyssen Fellow collaborating with Dr. Michael Greenfield to study experience-mediated plasticity in the bushcricket Ephippiger diurnus. We used geographically isolated populations to understand how acoustic experience from conspecific males feeds back to influence the form and shape of plasticity in male mating signals, female mate preferences, and each sex’s reproductive investment in a mating.