Postdoctoral Researcher: dr. michelle duennes
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Michelle is a USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow and a Science Policy Fellow with the Entomological Society of America. In the Woodard lab, she is studying the nutritional ecology and conservation of wild bumble bees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with an emphasis on how agricultural development is impacting bee nutritional health. Her dissertation research focused on the phylogeography of a bumble bee species complex in Mesoamerica, as well as an in-depth population genetics study of the commercially managed pollinator Bombus ephippiatus in Mexico. She has also explored the evolution of color patterns within the genus Bombus worldwide.
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Research Specialist: Kristal Watrous
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Kristal studies native bee biology, pollination ecology, and plant-pollinator interactions. She is passionate about basic natural history of bees and plants, the application of that knowledge in understanding the pollination ecology wild ecosystems and developing management strategies within agricultural contexts, and the pairing between natural history and molecular biology. She has worked with bees for over 12 years, and has been known to coo adoringly at them from an early age. She is currently leading projects on oil-collecting bees in the desert Southwest and genomics of Arctic bumble bees.
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phd Student: kaleigh Fisher
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Kaleigh is a PhD student studying the resilience of Neotropical stingless bees in the face of global change. She is broadly interested in plant-pollinator interactions across natural and managed systems, including how varying levels of agricultural intensification influence pollinator foraging behavior and population and community dynamics. Stingless bees (tribe Meliponini) are social honey bees in the tropics that are important for their pollination services and honey production. For her PhD, Kaleigh will be exploring how resource fluctuations and the dynamics of pollen, nectar, and resin influence foraging behavior in this group of bees, in order to better understand behavioral, physiological, and sociobiological patterns across varying gradients of agriculture.
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soon-to-be phd Student: natalie Fischer
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Natalie is a 4th year Biology major studying how nutrition impacts bumble bee physiology and behavior. She is currently leading project on bumble bee buzz pollination and pollen foraging in Arctic bumble bees. Next year, she will be starting a PhD in Entomology in the Woodard lab, where she will continue her work on buzz pollination. Natalie has broad interests in physiology, behavior, ecology, and evolution, and is particularly interested in applying computational approaches to the study of bee behavior.
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Undergraduate Researcher: mauricio flores
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Mauricio is a 2nd year undergraduate student majoring in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology. As a student pursuing a career in biomedical research, his research in the Woodard lab focuses on the molecular pathways involving insulin-like peptides in bumble bees. He is particularly interested in the role these mechanisms play in insect development and behavior, and how these pathways can help us better understand human health and disease.
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Undergraduate Researcher: rebecca moon
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Rebecca is a 3rd year majoring in Biochemistry, whose passion for animals and research drew her to the Woodard lab. She is interested in the relationships between organisms and their environment, such as mutually beneficial relationships between bees and flowers, and in the physiological adaptions that allow bumble bees to survive in the low temperatures of the Arctic. She hopes to pursue her further education in the field of either research or medicine.
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Undergraduate Researcher: alex Vanecek
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Alex is a 3rd year student that transferred to UCR from San Bernardino Valley College in 2016. Originally a Biology major, she switched to Entomology when she applied to UCR because of her career goals of becoming a forensic scientist and/or forensic entomologist. Though she is new to the world of insects, the social interactions of bees truly fascinate her and attracted her to the Woodard lab. She is especially interested in examining mechanistic relationships between social behavior and physiology.
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Undergraduate Researcher: jade bratu
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Jade is a 3rd year Honors student pursuing a degree in Biology. Although she is hoping to attend veterinary school, she has always been curious about insect anatomy and behavior. She is especially interested in evolutionary pressures and their effects on Arctic bumble bee physiology, and the strategies these bees use to survive in their extreme environment.
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Undergraduate Researcher: stephanie Reimer
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Stephanie is a 2nd year student majoring in Biochemistry at Fullerton Community College. Broadly speaking, she is fascinated in the evolutionary pressures that drive the formation of the complex and beautiful forms of organisms. Specifically, she is interested in studying coevolution between plants and insects, and how bees diversified in their morphology and sociality.
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Alums:
- Sunakshi Garg (undergraduate researcher 2015-2016) has graduated with a BS from UCR and will be attending medical school
- Parry Kietzman (lab technician 2015) is now a postdoc in Dave Tarpy's lab at NCSU
