Current Lab Happenings
Chris passed his general exam with flying colors and as of yesterday is officially a PhD candidate! He presented his dissertation proposal on investigating the structure and stability of mutualistic networks using computational models and simulations alongside empirical data and answered questions from his committee. Great Job, Chris!
The Brosi Lab was very excited to host Dr. Matt Smith at UW this week! Matt is currently a postdoc in the Crall Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He gave a fascinating talk discussing his research on individuality in insect behavior across individual, social, and environmental scales. He also assisted with the setup of our own “AutoPolls” units (automated pollinator camera systems) which we plan to implement in the field this season.
A huge congratulations to Kaysee for receiving an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB)!! Kaysee will be working with Dr. Shalene Jha at the University of Texas, and will be using this fellowship to study the environmental and biological drivers of pollinator niche dynamics. Amazing work, Kaysee!
Congratulations to Madeleine and Berry for receiving the UW Program on Climate Change (PCC) Climate Science Research Acceleration Grant! Their project titled “Experimentally induced timing mismatches in multi-species pollination systems” will investigate the systems-level impacts of timing mismatches between plants and pollinators, advancing our understanding of phenological mismatches at the community and species-interaction-network levels. This summer, Madeleine will be looking for potential sites and collecting preliminary data so that we can conduct manipulation experiments next Spring.
We are very excited to welcome three new undergrad students to the Brosi lab this winter: Emma Wells, Mahika Rao, and Dylan Strauss! This quarter they will learn how to process insect specimens, focusing on pinning, sorting, and IDing pollinators for our Quantitative Nestedness project. Welcome to the Brosi lab!