Clare C. Rittschof – Associate Professor

Clare earned a PhD in Zoology from the University of Florida studying spider reproductive tactics and body size evolution. From 2011-2015 she worked as a post-doc at the University of Illinois and Pennsylvania State University, studying honey bee social behavior, neuroscience, and genomics.

 

Rebecca Westwick – Ph.D. Student

Rebecca received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Texas. She joined the lab in the fall of 2018, and is studying how the developmental social environment impacts adult neural energetics and behavior in the honey bee.

 

Amanda Denny – Ph.D. Student

Amanda received her M.S. in Biology from Eastern Kentucky University. She joined the lab in Fall of 2018, and is studying how cover crop management impacts wild bee communities and early-season honey bee health (funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research).

 

Jimmy Harrison – M.S. Student and Technician

Jimmy received his B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Kentucky. He worked in the lab as an undergraduate before spending a year as a technician at the University of Michigan. He rejoined the lab in summer 2019 and is working towards a M.S. degree studying metabolomics in honey bees.

 

Caroline Kane – Ph.D. Student

Caroline received her B.S. in Neuroscience from Michigan State University. She joined the lab in Summer 2020, and is studying nutrition impacts viral presence and abundance in a citizen science project with Kentucky Beekeepers (funded by the Kentucky Agriculture Development Board).

 

Anastasia Weger – Ph.D. Student

Anastasia received her degree in Biology from the University of Chicago in 2021. She is studying how social experiences impact brain genomics and peripheral tissues to influence the response to future social information.

 

Wade Pike – M.S. Student

Wade received a B.S. in Biology from Campbellsville University in 2020. He is a Marine Corps veteran, and currently serves for the Army National Guard. He is interested in plant-pollinator interactions, with a focus on plant species variation in nutrition.

 

 

Dr. Erin Treanore – Postdoctoral Associate

Erin received her PhD from the Pennsylvania State University studying bumble bee physiology and conservation.

 

 

Undergraduate Students and Research Staff (current)

Abdallah Sher (Neuroscience and Computer Science)

Elisabeth Rintamaa (Ag/Med Biotech and Chemistry)

Reid Davis (Biology and Biochemistry)

Olivia Lee (Neuroscience)

Caleb Dotson (Psychology and Neuroscience)

Madison Payne (Biology)

Former Graduate Students and Postdocs

Dr. Allison Young (Postdoctoral Associate, 2021-2022) Biologist in the Environmental Sciences Branch of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Grayson Grume (Master’s Degree, 2016-2020) Florida State Parks Department

Sarah Preston (Master’s Degree, 2016-2018) Kentucky State Microbiology Lab Branch Manager