Research lab group or TA: Research lab group
Lab Narrative: After INHUT was the bright spot of a freshman year aimed at chemical engineering, I asked Riley if I could work in his lab. I joined him on a BioBlitz in Great Basin National Park looking for flies and spent the next year sorting flies and hanging out in the basement of the Widtsoe Building. We wrote up our results in the Fly Times newsletter. I took what I learned with me on my mission to the Netherlands, where I explained to lots of people why mosquitoes exist (to make more mosquitoes). After returning to BYU, I came back to the Nelson Lab where I started working with Flies in Mongolia Yellow Pan trap data. We found that grazing definitely affected fly family diversity and I gave a talk about this in Orlando at the ICE meeting. Other activities in the Nelson Lab included more BioBlitzes for aquatic insects, looking for winter stoneflies up AF canyon, leading and designing a shirt for the entomology club, playing Open Your Mouth with Grasshoppers, and Riley’s aquatic and regular entomology classes. I went on to do a PhD in Australian termite ecology and evolution at GW and now I work on aphids with USDA at the Smithsonian as a PostDoc.
Started in the lab: June 2012