The Dillon Lab
Christy Bell
An undergraduate researcher known for her crazy literature searches and intense bee identification skills, Christy occasionally tries to shut down the interlibrary loan system. After spending a lot of time in the field this summer catching bees, counting flowers and getting funny tan lines, she's excited to begin looking into possible ways temperature might affect body size of certain native bees.
Brandon Ray Buckio
Brandon is an undergraduate working towards a BS in Zoology with a concentration in ecology. He plans to enroll in a graduate program focusing on conservation ecology, but not before taking some time off to gain some experience doing various internships. His work has focused on measurements of Bombus spiracles, and he helps Jessica with the care and feeding of our “ladies”.
John Bruno (aka "Brawno")
An undergraduate majoring in Physiology and Biology, John spent the summer helping Olivia in the field, and is now beginning to study the metabolism of over-wintering bumble bee queens. During the summer he chased bees with a net, counted flowers, and processed bee corpses. Besides frolicking in fields chasing after bees and pinning their bodies to styrofoam, he also enjoys the hooligans' sport played by gentlemen-rugby.
Michael Dillon
I just work here. (see the rest of the website for more info).
Jessica Howard
She loves bees and takes care of our laboratory bumblebee nests, so that she can visit with the "ladies" daily. Oh, and she was awarded a Wyoming EPSCoR fellowship to develop a cool technique to study allometric scaling of bumblebee tracheal systems.
Olivia Nater
A master's student, Olivia is broadly interested in bee-plant phenology and the effect of climatic variation on this relationship. She is heading up a three-year census of native bee populations at several sites in Albany County, WY, to monitor how bee abundance and diversity have changed in the past few decades, particularly in relation to floral resources and climate. Her long-term goal is to develop an understanding of what drives changes in native bee populations so that we can forecast future extinction scenarios and prevent a "pollination crisis" in the face of increasing human-driven disturbance such as climate change.
Collaborators
Guo Cong, Department of Ecology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, PRC.
Robert Dudley, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA
Melanie Frazier, Western Ecology Branch of the EPA, Corvallis, OR
Ray Huey, Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Rongsong Liu, Department of Mathematics and Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
Sujaya Rao, Departments of Entomology and Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.
Sanjay Sane, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Banglore, India
Brent Sinclair, Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Jamie Strange, USDA-ARS Pollinating Insects Research Unit, Logan UT
George Wang, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tubingen, Germany
Yang WeiKang, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, Xinjiang, PRC.