Dr. Harmon-Threatt sets up emergence tents with the lab.
Alexandra Harmon-Threatt, Ph.D.
Dr. Harmon-Threatt is broadly interested in asking ecological questions with conservation implications. This has included questions such as: Do the breeding systems of invasive plants differ from close native relatives? Do pollinators prefer higher quality plant resources regardless of origin? How do invasive plants set seed? Do bees make preference decisions based on nutrition? This has included assessing the effects of invasive plant species on preference, nutritional analysis of plants
Listen to an interview with Dr. H-T here.
Graduate Students
Jon Tetlie
Jon joined the lab in the summer of 2017 and is working on a project focused on the behavior of female ground-nesting bees particularly in regard to agricultural neonicotinoid input residues found in the soil of both agricultural fields and bordering natural habitats.
Marissa Chase
Marissa joined the lab in the fall of 2019 as a PhD student. She received her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Environmental Biology with a concentration in Insect Biology from UC Berkeley. Using geospatial data, she is working to understand how forest management, through its effects on structural complexity, influences bee functional groups, plant-pollinator interactions, and ecosystem functioning.
Annaliese Wargin
Annaliese joined the lab in fall 2020. She received her bachelor’s degree in entomology with a minor in comparative literature from UC Davis. She is interested in the ecology of pollinators in restored landscapes, species interactions, and insect behavioral responses to abiotic change.
Adrien Seabloom
Prior to joining the HT lab, Adrien worked on a few different conservation-based species diversity surveys for the Illinois Audubon Society while earning his associate and then bachelor’s degrees. Once he completes his PhD, he hopes to be a professor at a leading research institution where he can continue working on his research and teaching the next generation of scientists–imparting his excitement for conservation and learning. Adrien is interested in the affects agricultural practices have on neighboring prairie and the ground nesting bees that live there. Outside of lab, he spends his free time drawing, riding his horse, and hanging out with his cats.
Undergraduates take soil cores from the Phillips Tract prairie restoration, July 2022
Undergraduates
Jacob Chow
Jacob is a senior in Integrative Biology Honors. He joined the HT lab in spring of 2023. His career interests involve teaching and research. His research is focused on the role grasses play in prairie ecosystems, specifically when and why bees forage on grass pollen and how that relationship could be affected by neonicotinoid pesticides.
Jessamine Britt
Jessamine joined the HT lab in summer of 2023. She is scheduled to graduate with her bachelor’s degree in Integrative Biology in 2025. Her interests focus on ecology and conservation. Outside of the HT lab, Jessamine is a proud member of the Marching Illini. She researches the role grasses play in prairie ecosystems alongside her undergraduate peers.
Jacob Burns
Jake is scheduled to graduate in December 2024 in NRES with a concentration in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology. He began working with the Harmon-Threatt Lab in Summer 2023. He researches the role grasses play in prairie ecosystems alongside his undergraduate peers. He hopes to continue learning about ecology, conservation, and invasive species through a career in research.
Sophia Gardner
Sophia’s research focuses on the plant ecology of prairie ecosystems, and specifically how soil organisms interact with grasses.
Moiravi Aldunate
I pursue insect community ecology: how insects interact with other organisms. My senior thesis sampled the fungal spores associated with the solitary bee Colletes inaequalis and their brood cells. My research justifies prairie restoration in Illinois through exploration of the ecosystem services provided by insects native to Illinois prairie. My study of insects is spiritual alongside professional, and I endeavor to teach entomology not only as an academic discipline but also as a meditation on beauty. I hope to render knowledge on insects meaningful and accessible to communities beyond academia. I film insects to produce outreach media. I was a field technician in the HT lab in summers 2021 and 2022 and I have been a lab technician for Dr. May Berenbaum since summer 2019. I co-parent a goliath beetle grub.
Research Technician
Virginia Roberts
Ginny graduated from The College of Wooster in 2021 with a degree in Biology and a minor in Earth Sciences. Their senior thesis examined how local plant resources and woody habitat influence communities of cavity-nesting wasps. Ginny’s career interests include plant and insect ecology research, and they hope to attend graduate school in the Fall of 2024.