Author: erkswesty@gmail.com

Congratulations to Westerman Lab students Abbigail Merrill, Grace Hirzel, and Matt Murphy on their paper, with Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks Director of Education & Community Outreach Roslyn Imrie. This paper is 3.5 years of community science work from volunteers at the BGO as well as students in Principles of Zoology and Animal Behavior at Read More …

recent doctoral graduate Dr. Stephen Robertson, from the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology,’s paper Nocturnal Pollinators Significantly Contribute to Apple Production was recently published in the Journal of Economical Entomology. Congratulations Stephen! Check out his exciting research here.

Congratulations graduate students Sushant Potdar, Yiting Ter, and Matt Murphy for receiving nationally or internationally competitive grants this year! Sushant was awarded a Ron Leuschner Memorial Fund for Research on the Lepidoptera Award from the Lepidopterists’ Society, Yiting was awarded a Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Award from the Animal Behavior Society, and Matt Read More …

We are excited to share that our recent collaborative publication, “Multiple loci control eyespot number variation on the hindwings of Bicyclus anynana butterflies” by Rivera-Colón, A.G., Westerman, E.L., Van Belleghem, S.M., Monteiro, A., and Papa, R., has been selected by the editors of Genetics and G3 for the 2020 Spotlight collection of research and scholarship Read More …

SICB was virtual this year, and we took advantage of the opportunity to present our work and engage with the international SICB community in this new virtual setting. PI Erica Westerman, postdoc Dave Ernst, graduate students Matt Murphy, Grace Hirzel, and Sushant Potdar, former undergraduate lab member Braden Shipman, and current undergraduate Abby Merrill all Read More …

Congratulations to Jarrod Varnell for receiving a SURF award, and Adriana Beruvides for receiving an Honors College Award for their undergraduate research projects!

Check out postdoc Dave Ernst’s new preprint on the differential expression of sensory genes in Bicyclus anynana caterpillars and butterflies! Available here on bioRxiv.

The Westerman Lab joined over 1,000 attendees, from a record number of countries, at the virtual Animal Behavior Society annual meeting July 28-31. Postdoc Dave Ernst, graduate student Sushant Potdar, and recent graduate Gabby Agcaoili gave excellent talks, and the lab bonded via virtual breakfasts and dinners. One of the highlights of the virtual platform Read More …

Our study of male mate preference learning in Heliconious butterflies, lead by undergraduate researchers Peyton Rather (UARK ’18) and Abby Herzog (UARK ’18) is now available as a preprint on bioRxiv. Check out their exciting research here!

Check out postdoc Dave Ernst’s recent publication “Pulse magnetization elicits differential gene expression in the central nervous system of the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus“, in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A! Congratulations on a very cool study identifying numerous genes, including some seemingly unrelated to sensory processes, that are differentially expressed in response to Read More …