We are fortunate to work with excellent high school and undergraduate students! Mentoring students is an important component of our lab. Central to our mentoring philosophy is identifying the students’ goals to help them grow towards them. By developing a relationship founded on mutual respect, we promote a friendly and engaging environment for students to learn through inquiry.

Undergrads in the lab participate in projects  both at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Gamboa, Panama), where our main lab and field facilities are located. Some of our undergrad students have also been involved in research projects with us at other locations including field sites in Florida (USA) and Irimote Island (Okinawa, Japan).

Click here to see the undergraduate and high school researchers in our lab

Who we are and how to contact us
(in alphabetical order by last name)

Katherine González
PhD Candidate

I am a tropical biologist from the National University of Costa Rica. After graduating I studied the ecology and post-reproductive movements of a Neotropical toad in the tropical dry forest. More recently I worked with tree frogs in the Osa Peninsula studying adaptive embryo behavior and environmentally cue hatching. I am interested in exploring the roles that eavesdroppers play in anuran communication and behavior during mating aggregations. I also plan to investigate how predation and parasitism could be altered by the presence of heterospecific anuran signalers.

Email
Maddie Grace​
Doctoral Student
I’m a trained ecologist and first-generation woman in STEM with a diverse background in both research and teaching. My work has spanned systems from cyanobacteria to cnidarians to arthropods, and I’m driven by ecological questions that require creativity, patience, and a muddy pair of boots. Before returning to graduate school, I taught biology, anatomy, and zoology with a focus on inclusive STEM education and mentored undergraduates in independent research. Now, I am beyond excited to explore how animal behavior and ecological communities respond to environmental change, especially in human-dominated landscapes, while continuing to foster student curiosity and scientific discovery!

​Email

Ana Maria Ospina
PhD Candidate
 I am a biologist from the Universidad of Quindio in Armenia, Colombia. I have been studying aspects of natural history, sexual selection, and parental care in anurans, doing field recordings and analyzing frog calls emitted in different contexts. After graduating, I worked at the environmental sound collection of the Humboldt Institute in Colombia. I am interested in exploring how acoustic signal production and/or perception might be affected by the introduction of novel disturbances associated with urbanization.

Email

Dr. Hoover Pantoja-Sanchez
Researcher Associate
I am interested in deepening our understanding of bioacoustics. I combine my knowledge in engineering and biology to develop innovative technologies suited to investigate different aspects of mosquito audition and behavior.

Dr. Richa Singh
Researcher Associate (Purdue & Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute)
I am interested in understanding the mechanisms, neural processes, and behavioral dynamics of sensory systems in insects.  My research currently focuses on frog-biting mosquitoes to examine how they perceive and respond to host-location cues, particularly in altered sensory environments. Along with my previous work on crickets, my research integrates different levels of analysis to deepen our understanding of insect communication in a changing world.

Email

Alumni

Last, but not least, our lab alumni are out in the world doing great things and making us proud: