People

Dr. James P. (Jamie) Strange  Jamie is currently the Chair of and a Professor in the Department of Entomology. He came to OSU in 2019 after working for USDA-ARS for 13 years as a research entomologist. Jamie began his career working as a USDA technician on alfalfa breeding and seed production at the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, WA. He attended graduate school and studied honey bee health and genetics at Washington State University.  He spent a year doing a post-doc at Cornell University before returning to the USDA-ARS at the Pollinating Insect- Biology, Management, Systematics Research Unit in Logan, UT. There he began working on bumble bees, their biology, parasites, and population genetics. Currently, he is working on bumble bee conservation issues.

Liam Whiteman- PhD Student Liam completed his MS in the lab in May 2023 and is continuing his graduate work in the lab. Liam graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2020 with a B.S. in Entomology and a minor in Geography. He also holds a certificate in Geospatial Information Systems. During his undergrad, Liam pursued diverse opportunities to expand his understanding of ecology like surveying for the federally endangered Southwest Willow Flycatcher and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo for the Bureau of Reclamation and conducting an undergraduate research project looking at mosquito larvae distribution at a National Guard training base. He is broadly interested in invasion ecology, ecosystem restoration, and the conservation of native species. At Ohio State, Liam’s research focuses on bumble bee pathogen and parasites along environmental gradients.

Dr. Pinar Barkan joined the lab as a post-doctoral researcher in March 2022. She has been working on bumble bees for over 10 years. She obtained her PhD from Hacettepe University, Turkey. Her project focused on revealing the venom composition of bumble bees by using bottom-up proteomic approaches. She later worked at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden as a visiting researcher/ post-doc where she extended her skillset further in in vitro assays. Having observed sharp differences in key toxins in closely related species, she became interested in delineating the factors influencing bumble bee venom composition. She obtained the Swiss Government scholarship (FCS) and worked at the Ecospat lab in the University of Lausanne as a post-doc. There she studied the composition of Bombus pascuorum venom along an elevation gradient in the western Swiss Alps.

Dr. Morgan (Mo) Christman  Mo joined the lab as a post-doctoral scholar in June 2022. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology from Utah State University (USU), where she evaluated the impact of landscape structure, climate, and management practices on bumble bees in agroecosystems. Mo also obtained a certificate in Geographic Information Systems and was a National Science Foundation trainee within the Climate Adaptation Science program at USU. Mo’s research integrates population modeling, machine learning, geospatial analysis, and bumble bee ex situ rearing and husbandry to increase knowledge in order to provide more accurate conservation and management practices of bumble bee assemblages in agroecosystems throughout the United States. Currently, she is working on rearing, mating, and overwintering yellow-faced bumble bees. Additionally, she is assessing the impact of habitat quality and management practices on rusty-patched bumble bee abundance and colony density in Conservation Reserve Program fields in the Midwest.

Dante Centuori – PhD Student Dante graduated from Cleveland State University in 2022 with a B.S in Biology. He has had a long term interest in insects, which led to his undergraduate research at CSU focusing on the wild bees of Cleveland Ohio. This honed his general interest of insects onto native pollinators in urban environments, particularly native bees.

Brooke Donzelli– PhD Student Brooke graduated from The University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2022 with a B.S. in Biology.  Brooke gained an interest in plant/pollinator/pathogen interactions during her undergraduate career studying under Dr. Lynn Adler at the Adler Lab as an undergraduate research assistant while assisting Dr. Rosemary Malfi with her experiment studying the medicinal effects of sunflower pollen on the Crithidia bombi pathogen in Bombus impatiens. Brooke gained a deeper interest in Native bee taxonomy and pollination ecology while working as a laboratory technician for PhD Canidate Lucia Weinman at the Winfree Lab. She helped Lucia with her research using pollen analysis of native bees to study their diets and the plants they pollinate. Brooke then completed her undergraduate thesis under Dr. Lynn Adler and Dr. Gordon Fitch, researching the monoterpenes of the plant Monarda fistulosa asking if they reduce the Crithidia bombi pathogen in Bombus impatiens. At the Strange Lab, Brooke’s research will focus on impacts of disease, pathogen prevalence, and transmission on wild and solitary bees. 

Cole Knaus – Following graduation from the University of Minnesota in 2023 with a B.S. in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Cole worked as a Rusty Patched Bumble Bee eDNA Technician for the USGS. Cole gained experience not only identifying bumble bees such as Bombus affinis but also collecting eDNA samples from various flower species. During his undergraduate experience, an interest in Lepidopteran rearing led him to an internship at the Minnesota Zoo as a Butterfly Conservation Research Assistant. Here, he helped rear the threatened Dakota skipper and federally endangered Poweshiek skipperling alongside a team of entomologists. Experience with Minnesota bumble bee identification and insect rearing as well as an interest in bumble bee conservation led him to the Strange Lab. Cole hopes to continue to pursue research related to endangered pollinator conservation.

 

Undergraduate Researchers

Claire Nagy

Anne Gill

 

Former lab members

Iliana Moore- MS completed May 2023

Dr. Kayla Perry- Former Post Doc, now faculty at The Ohio State University

Cam Vaughn

Mary Kozlowski

Lizzy Sakulich- currently MS student with Karen Goodell

Gwen Stamper

Elizabeth Blackford