Emily and Lauren worked with me in the Bahamas and on campus developing a new means of trapping ants using 3d-printed pitfall traps. They spent two weeks during the summer of 2019 on the island of San Salvador the Bahamas catching, pinning, and identifying ants. They also presented their research at the 3rd Joint Symposium on the Natural History and Geology of the Bahamas at the Gerace Research Centre.

Andy and Will worked on isolating DNA samples from 18 colonies of Paratrechina longicornis collected during the 2017 research trip to the Bahamas. They also worked with me on creating the phylogeny based on previously collected colonies. They presented their work at the Bahamas National Trust conference in Nassau, The Bahamas in 2018.

Ashley and Bridget worked in my lab on amplifying and characterizing microsatellite markers in Paratrechina longicornis and joined me for the 2017 Gerace Research Centre conference on San Salvador. After presenting our work on the genotyping of the crazy ants they spent two weeks on the beaches and in the bush (their favorite part) of San Salvador Island, The Bahamas studying ant behavior at baits. We were also able to finally find queens in a Dorymyrmex antillanus, and determined this species is polygynous.

Julien and Alexis worked with me on a project to try and determine if Dorymyrmex antillanus had polygynous nests (multiple active queens). Although we spent days digging our way through the beaches of San Salvador Island, we were unable to locate queens. We did document nest structure and the interconnectivity of nests.

Rachel and Katie are working on the protocols that Jessica Hassan created to isolate genes from Paratrechina longicornis and are now in the process of amplifying and sequencing micro-satellite markers. We will use several markers to determine relatedness among behaviorally distinct populations of P. longicornis on San Salvador Island the Bahamas.

Zachory Park and I wrote a paper on invasive plant impact on an ant community in Virginia, published in the journal Myrmecological News. We then worked on statistical analysis of our ant behavior work from 2014, 2015, and 2017 in the Bahamas. We have completed that manuscript and it is now in review. While working with me he has developed ways to analyze our data using BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion), AIC (Akaike Information Criterion), and linear models using the statistical software R. Besides joining me on San Salvador as a research student, Zack also presented his work at conferences in Nassau, The Bahamas, and Baltimore, Maryland.

Jessica Hassan 15' worked with me on my ant genetics work for 3 years while at Elmira College. She developed the protocols that we now use to isolate genes from Paratrechina longicornis and was able to get sequences from micro-satelite markers in Tetramorium caespitum (our test ant of choice). Rachel Seweryniack and Katelyn Slaver have now taken over this work and are using these methods to look at our Bahamaian ants.

Chelsea joined my lab in 2012 to help pin and identify ants from my October 2011 Saguaro National Park collecting event. During the August of 2012 Chelsea and I traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park for a 3 day collecting adventure during for the National Geographic Society and National Park Service Bioblitz. We collected, pinned and identified 22 species of ants from altitudes ranging from 8000 to 12,200 feet.

Teria took part in our 2012 summer research program at Elmira College. Teria was extremely productive and made great progress on several projects that I have been working on since the days of Kimmy Kellett (back in 2008). She created a protocol to quantify DNA in a sample using our new Carey Eclipse Flourimeter (we now have a new nano-drop reader). Teria was then finally able to get excellent PCR amplification of cytochrome oxidase from a single ant leg. We were able to extract the gene from the electrophoresis gel and, using the flourimeter to determine the quantity of DNA present in the sample, we were able to successfully complete a DNA sequencing reaction. Teria also began working on the new Agilent GCMS, continuing the 'ant smell' project.

Alicia has been working with me during the 2011-2012 school year and during term III in the Bahamas. Her project is a continuation of Brendan Sanders work on predation of jimbay seeds on San Salvador Island. She has compiled a massive amount of data on seed predation and wasp predation of beetles from across San Salvador. Alicia presented her research and submitted her paper at the 15th Symposium on the Natural History of the Bahamas. She also presented a poster at the UMBC conference on undergraduate research and won 1st place in her division.

Brendan began working with Dr. Egan and I in 2009 when he enrolled in Marine and Island Ecology. While on San Salvador he collected samples of Jimbay. He has recorded seed predation events by a bruchid beetle as well as a lepidopteran. He also found a parasitoid wasp that has attacked the beetle. We have completed this work and presented this research at the 14th Symposium on the Natural History of the Bahamas. The manuscript was published in 2013.

Henry worked in my lab during 2010-2011. He took over for Jessica Reed and continued the hydrocarbon work until the GCMS died. We recently purchased a brand new agilent GCMS and Teria Bain continued with project during the summe of 2012.

Jessica did research in my lab during the summer of 2010. She worked on a new project exploring the relationship among cuticular hydrocarbons and the phylogeny of the ants. She presented our work at the UMBC undergraduate research conference in the fall of 2010. Watch her describe her work on Youtube.

Conner was a biology/environmental studies double major working on a large USDA/Johns Hopkins project exploring the impact of organic farming on arthropod communities. We counted and identicied the ants from this study. The study is a comparison of pit-fall traps from till, no till, and organic farming sites. During the summer of 2009 Conner and Jessica Phillips pinned over 3000 ants and counted a total of 9022 ants as part of this study.

Jessica was a biology major working in my lab on the USDA/Johns Hopkins project. Along with her and Conner's work on the farm ants they were also working on perfecting the isolation and amplification of genes from small amounts of ant tissue. They both worked in my lab during 2010 to try and finish the molecular work as well as help in writing the publication for the USDA data. This work was presented as a poster at the most recent IUSSI meeting in Copenhagen Denmark. Conner and Jessica both helped collect specimens at two bioblitzes near the Patuxent River during the spring of 2009. They also worked with me on the Bahamian insect database, adding over 900 beetles. Jessica worked very hard helping to edit and perfect the manuscript which will be published in 2011.

During my junior year I did research with Dr. Kjar. My research focused on comparing ant community diversity from high and low elevations in Western New York. This research project gave me experience in the laboratory as well as extensive field work.

I worked on the Smithsonian Formicid Type Database. I now have a basic understanding of database programming, and I have become proficient at doing historical descriptive literature analysis and inputting type specimen information.
During the summer of 2008, I was granted a Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) Scholarship to work on a research project in Germany. I spent ten weeks working in tandem with a German PhD student on a hydrobiology project investigating the effects of the parasite Ligula intestinalis in species of wild roach. This experience allowed me not only to further refine my clinical skills but also enhanced my ability to relate to people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.