Educational Biography:
I've been teaching at Wesleyan since 1993. Recent courses include Introduction to Physiology, Animal Behavior, Environmental Science, Evolution, and honors courses in environmental science and the biology of human nature. I'm developing two new courses for non-majors, each of which will revolve around problems that are important to society. I'm also chair of the Biology Department and project leader in the effort to build new science facilities at Wesleyan, and I'm co-director of the West Virginia Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, a research competition for high school students.

Students in Introduction to Physiology, a sophomore course for Biology majors, learn basic animal physiology through lectures, labs, in-class discussions, and computer simulations. The emphasis in this course (and, truthfully, in most of my courses) is on developing strong scientific arguments, whether in lab reports, test essays, papers, or oral presentations. Discussion topics include papers from the scientific literature, scientific integrity, and the relationship of physiological research to society. In lab, students not only learn some anatomy and histology, but also conduct experiments in cardiovascular and osmoregulatory function on themselves, in addition to designing their own experiments later in the semester. Twenty-five to forty-five students enroll in this class each fall.

Animal Behavior is a small class, enrolling about 12 juniors and seniors every other fall. The "lecture" class is run as a seminar in which students discuss assigned readings from the scientific literature, some of which they select themselves. In lab, we spend the first few weeks of class doing exercises to illustrate basic observational techniques and experimental design principles as these are applied to behavior, and then each group of students carries out an independent research project for the rest of the semester. Recent projects included studies of territoriality in salamanders; mate choice in Betta splendens, in college students, and in soldier beetles; the effect of familiarity on response to odors in gerbils; and acoustic communication (using digital sound analysis equipment) in crickets and domestic cats.

Students in Evolution learn about population genetics, the evolution of social behavior, sexual selection, the evolution of aging, speciation, human evolution, and macroevolution (large scale patterns in evolution over long periods of time). Some of this course is focused on important social problems such as understanding the HIV epidemic and conservation of endangered species. We read and discuss recent papers from the scientific literature, as well as Beak of the Finch, a popular non-fiction book. There are 25-35 students in this junior course for majors each spring.

I enjoy teaching non-majors as well as our Biology majors. I frequently teach Environmental Science, a course that introduces students to not only the science, but also some of the social, political and economic aspects of environmental problems. In lecture we have frequent discussions of case studies or current events, as well as end-of-semester debates on environmental issues, with the issues selected by the class. In lab students conduct group projects (as well as doing a variety of interesting experiments and computer simulations). These projects vary from giving lessons in environmental education at a local public school to developing a PR campaign for some environmental issue to water quality studies in the local watershed. Students often use what they learned in other courses or internships to develop projects that really capture their interest. I will be offering General Biology II, a new course, for the first time this spring. This course is designed according to the SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) model. Students will learn cell biology and genetics through work centered on the HIV epidemic and human genetic disease.

My main research interest is in behavioral ecology, specifically mate choice and parental care. I'm currently studying Trypoxylon lactitarse, a solitary wasp. T. lactitarse is unusual among wasps in that males take up residence within the females' nests during the nesting cycle. Males associate with individual nests in a few other species, but the abundance of T. lactitarse and its acceptance of artificial nests make this an ideal wasp for the study of mating behavior and parental care. Like other wasps, T. lactitarse is haplodiploid. Unfertilized eggs develop into males and fertilized eggs, into females. A male's relatedness to the brood (as measured by brood sex ratio) affects his tendency to associate with entire nests, and may also affect male-female interactions at the time of mating and oviposition. Recently, I have been working to identify DNA microsatellites in this species in order to determine whether the "guard" male fathers all or only some of the female offspring in his nest.

Before coming to Wesleyan, I taught for six years at Montgomery College, a community college in Rockville, Maryland. I received my Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Maryland at College Park. My undergraduate and master's degrees, both in Zoology, were earned at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. It was at UT that an undergraduate research project stimulated my interest in an academic career. For this reason, I have mentored a number of students through research projects at Wesleyan and always encourage our students to seek out summer research opportunities here and elsewhere.

I have two children. My daughter, Amy, is working on her Ph.D. in physical anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and my son, Brian, is on active duty with a unit of the National Guard, stationed in west Texas. I enjoy reading, hiking, camping, and gardening. I'm very happy to share my home with two midget cats and my back yard with the flocks of birds that use the various feeders, birdbaths and nest boxes I've placed there.