The Dillon Lab
Michael Dillon, Principal Investigator
Professor & L. Floyd Clarke Chair, Department of Zoology & Physiology and Program in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Wyoming. I am a broadly trained integrative organismal biologist primarily interested in the interplay between organism physiology and the abiotic environment. In particular, mountains provide striking abiotic gradients matched by fascinating organismal responses; I spend a lot of time running up and down mountains chasing (mostly) insects. See Research and Publications and here is a (hopefully) up-to-date CV .
MEGAN DILLON, LABORATORY MANAGER
Jordan Glass, Post-Doctoral Researcher in Zoology & Physiology
My research has focused on closely related, interacting effects that impact insect survival and persistence in light of climate change. My background ranges from studying nutritional physiology (B.Sc. – Arizona State University, 2016), to multiple-stressor frameworks and how these factors influence life-history traits and trade-offs and metabolic plasticity (M.Sc. – University of the Pacific, 2019), to the effects of thermal stress, temperature variation, and agrochemical exposure on the flight energetics, thermoregulation, and thermal physiology of large flying insects (Ph.D. – Arizona State University, 2023). My research goals are to improve our ability to predict the thermal vulnerability of bumble bee species by systematically measuring ecological, physiological, and molecular responses to environmental changes.
ALEX KURTT, MASTERS STUDENT IN ZOOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGY
I received my BS in biology and environmental science from Iowa State University in 2024. While there, I studied variation in thermal physiology between castes of bumble bees and assisted with rusty patched bumble bee conservation research. After graduation, I participated in an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I studied developmental stressors of hypobaria. My current research aims to explore how altitude affects bumble bees on the colony and individual scale, specifically in their ability to thermoregulate and the physiological adaptations that species have developed to cope.
RIPKEN WELLIKSON, MASTERS STUDENT IN ZOOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGY
SABRINA WHITE, DOCTORAL STUDENT IN ZOOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGY
I received my BS in Entomology and Nematology from the University of Florida in 2014, where I studied insect pest resistance to radiation under modified atmospheric conditions. Afterwards, I moved out west where I pursued work in the outdoor industry and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. I am broadly interested in insect adaptations to living in extreme environments and I am currently focused on the effects of heat stress on bumble bee worker capabilities and how that in turn impacts a colony’s success.
Alumni
DAVID M. SHAYNE DODGE, PhD IN ZOOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGY, 2025
SARAH WAYBRIGHT, PHD PROGRAM IN ECOLOGY and evolution, 2024
Sarah is now a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Felicity Muth (https://www.beecognition.com/) at University of California, Davis studying intra and interspecific differences in cognition in wild bumble bees, as well as how environmental variables and physiology interact to affect cognition more generally.
ELLEN KEAVENY, PHD PROGRAM in ECOLOGY and evolution, 2024
Ellen is now a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Eric Riddell (https://ecophysiology.org/) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill measuring desert tortoise physiology to inform biophysical models to predict current areas for conservation and suitable habitats in future climate scenarios.
RACHEL SUCHARSKI, BS PHYSIOLOGY, 2023
TAYLOR HATCHER, BS BIOLOGY, 2022
CLAIRE CAMPION, MS ZOOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGY, 2022
Claire received her Master’s degree in December of 2022. She is now in Minnesota working as a Science Educator & Outreach Coordinator at the nonprofit Science from Scientists!
CRAIG GARZELLA
TRAVIS RUSCH, POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHER, 2022
Travis’ postdoctoral research in the Dillon Lab focused on the thermal physiology of bumble and solitary bees. He accepted a postdoctoral position at the USDA in Manhattan, Kansas.
ETHAN ROWE, BS ZOOLOGY, 2021
Ethan was both a Wyoming Research Scholar and an recipient of a Wyoming NASA Space Grant fellowship. He coordinated between the Dillon lab and the Rule lab to use GC-FID to characterize fatty acid profiles for bumble bees, evaluated behavioral indicators of bumble bee queen rearing success, and characterized seasonal variation in sub-nivean insect communities and their thermal performance. He is now a PhD student in Michael Smith’s lab at Auburn.
SARAH WANNEMUEHLER, BS wildlife and fisheries biology and management, 2021
As a Wyoming Research Scholar and Wyoming NASA Space Grant fellow, Sarah studied how altitude and water affect dissolved oxygen in streams, rivers, and lakes and how, in turn, temperature and DO structure size distributions of aquatic invertebrates.
ROMAN WINTER, BS Zoology, 2021
ANNA CRESSMAN, BS Wildlife and fisheries biology and management, 2019
Zach Parsons, BS Zoology, 2019
Delina Dority, MS Zoology and Physiology, 2019
Christy Bell, MS Zoology and Physiology, 2019
Kennan Oyen, PhD Program in Ecology, 2018
Susma Giri, PhD Program in Ecology, 2016
Annie Krueger, BS Physiology, 2016
Kimberly Sheldon, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, 2014-2016
Sarah DePaolo, MS Zoology and Physiology, 2015
Jessica Vogt, MS Zoology and Physiology, 2014
Olivia H.A. Nater, MS Zoology and Physiology, 2014
Olivia completed her MS on the impacts of recent climate change on native bee and plant populations. She is now working for the IUCN in Geneva, Switzerland.
Jonathan Rader, MS Zoology and Physiology, 2014
Jonathan completed his MS looking at morphological diversification and isotopic niches of Cinclodes ovenbirds. He is now a PhD student in Ty Hedrick’s lab at UNC.
Mary Centrella, BS Zoology, 2013
Mary is working with Bryan Danforth and Katja Poveda.
