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Research Assistants

Research assistants within the lab explore a varieity of topics including neuroethology, behavioral ecology, animal communication, and sexual selection. If you are interested in seeking a research position in the lab, please contact Dr. Cummings.

Kathryn RuddickKathryn Mislinski Ruddick

My Interests:

I am mainly interesetd in fisheries management through maintaining a balance between public use of the resource and the resource itself. My graduate research focused on preliminary abundance estimates of mayflies in Mille Lacs Lake (2nd largest inland lake in Minnesota) as a food source for walleyes. Understanding potential prey abundance increases the ability for more accurate fish population estimates which are used for setting future fish harvest limits. My current research in the Cummings' Lab is centered on how marine fish utilize polarized light in their environment for camouflage as well as conspecific communication. Exporation into vertebrate behavior based on polarized light is limited and could have interesting implications in conservation and management of our resources.

Education:

2009 M.S. Conservation Biology: Fisheries & Aquatic Biology, University of Minnesota
2005 B.S. Biology: Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, University of Texas at Austin


Robert Ian EtheredgeRobert Ian Etheredge

My Interests:

My biological interests are broad but often stem from the crossroads of sensory ecology and social behavior. As an undergraduate my work focused on female polymorphism and social interactions in damselflies. Current projects explore the role of polarized light in communication and camouflage strategies in fish, cephelopods and scarabs. I am also interested in the development of software programs and technologies for use in the collection and analysis of biological data.  

Education:

2010 B.S. Biology: Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, University of Texas at Austin

Publications:


Korey ConleyKorey Conley

My Interests:

As an undergraduate, I was interested in the effects of environmental conditions on social behavior in sailfin mollies as well as multiple different species of flora found in Austin. I have worked on various projects throughout the lab including courtship networking in mosquitofish and salifin mollies alongside RNA sequencing  to discover more about coercion and courtship mating tactics. Now, I have a very broad interest in multiple fields including social behavior, evolution, and sensory ecology.

Education:

2012 B.S. Biology: Ecology, Evolution & Behavior, University of Texas at Austin