I am a second year PhD graduate student in the IDP in Insect Science at the University of Arizona.  My major advisor is Dr Wulfila Gronenberg at the Arizona Research Labs-Division of Neurobiology.
I am broadly interested in many aspects of ant biology including neuroethology, chemical ecology and behavior. I am trying to operantly condition ants to perform simple behavioral tasks. My goal is to find a repeatable behavior to look for concurrent changes in their brain as result of their "learned" experiences.

My career in science is very recent, however I have learned a lot in this short time................

.Last year I participated in a tropical ecology field course through the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica.  OTS offers amazing courses for graduates and undergrads-a definite must for those interested in the tropics with a love for organismal biology. While the course is extremely challenging physically and mentally the overall experience is unforgettable.  Additionally, the Central American microfauna provided four months of mind-boggling fascinations.
I got into the bug thing a few years ago while doing a field course at The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii. I later joined the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Dept. at Cornell University where I recieved my Bachelor's of Science. I studied the interactions between adult and larvae of the Paper wasp, Polistes dominulus in response to feeding of chemically defended caterpillars under the supervsion of Dr Linda Rayor in the Department of Entomology.  I found that larvae salivate in a quantitative and measurable way to food provided and adults are keenly adapted to this response. Adults respond to their young by altering the types of prey items brought back to the nest. Later I moved to Hawaii and was employed by Valerie Fournier a student at UCDavis as a research technician to work on a community ecology project involving the some of the smallest invertebrates-The Mighty Mites on a Papaya plantation.

I also interned at the Smithsonian Enviromental Research Institute (SERC) with Dr. Ilka Feller in Edgewater, Maryland. I was trying to elucidate the interactions between a galling midge, the fungus it feeds on and the Malvaceous plant that it builds its home in with the added complication of numerous parasitoids. Swamp work is tough but the Cheasapeake Bay is a wonderful place teaming with animal and plant life and of course the seafood is clearly a perk.
 

Links:
My website is still under construction.
Pictures from Costa Rica and Panama.
Cool sites that I frequent:

The Scene in Tucson: The Tucson weekly has it all!
Need to buy good cheap books (the dilemma of every grad student): Abe Books has a lot of competitive prices
For an up to date source of news info: The Independent a British Newspaper
The charity effort for the day: Hungersite. The Breast Cancer, Animal Site and the Rainforest Site can also be found here.