We are a group of comparative physiologists interested in linking physiology to species distribution
Katie Marshall
Associate Professor, UBC (2023 - )
Assistant Professor, UBC (2018 - 2023)
Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma (2016 - 2018)
NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC (2015 - 2016)
Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC (2013 - 2016)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Wilfrid Laurier University (2013)
PhD, University of Western Ontario (2007 - 2013)
BSc. (Hons), Acadia University (2003 - 2007
I fill in forms, and play with data any chance I get.
Jessica Li
PhD Candidate (co-supervised by Bill Milsom)
BSc (Honours), University of British Columbia (2020)
Metabolic scaling describes the relationship between metabolic rate and body size, but body size can change for many different reasons. I’m interested in asking how different forms of mass fluctuation affects metabolic scaling and looking at the underlying respiratory physiology. My Master’s research is currently focused on thirteen-lined ground squirrels, and asks how mass-specific metabolic rate changes throughout parturition, development from juvenile to adult life stages, and large, seasonal changes in mass in adults.
Alex Coverley
PhD Candidate
BA, MA
I integrate molecular techniques, respirometry, behaviour and biophysical modelling approaches to study energetic trade-offs in acclimating to thermal variability for insects. I am interested in incorporating overwintering physiology, microhabitat selection, and locomotive choices to predictions of insect responses when exposed to novel conditions.
Michael Belitz
Email | Google Scholar
NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology
PhD, University of Florida (2023)
MS, Central Michigan University (2018)
BA, Knox College (2014)
I am a global change biologist interested in building quantitative tools to answer pressing questions about how environmental change impacts biodiversity. My postdoctoral research focuses on quantifying how phenotypic sensitivity to climate change underpins population and community dynamics. As part of this project, I am building computer vision models to assemble body size measurements of individual beetles collected at NEON sites across the United States.
Josh (Chia Chi) Yang
MSc Student (Co-supervised by Jeff Richards)
BSc (Hons), University of British Columbia
I study intertidal thermal tolerance, usually in the realm of subzero temperatures but occasionally dabbling with the other end of the extreme. Specifically, I'm interested in investigating how animals such as mussels and barnacles recover from thermal stress, from the whole organism to the molecular level.
Emily Black
PhD Candidate
BSc (Honours), University of British Columbia (2022)
I am a spatial ecologist studying how the environment shapes the distribution, abundance, and evolution of Lepidopterans (butterflies and moths). My PhD research focuses on making better predictions of the consequences of climate change by incorporating physiology into ecological approaches such as species distribution modelling (SDMs) and understanding to what extent Lepidopterans are adapting to changing global environments
Laura-Anne Browning
Email
MSc Student
BSc (Hons), University of Northern British Columbia
I am currently researching how fall conditions impact insect overwintering cold tolerance and diapause. Diapause is an important state of slowed development that is essential for insects to survive winter, but there is little research on how fall conditions interact with diapause. The eastern spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) offers a unique opportunity to study the effects of fall conditions on their ability to diapause and tolerate the cold as well as their fitness post-diapause in the spring.
Alexandra Hardcastle
PhD Student
MS (2024), BS (2020), California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly, SLO)
I study how intertidal invertebrates use ice binding proteins to avoid freezing. Particularly, I’m interested in characterizing putative ice binding proteins and studying how organisms use these proteins to survive cold at multiple levels of biological organization.