Research Team
Sarah E. Diamond Principal investigator |
(2020-present) Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University
(2018-present) Ecological Society of America Early Career Fellow (2017-2020) George B. Mayer Assistant Professor of Urban and Environmental Studies (2014-present) Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University (2010-2013) Post-doctoral Research Associate, North Carolina State University (2010) PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2005) BS, Bucknell University Sarah started doing research on the iconic goldenrod gallfly system in the lab of Dr. Warren Abrahamson at Bucknell University. Specifically, she explored host race formation in a small mordellid beetle, an inquiline of the goldenrod galls. After earning a bachelor of science degree from Bucknell, Sarah moved to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for her PhD research in the lab of Dr. Joel Kingsolver. For her dissertation research, she explored the ecological and evolutionary forces that governed the use of a human-introduced novel host plant by the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta. During this research, she became very interested in how organisms responded to anthropogenic changes in the environment. For her post-doctoral research in the lab of Dr. Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University, she studied how forest ant communities responded to experimental climate warming, with a focus on thermal physiology. Now in her faculty position at Case Western Reserve University, Sarah uses a variety of arthropod systems (with a particular focus on ants and butterflies) to perform experiments and models of thermal physiology and organismal responses to global climate change and urban heat islands. |
phd student Angie is interested in how butterflies cope with thermal challenges in urban environments. angela.lenard@case.edu |
Osmary Medina-Báez PHD STUDENT Osmary is exploring the determinants of interspecific variation in butterfly thermal physiological traits and intraspecific variation in these traits across ontogeny. oam23@case.edu |
Post-doc Gideon is using trait-based approaches to understand butterfly range shift responses to recent climate change. gxg277@case.edu |
Former Lab Members
Post-doc Carmen was a post-doc in the lab (2020-2021). She examined butterfly range shift responses to recent climate change and species climatic niche variation. |
Aaron Yilmaz phd student Aaron explored how arthropod thermal tolerance, desiccation tolerance, and body size evolve in response to urban heat islands and pollution. He is now a post-doc with the USDA. |
Stephanie Strickler research associate Stephanie was a research associate in the lab (2015-2017). She examined how species respond to urban environments, specifically focusing on the physiology and phenology of ants. She is now an Instructional Assistant Professor at Illinois State University. |
Lacy Chick post-doc Lacy was a postdoc in the lab (2015-2018). She then moved on to positions as an instructor at Case Western Reserve University and post-doc at Holden Arboretum, and is now a teacher and STEM coordinator for the Hawken School. |
Abe Perez PhD Student Abe was the first PhD student in the lab (2014-2020). He studied how ant community structure and biodiversity are influenced by changing environments. Abe is now a biostatistician at the University Hospitals Clinical Research Center. |
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