Biology

BIOL 122 Introductory Biology 
BIOL 325 Insect Biodiversity
BIOL 485 Costa Rican Biodiversity
BIOL 501 Advances in Systematics Research
BIOL 675 Coleoptera evolution
BIOL 675 Insect evolution

Entomology; Insect biodiversity (systematics), especially on the Coleoptera (beetles).

I study insect diversity in highly threatened habitats to understand the effect of habitat alteration on particular groups of interest, such as the scarabaeine dung beetles, and to discover new species before they have gone extinct.  Research also centers on the evolution of various groups of beetles.  In particular, I am interested in conducting phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses, revisions of poorly known taxa, and behavioral and ecological studies. For phylogenetic projects, the current emphasis in the lab is the acquisition of molecular sequence data, but morphological data is also gathered in some cases for a total evidence approach to produce the most robust hypotheses of evolution.  The major current and specific research projects in my lab include:

The Ghana Insect Project. 
Insect biodiversity (systematics), especially on the Coleoptera (beetles).
The global diversity of spider beetles.
West African insect biodiversity, especially dung beetle diversity and ecology, and their use in conservation biology.
Evolution of the dung beetles.
Evolution of the bostrichoid beetles.
Evolution of the Water Penny Beetles.

Ph.D. 1997. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
        Entomology, with emphasis on Coleoptera systematics. Dissertation: Systematics of New World Spider Beetles (advisors: N. Johnson and C. Triplehorn).

M.S. 1990. Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
        Entomology, with emphasis on Coleoptera systematics. Thesis: A Revision of the Methiini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) of the West Indies and circum-Caribbean Area (advisor: M. Ivie).

B.Sc. 1986. Carleton University, Ottawa, ON
        Biology Honours degree.