people

Ruud Schilder (Principal Investigator) - Ruud received his MSc degree in Biology from Wageningen University (Netherlands), and his PhD degree in Biology from Penn State University. After postdoctoral studies at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE) and Penn State College of Medicine (Hershey, PA) he started as an Assistant Professor of Entomology & Biology at Penn State University in 2014, and currently is Associate Professor of Entomology & Biology.

Cannon Barnett (Graduate student in Entomology) - Cannon is an incoming student, starting officially in the Fall of 2026; welcome Cannon!

Be Eldash (Graduate Student in Biology) - Be spends most of her days trying to understand the strategies that animals use to meet their needs and how environment and biological characteristics shape their responses. She is particularly interested in questions about body size, energetics, and locomotion – which drew her to the Schilder Lab. Beyond her academic pursuits, you’ll often find her walking a dog at the animal shelter, jogging, and drinking craft beers, sometimes all at once.

Jules Cruz (Technician) - Jules received their B.S. in Biology from Lynn University in 2022. Their previous undergraduate research investigated the effects of temperature on metabolic rate during development in alfalfa leafcutting bees. At Penn State University, Jules was co-advised by Drs. Margarita López-Uribe and Ruud Schilder at the Ecology program, after which they continued in the role of laboratory technician. Jules is about to start PhD studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and generally interested in how abiotic and biotic stressors interact with pollinator health.

Nick Ivers (Postdoctoral Scholar) - Nick is an ecologist with interests in multi-trophic species interactions, mostly between flowers, bees, and parasites. He received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and studied parasitism in bees using both landscape epidemiology and community ecology. Currently, Nick is a postdoc at the University of Texas, Austin.

Laura Jones (Graduate student in Ecology) - Laura was an NSF graduate research fellow and co-advised by Drs. Margarita López-Uribe and Rudolf Schilder. She obtained her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA (USA) in 2018. At Penn State, Laura’s research integrates principles from disease ecology and insect physiology to investigate how disease pressure and climate may impact the thermal tolerance of solitary bees across their range. She received her PhD in 2023.

Kaley Hallmark (Graduate Student) - Kaley was a graduate student co-advised by Drs. Jared Ali and Ruud Schilder, who earned her Master of Science in Ecology from Penn State in December 2022. She studied chemical ecology, focusing on plant-insect interactions, monarch butterfly flight energetics, and migration.

Staci Cibotti (Graduate Student in Ecology) - Staci studied how environmental pollutants (insecticides) affect butterfly energetics and flight performance, and interactions with their host plants during larval life. She completed her PhD thesis in 2023 and is currently a pesticide program specialist with the Xerces Society.

Hannah Stewart (Graduate Student in Entomology) - Hannah studied how pathogens affect the thermal tolerance of bumble bees and received her Ph.D. degree in 2022. She currently works in Industry.

Victoria (Tori) Pocius (Postdoctoral Scholar) - Tori was a postdoctoral scholar in the lab between 2018-2020, co-advised by Drs. Jared Ali and Ruud Schilder. She studied plant-herbivore interactions, focusing on how exposure of monarch butterflies to a variety of milkweed species (as larvae) affect their growth and flight energetics. Tori currently works in Industry.

Ching-Wen Tan (Postdoctoral Scholar) - Ching-Wen was a postdoc in the lab between 2019-2022, co-advised by Drs. Jared Ali and Ruud Schilder. Ching-Wen is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology, National Chung Hsing University, where her research program focuses on multi-trophic interactions between plants and insects.

Alejandro Medina Valencia (Graduate student in Ecology) - Alejandro received his B.S. in Biology from Iowa State University in 2022. His previous undergrad research focused on the operative temperature of different species of bumblebees and how they were impacted by their coloration and caste. In 2022 Alejandro joined the Ecology PhD program at Penn State University under Dr. Margarita Lopez-Uribe and Dr. Ruud Schilder, and received his MSc in 2024.

S. David Stupski (Graduate student in Biology) - David was our lab’s first PhD student! He received his PhD in 2020, after which he did a postdoc with Dr. Floris van Breugel at the University of Nevada, Reno. Davis is currently a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Jeffrey Riffell at the University of Washington.

Brandon Gominho (Graduate student in Entomology) - Brandon was an amazing research technician and M.Sc. student (2016-2018) whose work focused on characterizing molecular stress responses in hawkmoths. Brandon currently work in Industry.

Jessica Kurth (Laboratory Technician) - Dr. Jessica Kurth (PhD in Dr. William Kier’s lab at UNC Chapel Hill) was a research technician in the lab between 2015-2016, and currently works in Industry.

Elizabeth Wagner (undergraduate student) - Lizz was a fantastic lab member during its early stages; even though she is nearby (currently a laboratory technician in the Ali lab), we miss her a lot :).