About

Ensuring a diversity of voices in science is both the just thing to do and leads to better science overall. See my thoughts on the role of diversity for theory in biology here.

I am committed to providing a safe and equitable lab environment. You can read more about our lab expectations (here) and regular self-assessments (here); these are actions we take to realize this commitment.

Our research aims to understand the factors that drive organisms to move and what consequences movement has for individuals, species, and communities.

Read the CBS blog posts about the lab and research here and the prairie dispersal project here.

See more about the Biological Theory Alliance (BioTA) at University of Minnesota here.

Upcoming

Jan-2023	Naven is attending the ASN Asilomar conference
May-2023	The 2023 Gordon Research Conference on movement ecology of animals

Recent news & events

Oct-2022	New paper by Allison, Martha, Meggan, and Sandra on using evolutionary game theory to study migration was accepted in Phil Trans B, as part of an issue for the 50th anniversary of John Maynard Smith's work.
Sep-2022	Ruby joined the lab to do a research project on models of migration in North American songbirds
Aug-2022	ESA 2022! Naven ran a symposium on new theory for mutualistic interactions, and gave a talk on his PhD work. Allison co-organized an organized oral session with Chris Moore on empirical perspectives the movement ecology of mutualisms but couldn't attend in person - thanks, covid.
Jul-2022	Dennis was awarded an NSF INTERN award for the fall. Congratulations!
Jul-2022	Amanda started a new position at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Congrats!!
Jul-2022	New paper on how symbionts can shape the population spread of their hosts was accepted in Oikos!
Jun-2022	Naven attended a workshop on mathematics for evolution during range expansions at the Fields Institute in Toronto in Jun-2020 Nov-2021 Jun-2022
Jun-2022	New paper with Frithjof Lutscher and Lea Popovic was accepted in Theoretical Ecology!
Jun-2022	Amanda's paper on theory for dispersal in urban environments was accepted in Population Ecology!
Jun-2022	Cece joined the lab for a summer REU to work with Martha on a modeling project about virulence of pathogens that infect migratory species; Peter joined the lab for the summer to work with Naven on a modeling project about mutualism and dispersal
May-2022	Martha has been awarded the Torske Klubben Fellowship for 2022-2023. Congratulations!
Apr-2022	Naven gave a seminar at the University of Virginia
Apr-2022	Allison gave a seminar in the Centre for Applied Mathematics in Bioscience and Medicine seminar series
Mar-2022	Naven was featured in the Market Science blog!
Mar-2022	Allison's paper on why diverse perspectives (arising from diverse identies) are critical for theory development in biology was accepted in Theoretical Ecology!
Feb-2022	New paper by Topher exploring how the genetic structure of dispersal affects dispersal evolution in spreading population was accepted in Evolutionary Ecology!
Jan-2022	New paper led by Sandra outlining future empirical directions based on some of our modeling work is here now in Biological Reviews!
2021	Allison was on sabbatical at Université de Montréal, visiting Sandra Binning's lab. See press here and here.
Dec-2021	Paper in collaboration with Chiara Accolla, Jeremy Chacón, Taz Mueller, Maxime Vaugeois, Ya Yang, Nitin Sekar, and Daniel Stanton on how failed retention contributes to mispresentation by race and ethnicity in academia is out! See news piece here
Dec-2021	Allison gave a seminar in the Organismal (CEEB) Seminar Series, at the Department of Biology, McGill University
Nov-2021	Dennis passed his written and oral prelim exams and has advanced to PhD candidacy -- congrats, Dennis!
Nov-2021	Allison gave a seminar in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa
Nov-2021	Allison gave a talk at the SQEBC (Société Québécoise pour l’Étude Biologique du Comportement) annual meeting in Sherbrooke
Oct-2021	Paper in collaboration with Chiara Accolla, Jeremy Chacón, Taz Mueller, Maxime Vaugeois, Ya Yang, Nitin Sekar, and Daniel Stanton on how failed retention contributes to mispresentation by race and ethnicity in academia was accepted in PLoS ONE!
Aug-2021	Allison is physically at Université de Montréal for Fall 2021 as a Fulbright Canada Scholar, visiting Sandra Binning's lab.
May 2021	Both Naven and Laurie gave talks at the virtual SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems
May-2021	Dennis's paper on how tolerance and migration interact as strategies to cope with infection was accepted in Journal of Animal Ecology!
Apr-2021	Laurie Balstad was awarded an NSF GRFP and is off to join the PhD program in population biology at UC Davis. Congrats!
Mar-2021	New NSF grant recommended for funding! Led by Naven and with Will Harcombe to explore interactions between mutualism and movement.
Mar-2021	New paper with Naven and with Daniel Stanton accepted in Ecology! We synthesize the links between mutualism and movement, drawing parallels across different organisms.