Lab members
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Allison Shaw (Associate Professor, EEB)
My research interests lie at the intersection between ecology, evolution, behavior and theory. In particular, I am fascinated by movement: a behavior found in all organisms that is often adaptable on short time scales, and influences the ecology of populations. I am interested in the factors that drive organisms to move, the consequences of movement, and feedback between these two. Generally, I construct either analytic or simulation models, which are fantastic tools for studying the interface between ecological and evolutionary processes. [CV-pdf] [Google Scholar] [Math Genealogy Project] |
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Naven Narayanan (Graduate Student, EEB) I joined the Shaw Lab in Fall 2018. I’m interested in how mutualistic (positive) species interactions shape the ecology and evolution of species dispersal. I answer my questions using analytical work and numerical simulations of Integro-difference Equations (IDEs) and Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). Both IDEs and PDEs are great tools to model spatial-temporal ecological processes. More recently, I'm collaborating with Dr. William Harcombe to test some of my modelling results in an experimental microbial mutualism. |
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Dennis Kim (Graduate Student, EEB) As a PhD student, I want to advance our knowledge on how to link both theoretical and practical approaches to the development of ecology. Currently, I am interested in how interactions among individuals of the same species and environmental changes affect animals’ decision-making on their dispersal patterns. I am also interested in how animal movement determines individual fates, which may allow populations to adapt to environmental changes. |
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Martha Torstenson (Graduate Student, EEB) Throughout my PhD I plan to use theoretical tools to understand how migratory species can be expected to respond to climate change. I am interested in how animals respond to changes in environmental variability and stochasticity at different scales, from increases in severity and frequency of extreme climate events to shifts in seasonal patterns. I would like to investigate how migration as a strategy interacts with these changes to shape population dynamics. |
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Cece Shao (Undergraduate student, Biochemistry and Computer Science) I am an undergraduate student working on a REU concerning virulence in migratory populations. I am broadly interested in computational and mathematical approaches to research in the biological sciences. |
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Peter Lutz (Undergraduate student, EEB and Computer Science) I'm an undergraduate working on a summer research project related to mutualisms and dispersal. My academic interests are ecology, computer science, and mathematical modeling. Before becoming a student in 2020, I worked as a chef at various restaurants in Minneapolis. |
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Ruby Ales (Undergraduate student, Biology and Mathematics) I am an undergraduate student studying biology and mathematics. I joined the Shaw lab in Fall of 2022 to shadow PhD candidates and to do directed reading of primary literature in preparation for a senior-year thesis. Within the lab, my interests lie mostly in habitual movement, and my current directed project focuses on migration in birds and the effects of climate change on those patterns. |
Honorary / Visiting lab members
None at the moment. Want to come visit?
Past Minnesota lab members
Recent collaborators
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Theory Group
In the past (from 2014-2022) our lab facilitated an informal theory and modeling lab group meeting, open to anyone in EEB, PMB and beyond. The aim was to create a forum for providing feedback on ongoing modeling work...and to sometimes make theory-related desserts.
Biological Theory Alliance (BioTA)
We're part of the University of Minnesota's Biological Theory Alliance (BioTA), which aims to bring together researchers who use conceptual and mathematical modeling to understand biology.
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[Logo design by Carmen Martin]
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