Lake Lincoln, Arkansas
Meet the members of the DuRant Lab!
Sarah DuRant, PhD
; 479-575-6364
I completed my Master's in 2006 and PhD in 2011 at Virginia Tech, then spent two years as a post doc at Tufts University. For 3.5 years I was faculty at Oklahoma State before joining the Dept. of Biological Sciences at University of Arkansas. My research focuses on animal responses to environmental stimuli, with particular focus on parental effects, disease ecology, and environmental temperature.
Ashley Love, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow, ;
Ashley completed her undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech and her PhD at Oklahoma State University. Ashley's research focuses on the importance of behavior in shaping individual and offspring immune responses. Ashley recently received an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to work with Dr. Sarah Knutie at UConn.
View Ashley's website here
Will Kirkpatrick
PhD student;
Will is a fervent Tennesee Vol's fan. His work focuses on temperature's role in shaping avian breeding behavior. Using a nest box system in Eastern Bluebird he's studying how temperature variability shapes parental care behaviors.
View Will's website here
Coleen Weist
Honors Undergraduate Researcher
Emma is a senior Biology major and Medical Humanities minor who has worked in the lab since Fall 2018. She is working on her Honors Thesis with Ashley Love investigating the relationship between maternal infection and antibody investment to offspring. Emma was awarded an Honors Research Grant and will defend her thesis in the spring of 2021.
Past Lab Members
Chris Goodchild, PhD
PhD student;
Chris graduated from Oklahoma University, then completed an MS at the University of New England and a PhD at Oklahoma State University. Chris’ research investigated the physiological effects of sublethal crude oil exposure in an avian model system to establish mechanistic links between subcellular indicators and ecologically relevant effects (e.g., whole-animal fitness, population-level endpoints). Chris was a postdoc in Kendra Sewall's lab at Virginia Tech and is now an Assistant Professor at University of Central Oklahoma.
Visit Chris' website here
Wayne Hawkins
Undergraduate Researcher
Wayne developed NestIQ, a program that uses machine learning to identify avian on- and off-bouts in thermal datasets collected from avian nests. You can download the program at https://github.com/wxhawkins/NestIQ. His manuscript is currently in review. Wayne is now pursuing a graduate careeer at U Michigan.
Anna Smith
Wentz fellow and Freshman Research Scholar
Anna is a Physiology major who started working in the lab her first semester on campus. She's been involved with numerous projects, won a Best Presentation award at the Karen L Smith Undergraduate Research Symposia, presented at the Animal Behavior meeting in Toronto, Canada, and received a Wentz Research Scholarship. Anna is currently exploring behavioral and immunological changes in social birds exposed to sick conspecifics. She's now in PT school.
Jeff Krall
Goldwater and Niblack Fellow
Jeff started working in the lab as a Freshmen. Jeff explored the bioenergetic consequences of exposure to crude oil using a bird model organism. Jeff has received several Best Presentation awards at local and national meetings. Jeff is also the recipient of the prestigious National Goldwater Fellowship and a Niblack Scholarship. Jeff is a grad student at Colorado St. University.
Kevin Grisham
Undergraduate Researcher
Kevin has been a jack-of-all-trades in the lab and has worked with birds, snakes and snails. Kevin completed an independent research project investigating the behavioral effects of exposure to waste water treatment facility effluent in snails. Kevin was recently accepted into Veterinary School at Oklahoma State University. He will be sorely missed!
Lauren Schmidt
Wentz Fellow
Lauren worked on her Honor's Thesis with Chris Goodchild investigating whether personality predicts behavioral and morphological responses to predators in snails. Lauren was the recipient of a Wentz Research Grant!
Past Summer Undergraduate Researchers
Mimi Tran
NSF REU
Mimi worked as an NSF REU student with me at Tufts University in the summer of 2012, while she was an undergraduate student at Univ. of Texas, Austin. After graduating, Mimi attended Vet school at the University of Wisconsin. Project title: Does life history stage affect the energetic costs of stress?
Current Collaborators
Jen Grindstaff, Oklahoma State University
William Hopkins, Virginia Tech
Michael Romero, Tufts University
Gary Hepp, Auburn University
Ignacio Moore, Virginia Tech
Dana Hawley, Virginia Tech
Kristen Navara, Univ of Georgia
JD Willson, Univ of Arkansas
Amanda Carter, University of Tennessee
Carolyn Bauer, Swarthmore University
Christine Lattin, Louisiana State University
Noha Youssef, Oklahoma State University
Shawn Wilder, Oklahoma State University
Erica Lutter, Oklahoma State University
Ryan Paitz, Illinois State University
Jessica Hite, University of Wisconsin
Brett DeGregorio, University of Arkansas