Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University

EEOB PhD candidate David Hibler's work was recently featured in the American Institute of Stress' Combat Stress magazine! David's work focuses on using beekeeping as a therapeutic practice to help combat veterans deal with post-traumatic stress, improve mental health and well-being, and connect with the natural world. Congratulations to David on the feature - if interested, you can read more about it in the Combat Stress spring issue.

Happy National Sea Turtle Day!
EEOB has a few of our own, through the collections at ! Take a look at these: Leatherback Sea Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) and Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas). 🐢

Did you know about the Tour de Turtles? Follow to learn more, sea how tracking and tagging sea turtles can make a difference and how you can help! You can even use your phone to see the turtles activity! Thank you, and Sea Turtle Conservancy for what you do! One of the "races" began today! Go check it out at Tour de Turtles: https://tourdeturtles.org/peoples-choice/ (They also host a virtual run in the fall!)

Take some time and learn what you can do to protect our oceans and our wildlife!

If you're interested in Physiology, EEOB has a great course sequence to set you on your way this year! Take a look and join us!
Or
Are you asking what Physiology includes? AU26 will teach functional systems in invertebrates and vertebrates: respiration, circulation, water, ion, and energy balance; communication; locomotion; and reproduction.
In SP27 Physiological Ecology, you'll learn: Study of the physiological adjustment, tolerance, and acclimatization to the abiotic and biotic environment by animals and plants.

🌊🌊🌊
World Sea Turtle Day, June 16th

This week’s inspiration comes from PhD candidate Meredith Bennett, who studies the ecology of communities within intermittent streams. Meredith asked us to spotlight Dr. Mary Power, a professor at fellow land grant university, and an ecologist who has spent her career studying the function of whole ecosystems.

Dr. Power studied foraging ecology of crayfish during her PhD at the University of Washington and developed an early model of ideal free distribution in nature, which has remained an important modeling concept in ecology. She continues to study aquatic food webs with a focus on environmental drivers (temperature, flow, nutrient availability) at the University of California Berkeley and has received many awards and honors for her work including time spent as President of the Ecological Society of America.

In Meredith’s words, “What makes Dr. Power’s work so inspiring to me is how she emphasizes the power of species interactions to shape entire ecosystems. In her early career, she discovered one of the most well-known trophic cascades in aquatic ecology. In studies of Brier Creek in Oklahoma, she found that the presence of predatory Bass indirectly influences algal biomass by suppressing the foraging of Central Stonerollers, an algivorous minnow. As a fish ecologist working in southeast Oklahoma, this work was especially interesting to me and partly inspired an experiment I ran last summer! I found that predation risk influenced the likelihood of upstream movement of fish and crayfish following a rewetting event.”

Thank you, Meredith, for this week’s post!

One of the prestigious merit-based awards given to exceptional graduate students in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology (EEOB) is The Mary H. Osburn Memorial Graduate Scholarship (recognizing excellence in Graduate Student Research) at The Ohio State University.
Established in July of 1964, and updated by the family as recently as 2015, this annual endowment award is split between the School of Music, Department of Entomology and EEOB.
This year, EEOB is has elected to recognize 8 students.

EEOB is excited to announce MSc defense seminar for Kitt Kroeger, of Dr. Ian Hamilton's lab, on June 18, 2026! Join us for:
"Excuse me, what’s going on over there?
Variation in social information acquisition and use with multiple demonstrators" at 9:00am in Aronoff Lab, 104 or via zoom, link on the flier

What are you doing this summer?

Dr. Santos and her new grad student, Abi Huber, are spending two weeks at the at University of Washington. They've shared some cool photos with us just before they set out for Seattle!

They have been staining deep-sea fishes in iodine, which makes the internal organs stand out in x-rays and micro-CT scans. On their trip, they'll take these specimens to to use their micro-CT scanner. The project's goal, Dr. Santos says, is to visualize the brains of these fishes.

Congratulations to EEOB professor Dr. Rachelle Adams () who was recently awarded a grant from OSU's Women & Philanthropy fund for her work using ants as biosensors to improve early cancer diagnosis! Pictured here are some of the graduate & undergraduate students who Dr. Adams has mentored as part of her undergraduate research programming; this funding will help her expand her lab's capacity and offer more mentorship opportunities on this project.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/4o87gtj