University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Ph.D. student John Guittar, and incoming Ph.D. students Jordan Bemmels and Katherine Crocker are recipients of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. They receive $30,000 a year for three years and an additional $10,500 annually for healthcare and tuition.

Bemmels hopes to study the genomic basis of local adaptation in drought tolerance in populations of a tropical tree species, along a precipitation gradient in Panama.  This work will provide insight into the evolutionary biology of drought adaptation, as well as have implications for predicting how populations may respond to changing climates. Bemmels has elected to put his funding on reserve status during 2011-2012.

Katherine Crocker will be doing behavioral ecology research with Professor Elizabeth Tibbetts, and she anticipates working with chemical communication in Hymenoptera, one of the largest orders of insects comprising wasps, bees, ants and sawflies.

Guittar will investigate the origins and evolution of Pouteria, a taxonomically confusing genus of trees with a high relative abundance in many tropical forests. Read more about Guittar’s research in the following news item. Pictured (left to right): Jordan Bemmels, Katherine Crocker, John Guittar.