Research

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

PhD Dissertation

During my PhD, I aim to learn how honey bee circadian rhythms may be affected by the use of the shaking signal (SS) to adapt to changes in the timing of floral resources that provide nectar and pollen. 

The research focuses on two scales, individual and colony-level responses. I will test the hypothesis that SS provides the colony with information about the timing of food availability and thereby regulates worker tasks appropriately.  

All experiments are conducted at the Nieh Lab apiary at the UCSD Biology Field Station using three frame observation colonies. My projects include technology such as 4K cameras and radio frequency identification tags (RFID) to drive and answer new questions in behavioral ecology. This work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 Training Grant.

Latest Publication

Kim, A.Y., Rankin, D.T. & Rankin, E.E.W. What is that smell? Hummingbirds avoid foraging on resources with defensive insect compounds. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 75, 132 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03067-4

NSF Article about this work- click here

Outside Project: Engineers for Exploration (E4E)

E4E is a team of engineering undergraduate and graduate students who are developing and using technology to answer new questions in ecology, conservation, and archaeology. This organization is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Qualcomm, Intel, and more. 

As part of the Radio Telemetry Tracker Team, our goal is to track larger animals that are found on rough terrains by using drones and tracking wildlife radio collars. The Radio Telemetry Tracker project is a collaboration between the San Diego Zoo’s Beckman Institute for Conservation Research (ICR) and UC San Diego’s Engineers For Exploration. My current responsibilities include building out the drones and testing them in variable environmental conditions for future deployments (Arkansas and Turks and Caicos).