Dr. Scott Villa recently joined the laboratory as an IRACDA FIRST program postdoctoral fellow. Scott received his PhD from the University of Utah, where he conducted a series of elegant experiments to study the impacts of lice adaptation to alternative pigeon hosts. This work was with Dale Clayton.

Scott will be developing the squash bug – Burkholderia system as a model to explore the impacts of symbiosis on sexual selection, hybridization, and reproductive isolation.

Quimi Vidaurre Montoya is a graduate from the laboratory of Andre Rodrigues. He is a mycologist studying the diversity, evolution and taxonomy of Escovopsis, a fungal parasite associated with the gardens of fungus-growing ants. We are excited to bring his expertise and love for fungi into the lab.