Boughman - People

Research Assistants

Mallory Barnes
Jack Bolas
Johanna Heineman-Pieper
Stephanie Kim
Robert Kitsis

Past Lab Members

Past Postdoc and Grad Students:

Megan Head
Nicole Rafferty
Melissa Reisland

Past Undergraduate Students:

Kris Aquilino
Dana Bigham
Andrea Brauer
Angus Chandler
Kurt Hagemann
Madeline Hartjes
Andy Henn
Jen Hutchens
Anne Janisch
Emily Kalnicky
Paul Kell
Robert Kirchner
Erik Kopperud
Eva Lewandowski
Claire Long
Kevin Loope
Matt Manes
Melanie Nelson
Matt Rounds
Nate Rogers
Brian Schreier

Postoctoral Researchers

Idelle Cooper

Ph.D. Indiana University - Bloomington, 2008
B.A. Grinnell College, 2001

I'm interested in the roles of natural and sexual selection in shaping intraspecific variation, including sexual dimorphism and female-limited dimorphism, as well as their roles in speciation. For my Ph.D. I explored the adaptive significance of a female-limited color dimorphism in a Hawaiian damselfly by characterizing clines of coloration over ecological gradients, mating behavior of the female morphs, and examined the potential function of pigmentation as an antioxidant. Those studies supported natural, rather than sexual selection, as the mechanism for the female-limited dimorphism. In the Boughman lab, I am studying the similar questions of shape variation, coloration, and natural versus sexual selection in stickback populations as well as investigating the genetic basis of sexual selection.

Graduate Students

Genevieve (Genny) Kozak

B.S. Cornell University, 2004

University Fellow 2004-2005
NSF Predoctoral Fellow 2005-2009
AAUW Fellow 2009-2010

How do social behavior and learning contribute to the formation of new species? My dissertation work seeks to determine how social behavior and learning influence reproductive isolation in recently diverged pairs of threespine stickleback species. I wish to relate changes in mate recognition directly to social behavior by investigating how different types of experience (within groups and with parents) alter group member recognition and mate recognition. I am also interested in how the environment affects the expression of recognition and am investigating how discrimination changes with exposure to predators. I hope to be able to compare how experience within a group, with parents, and with predators affects the likelihood of mating with heterospecifics and reproductive isolation in these species pairs.

Genny Kozak's Page

Alycia CR Lackey

B.S. Biology - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006

I started my Ph.D. program in the Boughman Lab at UW-Madison in 2006, and I have interests in evolution, behavior, and selection.

I am currently exploring the precursors and consequences of hybridization between two species of threespine sticklebacks. I am asking what ecological changes may have facilitated hybridization between these previously reproductively isolated species. What combinations of morphologies and behaviors have the highest fitness in the new environment? Will introgression continue until the two previously distinct species are lost? This research allows a unique way to study the mechanisms of speciation because we are witnessing the breakdown of reproductive isolation and speciation is typically studied in the forward direction.

I also have interests in teaching science, designing and developing curricula, and sharing my passion for the study of evolution with others.

Research Assistants

Mallory Barnes

I am a 4th year undergraduate studying Zoology here at UW- Madison. My interests include marine biology, animal behavior, and primates. I've been working in the lab since July 2006 as a research assistant. The past year in lab I've been working on my senior honors thesis on sexual imprinting in hybrid sticklebacks.

Jack Bolas

I am a Senior majoring in Zoology. I am interested in human and animal physiology and environmental conservation. I am new to the lab and pumped to play with some sticklebacks.

Johanna Heineman-Pieper

I am a first year undergraduate majoring in biology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I also plan on also receiving a certificate in Spanish. I love animals and am very interested in learning about them. I love to scuba dive, horseback ride, and observe animals in their natural habitat. I am thrilled to be able to assist in Jenny Boughman’s Lab and plan on gaining as much knowledge as possible.

Stephanie Kim

I am an 2nd year undergraduate student in Madison at UW. My intended major is biology and I am studying to be a dentist for my career. I wanted to be in Jenny Boughman's lab because I am very interested in animals and love to learn about their behaviors and habitats. And I am really having fun doing research right now, and am observing stickleback's grouping behavior in different circumstances.

Robert Kitsis

I am a second year undergraduate studying biology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison with the intentions of Pre-Med. I plan on also receiving a certificate in Integrated Liberal Studies and in Leadership. I am a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. I have a wide range of interests including all aspects of Biology to Western Literature. This year I am working in the lab as a research assistant studying hybridization of the three-spined stickleback.

Past Lab Members

Past Postdocs and Graduate Students:

Megan

Megan Head

Publications

B.S. - Australian National University, 2001
P.h.D - University of New South Wales, 2005

My broad research interests are in the field of evolutionary and behavioural ecology. More specifically, I’m interested in the evolution of mate choice. For instance, how do female mate choice decisions affect their fitness? How does selection act on males to produce exaggerated sexual ornaments? How do indirect genetic effects influence the evolution of mate choice? Can mate choice evolve when there are costs to being choosy? How do environmental parameters affect mate choice decisions?...So many questions...

In the Boughman lab I will be applying this interest to investigating how mate choice contributes to speciation and the maitenance of reproductive isolation between species pairs (i.e. benthic and limnetic sticklebacks that live in the same lake).

Nicole Rafferty

NSF Pre doctoral Fellow 2004-2007
M.S. University of Wisconsin - Madison. Boughman Lab
B.S. Washington University 2003

Publications:

Rafferty N & Boughman JW. (2006) Olfactory mate recognition in a sympatric species pair of threespine sticklebacks. Behavioral Ecology,17: 965-970.

N. E. Rafferty, P. D. Boersma, and G. A. Rebstock. 2005. Intraclutch egg-size variation in Magellanic penguins. Condor. 107: 921-926.

P. D. Boersma and N. E. Rafferty. In review. Age affects clutch volume in Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus). Submitted to Auk.

Melissa Reisland

Melissa B.S. - College of Wooster, 2004

I’m a second year graduate student in Biological Anthropology here at Madison. I am interested in primate behavior, specifically social behavior, and anthropogenic effects on primate behavior. I received my undergraduate degree in Biology from the College of Wooster in 2004. I traveled to Costa Rica to study vocal behavior in white-faced capuchin monkeys for my senior thesis at Wooster. I then spent seven months in Cape Town working as a research assistant on a project measuring the effects of monitors on baboons that live near the city. In the lab, I am working on a project to see how different lighting conditions affect mate preference in limnetic and benthic sticklebacks.

Kozak GM, Reisland M & Boughman JW. (2009) Sex differences in mate recognition for species with mutual mate choice. Evolution. 63: 353 365.