PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Rachael Winfree

Rachael Winfree is a Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. The goal of her work is to better understand the causes and consequences of biodiversity change, particularly in real-world settings and at large spatial scales. She works with bee pollinators and pollination as a system and is active in pollinator conservation. Her work has been funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and has been published in leading scientific journals including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Ecology Letters, and Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. From 2015-2019 she was one of approximately 170 scientists worldwide (and one of approximately 20 women) on the list of highly cited researchers in the field of environment / ecology. Rachael is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. She serves on the board of directors of the Xerces Society, which has the largest pollinator conservation effort of any nonprofit. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University in 2001 and her B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1990. She is currently Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Graduate Program Director in Ecology & Evolution, at Rutgers University.

Rachael Winfree CV / Google Scholar

RESEARCH ANALYSTS

Dr. James Reilly

James is an ecological modeler and data scientist who develops and analyzes mathematical and statistical models in collaboration with various members of the lab. James received his Ph.D from Cornell University in 2009.  James Reilly CV

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Elyse Talley

Elyse is a third-year PhD student interested in understanding how spatial and habitat patch characteristics interact to influence biodiversity, particularly in landscapes heavily altered by anthropogenic change. For her dissertation research, she is working with the National Park Service to explore patterns in the distribution of wild bee and plant species across the Boston Harbor Islands. Elyse received her BA in Biology from the University of Evansville in 2023. Elyse Talley CV

LAB ALUMNI/AE – POSTDOCS

• Katie Turo is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Fordham University Google Scholar

• Natalie Lemanski is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Ramapo College   Google Scholar

• Mark Genung is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at University of Louisiana     Google Scholar

• Dan Cariveau is an Associate Professor in Entomology at the University of Minnesota     Google Scholar

• Ignasi (Nacho) Bartomeus is a tenured researcher at EBD-CSIC (Doñana Biological Station), Seville    Google Scholar

• Geetha Nayak was a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab and now works at the UN Environment Programme
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• Romina Rader is a tenured Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at the University of New England, Australia    Google Scholar

LAB ALUMNI/AE – GRADUATE STUDENTS

• Andrew Aldercotte, Ph.D 2025 – Google Scholar
• Dylan Simpson, Ph.D 2024 – Postdoc at Northwestern University / Chicago Botanic Garden   web site  |  Google Scholar
• Lucia Weinman, Ph.D 2023 – Postdoc at University of California, Davis   Google Scholar
• Colleen Smith, Ph.D 2020 – Postdoc at University of California, Santa Barbara   Google Scholar
• Michael Roswell, Ph.D 2020 – Postdoc at University of California, Davis   Google Scholar
• Bethanne Bruninga-Socolar, Ph.D 2018 – Postdoc at the University of Minnesota   web site | Google Scholar
• Tina Harrison, Ph.D 2016 – Postdoc at the University of California, Davis  Google Scholar
• Faye Benjamin, Ph.D 2015 – Adjunct Professor, Hofstra University Google Scholar
• Molly MacLeod, Ph.D. 2015 – Senior Manager in Science Content, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals
• Sean Griffin, MS 2015 – Postdoc in the Jha Lab at University of Texas, Austin web site / Google Scholar

LAB ALUMNI/AE – UNDERGRADUATES

• Aaron Scheiner ’21, PhD student in Applied Math, Northwestern University
• Casey Hamilton ’19, MS student, Penn State University
• Rosy Tucker ‘17, Graduate School of Education, University of Virginia
• Joe Zientek ’16, Lab manager, Oakland University
• Kurtis Himmler ’16, MS student in Biology, Loyola University
• Tiffany Bennett ’16, Forester, Gracie and Harrigan Consulting
• Hinal Patel ’15, MD student, Drexel College of Medicine
• Abigail Cohen ’14, Ph.D student, University of Washington
• Bridget Johnson ’13, Peace Corps, Paraguay
• Samantha Hauser ’11, Postdoc at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee