Student Researchers

Current Masters Student(s)

Kyler J. Rogers

Masters Student
Beckers Lab (Joined Lab in Spring 2019)

Research overview: I am broadly interested in parasitoid ecology and exploitation in communication systems. Specifically, I study the host-parasitoid relationship between Neoconocephalus katydids (host) and the fly Ormia lineifrons (parasitoid). I'm driven to understand if O. lineifrons exhibit any host preferences, how the parasitism rate(s) of host species change over the course of their season, and how parasitoid development differs among host species. Unlike other well-characterized host-parasitoid systems, there is still much to learn from this evolutionarily relevant system.

Kyler J. Rogers's Graduate Thesis: Characterizing the Host Usage and Development of Ormia lineifrons (Diptera: Tachinidae)" (MS #1272)

Current undergraduate student workers:

Madissen Prinster
Leah Reibold
Dana Williams
Sammy Hartnagel

Former students:

Daniel Orr (working for USDA)
Katherine Murphey (Ph.D. student at University of Missouri)
Nicolas Blumenberg (Masters student at Western Kentucky University)
Samantha Stevens
Mary Krahulec
Jordan Kelly
Rihab Jarray
Nicholas Norman (Graduated summer 2017 from Murray State)
Courtney Burden
Hannah Adamson
Ashton Hurst
Jacob Pease (Graduated summer 2018 from Murray State)
J. Caleb Coomes (Graduated summer of 2019 from Murray State; will start Med school in fall 2019)
Jessa Pollard (Graduated summer of 2019 from Murray State)
Aaron Sikkel

Student Research Examples

Nic Norman explaining his results at the Meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Science in Louisville, KY (11/2016).

Students present research at the Annual ABS Meeting.

(L-R) Kai Murphey, Nic Norman, Jacob Pease at Annual Meeting of the Animal Behavior Society in Columbia, MO (8/2016).