The Biotic Interactions Group and Miller Lab
Research Group News:
- June 2025: Congratulations to Dr Eleanor Bladon who has received the Clare College Pathway to Independence Fellowship in Ecology and Conservation Biology. Ellie will be joining us in October 2025.
- June 2025: The Biotic Interactions group in Cambridge will have five new members starting in October. A hearty welcome to Ellie Bladon, Hao Chen, Kitty Cooley, JR Poon, and Minh Tu Nguyen.
- June 2025: Just published, "Living with males leads to female physical injury in the leaf-footed cactus bug."
- February 2025: Congratulations to Janice Yan for receiving a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship.
- January 2025: A warm welcome to Noraly van Meer and Janice Yan who have started postdoctoral positions on our projects at the University of Florida
- We'll be at SICB in Atlanta in January! Look for our talks and posters.
- November 2024: Christine is off to give talks at the Entomological Society of America annual meeting and the University of Minnesota
- October 2024: Christine travelled to Australia for the ISBE conference and delivered a presentation on the evolution of weaponry in the leaf-footed bugs. It was so nice to meet up so many old friends and collaborators at the conference.
- September 2024: Christine has been appointed as a Professor of Biotic Interactions at the University of Cambridge, effective October 1st. NSF-sponsored research continues at the University of Florida through 2026. We are looking for MPhil and PhD students to start at the University of Cambridge October 2025 -- see the Opportunities page
- September 2024: Postdoctoral Associate Christina Salerno and NSF REU student Grace Bane have travelled to the UK to work in collaboration with Prof. Federle on the biomechanics of insect weapons.
- August 2024: The Miller Lab set up shop at the Florida Natural History Museum for several days to encourage public interaction as we go about our research. Activities include insect dissections, bug fights, pin the leg on the leaf-footed bug (a depiction!), and much more.
- July 2024: Christine Miller has been promoted to the rank of Professor at the University of Florida.
- June 2024: James Boothroyd has received a $1000 Sigma-Xi Grant in Aid of Research to use in understanding the influence of diet on life-history trade-offs.
- May 2024: Congratulations to Yichen Li for successfully defending her M.S. thesis.
- May 2024: Christine Miller received the "Golden Gator" award from the University of Florida, otherwise known as the UF Large Grant Leadership Award.
- April 2024: Grace Bane and Giovanna Avellar Figueredo have accepted National Science Foundation REU positions in the laboratory. Congratulations!
- March 2024: We study the evolutionary assembly of sexually selected weapons in our recent article, the evolution of multi-component weapons in the leaf-footed bugs. Now published in Evolution, and we got the cover.
