Ph.D. Student

Courtney is a PhD student in Dr. Julia Bowsher’s lab studying  two species of solitary bees, Megachile rotundata, alfalfa leafcutting bee and Osmia lignaria, blue orchard bee. Her expertise is in nutrition and development of solitary bees. Currently, she is working on determining how insect nutritional quantity affects rate of development and how telomeres function in these solitary bee species. Her favorite part of the job is to ask novel questions about her favorite insect, bees!

Courtney was drawn to insects as a kid and realized her passion for insects after she took her first entomology class as an undergraduate. The best advice she has been given is to do experiments that you are passionate about. One of her favorite field work stories comes from her master’s project. In order to access her field sites, she would have to jump an irrigation canal and sometimes that jump was just a little too far, but that never stopped her from completing the project! If canal jumping ever becomes boring, Courtney would follow her other passion and be an interior designer! Luckily, we still have her in the lab and cannot wait to see how her projects progress.

Written by: Elisabeth Wilson