The Muth Lab welcomes all, and aims to foster an inclusive environment where everyone can be themselves.
Alongside our research, we prioritize community building within the lab and department, DEI efforts and community outreach.
We are always happy to chat more, both about lab culture, and about the various outreach and DEI efforts we are all involved in.
Lab Photos, February 2024.
Dr Felicity Muth
(principal investigator)
I am broadly interested in animal behaviour and cognition, especially aspects of learning and memory that have a clear function in the natural world.
I am originally from London, but carried out my undergraduate and PhD in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews, working on nest construction in birds. After my PhD I switched to working on bumblebee cognition in postdoctoral positions at the University of Arizona and University of Nevada, Reno where I was funded by L’Oreal for Women in Science, the AAUW and the USDA. The Muth Lab was at UT Austin from 2019-2024 but moved to UC Davis in Spring 2024.
The Muth Lab is currently funded by a National Geographic Wildlife Intelligence grant, NSF, and by the Stengl-Wyer Foundation.
I am a strong proponent of science communication in all its forms. I recently wrote a children’s book on bee diversity - for more info see www.amievenabee.com. I have been interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday and on KUNR, talking about bee cognition and the challenges faced by women in science. Between 2012 and 2017 I wrote a blog for Scientific American MIND.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Melanie Kimball (Fall 2024-present)
I am interested in cognitive variation in bumblebee queens and workers and the physiological mechanisms that influence their behavior.
Graduate Students
SMRUTI PIMPLIKAR
PhD Candidate (2020-present), co-supervised with Dr Shalene Jha at UT Austin
Smruti is broadly interested in comparative cognition and has recently worked on sensory thresholds in nectar- and pollen-foraging bumblebees, as well as flexibility in queen and worker bumblebees.
Leeah Richardson
PhD Candidate 2020-present, co-supervised with Dr Shalene Jha at UT Austin
Leeah is interested in the effects of anthropogenic stressors on native bees, as well as questions in comparative cognition - for example, how bumblebee queens’ cognition & brains change across their lifetime.
Jennie devore
PhD Student (Fall 2022 - present)
co-supervised with Dr Hans Hoffman at UT Austin
Jennie is interested in the cognition involved in bumblebee colony construction, and the mechanisms that underpin this behavior.
fiona macneill
PhD Candidate 2019-present, co-supervised with Dr Brian Sedio at UT Austin
Fiona is interested in chemical ecology, and right now is conducting an experiment comparing the nectar chemistry of bee- vs. bird-pollinated plants.
Undergraduate researchers
Jordan Facundo (Fall 2024-presesnt)
Jordan is helping get the new lab at UC Davis set up and is starting an experiment on the cognition involved in bees’ construction behavior.
Previous Muth Lab Members
Postdoctoral Researchers
Caroline Strang, Postdoctoral Researcher 2019-2021. Currently faculty at Brescia University College, Canada.
Harry Siviter, Postdoctoral Researcher 2020-2023. Currently faculty at Bristol University, UK.
Claire Hemingway, Postdoctoral Researcher 2020-2023. Currently faculty at University of Tennessee, USA.
L to R: Eswar Gopalakrishnan, Meena Tanimura, Alissa Murphy and Alex Bekar at the Capitol of Texas Undergraduate Research Symposium.
L to R: Felicity Muth, Jennie DeVore, Eswar Gopalakrishnan, Alissa Murphy, Smruti Pimplikar.
Undergraduate Researchers
2023-2024: Alissa Murphy worked on bumblebees’ pollen-foraging pollen preferences, presented this work at the Animal Behavior Society meeting (2024) and won a prize for her joint-poster with Eswar Gopalakrishnan. She also presented at the Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference and at the Undergraduate Research Symposium at UT Austin.
2023-2024: Eswar Gopalakrishnan worked on bumblebees’ pollen-foraging color preferences, presented this work at the Animal Behavior Society meeting (2024) and won a prize for his joint-poster with Alissa Murphy. He also presented at the Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference and at the Undergraduate Research Symposium at UT Austin.
2023-2024: Meena Tanimura worked alongside Leeah Richardson to study bees’ scent and color preferences in an ecological context, presenting this work at the Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference.
2023-2024: Alex Bekar worked alongside Jennie DeVore studying bumblebee construction behavior, presenting this work at the Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference.
2022-2024: Ayngaran Adalarasu was an undergraduate majoring in Electrical and Computer engineering. Ayngaran creatively re-designed equipment for the Muth Lab.
2021-2024: Angie Nguyen Conducted a number of behavioral research projects both in the lab and in the field while in the Muth Lab.
2023: Nia Altman worked alongside Leeah Richardson studying bee learning.
2022: Shannon Henry worked alongside Jennie DeVore on irrational decision-making in bees.
2022: Lily Gray worked primarily on pesticide effects on bees alongside Dr Harry Siviter.
2021: Danielle Pettinger. Coming from an engineering background, Danielle not only assisted with research, but also re-designed our lab equipment to make it all work better. We’re happy to share our 3D print designs for clip-on colony connectors, colony stands and foraging arenas.
Angie Nguyen
2019-2020: Anthony Johnson
2019-2020: Katie Hall
Anthony and Katie were instrumental in getting the Muth Bee Cognition Lab up and running. Anthony is co-author on a manuscript (Siviter, Johnson & Muth 2021) and Katie’s research was featured as part of the Research Showdown film festival at UT Austin.
