Below are some of the individuals who have taken an active role in my research program since 1996.

Dr. Don Webb is a professional scientist at INHS. Much of his research concerns flies, but he also works on caves and springs. In recent years Don and I have collaborated on some cave research projects in Illinnois.

Mark is a research scientist at INHS, specializing in the study of aquatic oligochaetes (Annelida). He also collaborates with Don Webb on studies of springs and with me on studies of worms in caves.

Mike is the Karst Program Manager for the Ozark Highlands Office of The Nature Conservancy. He is also a graduate student in Biology (studying cave invertebrates) at the University of Arkansas, where he about to recieve his degree. Mike collaborated with me on a project inventorying caves at Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri. He is also working with me on a bioinventory of caves in Great Basin National Park, Nevada, and I'm collaborating with him on a couple of his projects going on in the Arkansas Ozarks, looking at more cave invertebrates.

Dr. McPherson is an entomologist specializing in Heteroptera, a professor in the Department of Zoology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and he was my advisor during my PhD program. We continue to work collaboratively on various projects involving Heteroptera.

Dr. Jean Krejca is a researcher in Texas who co-owns a biological consulting firm. I sometimes collaborate with her on karst research (thus far in California, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada and Mexico). She is currently heavily involved my research in Texas. We are also working together on a cave inventory project at Great Basin National Park in Nevada and Lava Beds National Monument in California.

Dr. Ginny Adams is biologist and Environmental Science Program Coordinator in the Department of BIology, University of Central Arkansas. She, Frank Wilhelm (see below), Mike Venarsky (see below) and I have worked together studying respiratory rates of cave amphipods.

Dr. Wilhelm is a limnologist and a faculty member in the Zoology Department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He has considerable experience with studies of amphipod respiration and biology, and I work with him on studies of the Illinois Cave Amphipod, where his skills and background have propelled him into a leading role on the project.

Dr. Whelan and I, along with Jenn Smith, have worked together on a study of Red Imported Fire Ant predation on songbird nests, examining video footage of the nests.

In addition to serving as my supervisor for my regular duties at work here in Illinois, Dr. Phillips and I are working together on a study of salamanders in caves in centeral Texas. But that's a lizard (Cnemidophorus gularis - spotted whiptail) he's holding.

Dr. Wanzhi Cai is the Chairman of the Department of Entomology at China Agricultural University (formerly known as Beijing Agricultural University). Dr. Cai is a widely published expert on the taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera), commonly known as "Assasin Bugs". He visited at the University of Illinois from January through May, 2004. During his stay here, I was most fortunate to work with him, assisting him with the description of a new genus of the subfamily Peiratinae (Reduviidae), still in progress.

Dr. Jeyaraney Kathirithamby, Department of Zoology, St. Huge's College, University of Oxford, UK, is a leading authority on the insect order Strepsiptera, the Twisted-wing Parasites. She and I are collaborating in some studies of Strepsiptera (Insecta) , and have described a new species from Texas. She is pictured in a cave in Texas (larger image also shows Charles Pekins).

Dr. Jason Weckstein worked with me while post doc-ing in Kevin Johnson's lab at INHS. He, Kevin, and several other folks are working on a molecular phylogenetics of cave crickets project with me. Recently, Jason (now at the Field Museum in Chicago) secured his own NSF grant (over $300,000) examining coevolutionary population genetics of Brazilian toucans and lice.

Dr. Ramsdell is an entomologist and a post doc in my lab, she does lots of insect identifications and helps keep things organized when I'm not around. More recently, she has been taking the lead on extracting a few scientific publications from our ealier work on Indiana terrestrial invertebrate communities.

Jenn Smith was a graduate student in Animal Biology at UofI who worked on the Texas project as an RA. She was analyzing video tapes of Black Capped Vireo / Fire Ant interations, and was heavily involved in data analysis and writing the final report for that project. Larger Image shows her working with Chris Whelan on data analysis. More recently, she helped with the research on karst invertebrates and fire ants. But now she's gotten her MS and has moved on to bigger and better things (a PhD program) - see her adventures in Africa!

Sam is a hydrogeologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey. He has been studying karst geochemistry in Illinois for a number of years, and has collaborated with me on Illinois cave research.

Bill Handel is a researcher at the Illinois Natural History Survey, and is an excellent botanist. He is involved in lots of prairie work and also works with medicinal plants. Bill is inventorying plant populations around cave entrances for my study of caves in Pulaski County, Missouri.

Maminirina Randrianandrasana (Mami) is a masters student in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois. She came here from Madagascar to work on aquatic macroinvertebrates. The small picture shows Mami sampling a stream in central Illinois using a Hess Sampler, the larger one you see when you click on the small picture is Mami collecting data for her thesis research on Jordan Creek.

Justin Fuller was a doctoral student in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois, interested in macroinvertebrate communities and landscapes. He has since moved on to a job in New Mexico. Justin also helped out with all sorts of projects going on in the laboratory.

Nick was a graduate student in NRES (Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences) who helped with various aspects of my research, but, more importantly, had his own project looking at land use practices within watersheds in relation to stream macroinvertebrates. His project site is located in Indiana, and the project continues even though he has moved on to new things in life. The image (click for larger) shows Nick doing some stream sampling here in Illinois.

Peter is a world class caver who does a lot of project caving in Mexico. He also works as a contractor, especially in Texas, where he does a lot of karst surveys, cave gating, cave inventory work, and related fire ant control. He has worked with me on research projects at Fort Hood, Texas.

Stacey was an hourly assistant in my lab. Among many other things, she is counted thousands of ants and did a bunch of image analysis for the Fort Hood, Texas, research.

Erica was a student worker, who helped me with all kinds of data entry, sample processing, curation of specimens, etc. Much of her work was in association with the research projects I have in Texas at Forth Hood.

Mike, shown here assisting with field work in an Illinois cave, recently completed his master's degree in zoology at Southern Illinois Univeristy at Carbondale working with Frank Wilhelm. Mike helped a lot with an amphipod respiration project. He also did a lot of laboratory work with the amphipods. His MS thesis focused on the Illinois Cave Amphipod.

Nina was a student worker, helping Ginny Adams and I with our work on respiratory rates of cave amphipods.

Russell was a student worker that helped Mark Wetzel and I with various projects. He often spent time at the microscope sorting samples.

Vanessa is a skilled entomologist and an employee of INHS. She has been helping me off and on for several years with various aspects of my research, including IDOT work and research on Heteroptera (in Illinois), terrestrial invertebrate communities (in Indiana) and cave invertebrates (in Illinois, Texas & Missouri). Recently, however, she has been spending most of her time in Venezuala.

Maricela, a student worker, assissted Mark Wetzel and I with sorting of field-collected macroinvertebrate samples for the IDOT Bioassessment program . She was also helping Mark with his research.

Sarah Reisse, a student worker (now graduated), assissted me with sorting of field-collected macroinvertebrate samples for the IDOT Bioassessment program. She also helped me with my research on Texas caves.

Andy Clark, and hourly employee, helped me with various aspects of my Texas research, and sometimes worked on the IDOT Bioassessment program.

Jessica Jakubanis worked as an hourly employee on my Texas research. She did lots of data entry and helps solve strange paperwork problems. Since leaving my lab, she pursued an MS degree at University of Illinois, focusing on salamanders, and has graduated with her degree and moved on to better things.

Jen Mui was a graduate student in biology, whose interests lie in the areas of behavior and conservation biology of reptiles and amphibians. Her research (advisor: Dr. Chris Phillips) examined the reproductive behavior of unisexual Ambystoma platineum. Chris Phillips and I hired her part time to help with work on salamanders in Texas caves. After graduating she moved on to a job at the Field Museum in Chicago, and then back to the Illinois Natural History Survey, where she works on science education.

John is an undergrad student worker who primarily does Ceuthophilus molecular lab work, but also helps out with other stuff like data entry. The molecular project, and his contributions, are both much larger than this short entry would imply.

Reeba was a student worker in my lab who did a wide variety of things, including microscope work with water striders, molecular biology lab work, image analysis, and data entry.

Erin was an biology student who works on all sorts of projects in my lab. She was heavily involved in a study of insect isotopes, preparing samples for analysis. She also was a big help with field work in Indiana and Missouri.

Casey was a graduate student in Entomology with a fondness for ants. She was helping me out with lots and lots of insect identifications, especially ants. Headphones in picture are used in a project involving radio tracking cave crickets, in which Casey participated.

Mathys Meyer is a graduate student in Entomology at the University of Illinois who helped me with various aspects of of the Texas fire ant research and GIS/database issues.

Jenn was a graduate student who helped sort samples and was working on a project that involves dissecting Ceuthophilus and measuring their eggs.

Bianca Cox, who was a Junior in Animal Sciences at UofI when working in my lab, is pursuing a career in veterinary medicine. She did all sorts of things from data entry through sample sorting.

Amélie Perin was an exchange student from France studying Food Science in the college of ACES at UofI. She worked in the lab doing a variety of different tasks.

Luke was a student worker in the lab for a semester, he did a lot of image analysis and worked hard and meticulously, but his interests lay in the field of veterinary medicine, and when a position became available there, he moved on.

Kristi Moss is an hourly employee who got her Bachelor's Degree here at the University of Illinois in Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution. She helps Mark Wetzel and I with IDOT laboratory work and with other projects. Kristie has a keen eye for little tiny creatures which others might miss. She is also helping me with a project on central Texas cave crickets.