Brett Seymoure, PHd (He/Him)
Assistant Professor
Curator of Entomological Collections
Director of Chihuahuan Desert Biodiversity Research Experience for Undergraduates
Oceane da cunha, phd (she/her)
Lecturer and Research Scientist
My research focuses on understanding behavioral ecology, with specific interests in animal personality, predator-prey interactions, visual ecology, and spatial ecology, using rattlesnakes as a model organism. When I am not in the field following rattlesnakes, you can find me hiking around with my two dogs, Darwin and Naia, or on my couch playing video games.
L. Miles Horne, MS (he/him)
PhD Candidate
My dissertation research focuses on how vision impacts behavioral types, foraging, and activity patterns in the Rio Grande Wolf Spider, Hogna coloradensis. I have previously done physiological, behavioral, and population genetics work with a wide range of herpetofauna during my undergraduate and master’s tenure. In my free time, I like woodworking, gardening, hunting, and writing music.
Oliver Neria (He/Him)
PhD Student; NSF Graduate Research Fellow
My research interests involve interactions between insect communities and nocturnal flowers, and the potential changes occurring in these intricate relationships under anthropogenic light sources. I’m also an El Paso native who loves being out and about in the Chihuahuan Desert, and I have been known to talk at great length about bees!
John Deitsch (He/Him PhD Candidate; NSF Graduate Research Fellow; Check out my website!
My research is focused on understanding how artificial light pollution influences insect behavior and communities. I am interested in the interaction of light pollution with factors such as habitat type and the lunar cycle. I will happily study a variety of insects, and even non-invertebrates(!), but moths seem to have a way of being practical study systems for the research questions I like to explore. Outside of work, you can find me chasing rare birds, photographing wildlife, reading books from the public library, and letting much of my day-to-day happiness depend on the outcome of Major League Baseball games.
Jose Mata (He/Him) MS Student
My research aims to understand how artificial light pollution affects the behavior of foraging species in the Chihuahuan desert. Although I am always happy to learn and discuss all kinds of organisms, I am particularly partial about rodents. Outside of school or research I can be found playing video games, making 3D models on blender or window shopping for things I don’t need.
