Meet The Team

The Sheldon Lab

Kimberly Sheldon

Principle Investigator + Associate Professor
ksheldon@utk.edu

  • Anchal Padukone

    PhD Student

    Anchal joined the lab in August 2018. She completed her undergraduate degree at Princeton University. Anchal spent a semester at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where she conducted senior thesis research on the influence of microenvironmental factors on the distribution of an insect vector of Chagas disease. After graduating, Anchal worked as a Princeton in Africa Fellow at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya where she coordinated outreach and citizen science programs, helped manage the center’s media and publications, and contributed to research on acacia ant community dynamics.

  • Morgan Fleming

    PhD Student

    Morgan started her PhD in Fall 2020. She received a 3-year Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to pursue her work. As an undergraduate, Morgan published on the natural history of herpetofauna and assisted with dung beetle physiological research. She has strong interests in physiological ecology and impacts of climate change on ectotherms.

  • Nate Duerr

    Master’s Student

    Nate started as an MS student in the lab in August 2022. His thesis research focuses on the effects of climate change on secondary seed dispersal in dung beetles. Before coming to UT, he was a Resident Naturalist and Conservation Research Fellow in Madre de Dios, Peru, where he worked primarily on Amazonian butterfly and dung beetle ecology. He was also a sustainable agriculture volunteer with the Peace Corps in Panama. Nate first joined the Sheldon Lab in May 2022 when he traveled with other team members to Ecuador to work on projects investigating the effects of climate change on dung beetle behavior. He completed his undergraduate degree in zoology at the University of Florida.

  • Olivia White

    Undergraduate Researcher

    Olivia joined the lab in March 2023. In addition to a major in Biology, Olivia is pursuing a minor in Studio Art. She received a UTK AURA grant for summer 2023 to work on projects related to behavioral plasticity of dung beetles. She is continuing with her research in the lab and also using her artistic talents to contribute to an Easy As Play module on dung beetles and climate change that is funded through one of the lab’s NSF grants.

  • Zan Killeffer

    Lab Manager & Research Specialist

    Zan joined the Sheldon Lab in March 2022 as an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee. In summer 2022, he traveled to Ecuador as a REU student in the lab and worked on projects related to behavioral plasticity of dung beetles. He also completed research on thermal physiology of dung beetles that was the basis for his undergraduate honors thesis. After graduating, Zan became our lab manager extraordinaire and research specialist. Zan is continuing with work related to thermal physiology and behavioral plasticity of dung beetles.

  • Jonier Merizalde

    Post bach & Research technician

    Jonier received his undergraduate degree from Ikiam - Universidad Regional Amazónica in September 2023. His senior thesis was on the impacts of degradation of riparian ecosystems on dung beetle communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Jonier joined the Sheldon Lab full time in October 2023 to work on reproductive behavior of tropical beetles.

  • Bradley Hatcher

    Undergrad

Alumni

  • Luis Carrasco

    Postdoc

    NIMBioS Postdoctoral Fellow (Oct 2018-Oct 2020)

  • Amanda Carter

    Postdoc

    Postdoctoral Research Associate (Jan-Sept 2018)
    NSF Postdoctoral Fellow (Oct 2018-2020)

  • Ethan B. Linck

    Postdoc

    Postdoctoral Researcher (Jun 2019 – Mar 2020)

  • Maggie Mamantov

    PhD Student
    mmamanto@utk.edu

    Maggie completed her PhD in 2022. Her research in the lab examined behavioral responses to climate warming in introduced and native dung beetles as well as the impact of climate change on the range shifts of montane species. Maggie is also passionate about sharing science with the public and fostering an interest in STEM, as demonstrated through her outreach. Maggie is now a Lecturer in the Biology program at the University of Tennessee.

  • Claire Winfrey

    MS Student
    Website

    Claire’s thesis focused on the factors driving variation in the gut microbiomes of two species of Phanaeus dung beetles. Claire received an NSF GRFP during her second year in the Sheldon Lab, and she successfully defended her Masters thesis in July 2020. She started her PhD in Fall 2020 at CU Boulder.

  • Matt McGee

    Lab Tech

    Matt worked in the lab from June-December 2017. He helped with beetle trapping in the Smokies, dung beetle breeding in the lab, and piloted a warming experiment in the field. He also first-authored an article on breeding biology of a rare Ecuadorian bird. Matt completed an MS at Cal State Monterey Bay and began his PhD at Berkeley in 2023.

  • Katherine Reed

    REU student

  • Ian Lauderback

    Undergraduate researcher

  • Will Kirkpatrick

    Undergraduate researcher
    Website

    Will was in the lab from May 2017-August 2019. In 2017, he collected data for a manuscript on breeding biology of a tropical bird and presented at the Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement (EURēCA), the UT EEB undergraduate symposium, and UT Discovery Day. In 2018, Will received an undergraduate internship grant to carry out a summer project on behavioral responses of dung beetles to temperature change (Kirkpatrick & Sheldon 2022, Biology Letters). Will started a PhD program at the University of Arkansas in Fall 2019 and was awarded an NSF GRF for graduate study.

  • Sarah Jayne Brawner

    Lab Tech

    Sarah joined the lab in August 2017 as an undergraduate and received a BS in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2018. She helped launch a new direction in the lab — gut microbiome research on dung beetles. She returned to the lab in November 2018 as a Lab Tech to help with a variety of ongoing and new projects. She started a PhD program at the University of Tennessee in Fall 2019.

  • David Edwards

    Undergraduate researcher

    David was a lab member from May 2017-May 2018. He helped with dung beetle breeding experiments and worked on a sodium addition experiment. He also co-authored a manuscript on the breeding biology of a bird species from Ecuador.

  • Jerame Brown

    Undergraduate researcher

    Jerame joined the lab in October 2019. He helped get the fall armyworm system off the ground. Jerame received a grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research in Spring 2020 for an independent research project in the lab. He later went on to dental school!

  • Timothy Meidl

    Undergraduate researcher

  • Drew Tucker

    Undergraduate researcher

  • Brianna Jacobs

    Undergraduate researcher

    Brianna joined the lab in September 2019. She helped with several research projects related to dung beetle thermal physiology.

  • Connor Riley

    Undergraduate researcher

    Connor joined the lab in September 2019, the same month he started his BS in Microbiology at UT. He had previous research experience in both a medical entomology lab and an oceanographic institute in Florida. Connor received a grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research in Spring 2020 for an independent research project in the lab.

  • Abby Wells

    Undergraduate

    Abby joined the lab in Spring 2019. She helped rear beetles for various lab projects. She received a grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research in Spring 2020 for an independent research project in the lab.

  • Shelby Collins

    Undergraduate

    Shelby was in the lab from January-June 2018. In addition to being in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Shelby was part of the Vols Teach Program, which emphasizes field based experiences and is aimed at training those interested in a career in secondary teaching. Shelby helped with several outreach efforts in the lab, and she was the Education Coordinator for our summer research program with high school students of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

  • Atira Sherrod

    Undergraduate researcher

    Atira was in the lab from September 2016-May 2017. She received her Associate of Science degree from Pellissippi State Technical Community College. She completed her B.S. in Biology at the University of Tennessee in 2016 with a concentration in Microbiology. Atira became particularly interested in ecology and evolutionary biology and took additional undergraduate courses to round out her education while working in the lab. She assisted with dung beetle research and worked on an independent project examining operative temperatures of beetles across seasons.

  • Anna Raney

    Undergraduate researcher

    Anna received a grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research for an independent project examining dung beetles in urban versus rural environments in Knoxville.

  • Bella Ritchie

    Undergraduate researcher

    Bella assisted with dung beetle brood ball collection and rearing of offspring in the lab.

  • Logan Hysen

    Undergraduate researcher

    Logan assisted with general animal husbandry and lab maintenance.

  • Kylie Hannahs

    Undergraduate researcher

    Kylie assisted with dung beetle brood ball collection and rearing of offspring in the lab.

  • Duncan Mccurry

    Undergraduate researcher

    Duncan assisted with general animal husbandry and lab maintenance.