Emily Bendall, Dr. Catherine Linnen & Kim Vertacnik

Emily Bendall is a PhD student in the Linnen lab at the University of Kentucky. She studies the genetic basis of divergent host-use traits in Neodiprion, and their role in speciation.

Dr. Catherine Linnen is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky. Her lab has been working to establish pine sawflies in the genus Neodiprion as a model system for understanding both the causes (molecular mechanisms) and consequences (impacts on fitness, population differentiation, and speciation) of phenotypic variation.

Kim Vertacnik is a PhD Candidate in the Linnen lab at the University of Kentucky. She studies evolutionary genetics, namely the evolution of chemosensory gene families as phytophagous insects adapt to different ecological niches and degrees of specialization.

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