Ryan Gott Lamp and Hawthorne Labs Alumnus (2016) Ph.D. - ENTM
My research lies in the realms of ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment. So basically looking at all the ways we humans have messed up our planet with the different stressors we impose on it! I use the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca Saussure as a model organism for my work investigating the effects of metals like cadmium and copper and pesticides like DDT and imidacloprid. While a lot of toxicological work focuses on how much of a stressor it takes to kill an organism, my work is concerned with even lower concentrations. Or in other words, how do non-lethal levels of a stressor affect an organism? I address this question by measuring expression of stress response-related genes and others after exposure to the aforementioned chemical stressors.
Outside of the lab I have been active inside and outside the department in terms of outreach education and departmental activities. I have served as the ESO Vice-President and President, have served on a faculty search committee, participate every year in the department’s UMD Maryland Day events, have volunteered at or developed many outside activities including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Insect Zoo and Butterfly Pavilion, and served on the Graduate Student Affairs Committee for the Eastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America.