I joined the Toth laboratory in EEOB in 2012, and have been also working with Prof. Matt O'Neal in the Soybean Research group since around 2013. I predominantly investigate the interaction of environmental stresses (nutrition, pathogen, pesticide) on honey bee health. I have also worked on similar questions studying native and solitary bees. These studies have spanned from highly-controlled laboratory studies to state-wide honey bee surveys involving dozens of cooperator beekeepers. My main interests include studying how the landscape honey bees live in contributes to different types of stresses on bees and how these stressors interact to affect physiological, transcriptomic, and behavioral changes in bees. Currently, I am working on how these factors are related to bees in intensive agricultural landscapes, particularly soybean agriculture in Iowa and Illinois. I am also very interested in beekeeping and pollinator education.
In 2017, I left Iowa State to join the faculty in the Dept. of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, but I continue collaboration with the ISU Soybean Entomology group.