Keynote Speakers
Biographies
Ecology
Dr. Forrest studies the evolutionary ecology of plant–pollinator interactions. She is interested in the causes and consequences of variation in species’ life histories and seasonal phenologies, particularly as these traits relate to species interactions. She explores how pollinators and animal-pollinated plants are coping in a world that is getting warmer and more densely populated by humans. A primary application of Dr. Forrest’s research is in understanding ways that climate change and other forms of global change affect pollinators (especially native solitary bees) and pollination. Her work has primarily focused on bees and plants in natural habitats, but she is also interested in how better knowledge of native bee ecology can benefit agriculture.
Dr. Forrest is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa. She completed her B.Sc. at McGill University, M.Sc at Queen's University, and her PhD at the University of Toronto in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Davis.
Ethology
Dr. ter Hofstede conducts her research in the field of sensory ecology, specifically investigating how sensory systems encode environmental cues that are crucial for an animal’s survival and reproduction. She has always been fascinated by animals and their behaviour, particularly by the ways in which sensory system evolution interacts with the behaviour and ecology of animals. Her research investigates how animal sensory systems filter the information they obtain about their environment and how sensory systems coevolve with behaviour. Much of her work to date explores the acoustic world of bats and their insect prey.
Dr. ter Hofstede is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Windsor in the Department of integrative Biology and the Chair of the Behaviour, Cognition and Neuroscience program. She also acts as an affiliate faculty member in the Ecology, Evolution, Environment and Society Graduate Program at Dartmouth College in the U.S. Dr. ter Hofstede completed her M.Sc. at York University, her PhD at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and postdoctoral positions in the UK at the University of Bristol, and Cambridge University.
Evolution
Dr. Doyle is fascinated by the concept that we, as humans, host many folds more microbial cells than human cells, and that DNA in microbes can have profound impacts on their hosts. In the Doyle lab, experimental approaches in combination with sequencing and genomic analyses are often used to capture evolution occurring in real time. She works to quantify how microbial genomes within a population change in response to environmental change, and in turn, how such microbial evolution impacts their host's ability to survive and reproduce.
Dr. Doyle is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at McMaster University. She completed her B.Sc. and M.Sc. at Memorial University of Newfoundland, her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship through the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois.