I joined Dr. Jason Davis's Ecophysiology Laboratory during my first week of classes at Radford University in Fall 2016. In the beginning I helped clean lab equipment and assisted with various outreach projects. By the beginning of my second semester freshman year, I was allowed to start my own experiment to investigate the effects of royal jelly and juvenile hormone on Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies). This work lead me to my first poster presentation at SICB (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology) explaining the reproductive and mortality variation amongst treatment groups. My current research, using Gromphadorhina portentosa (Madagascar hissing cockroaches), focuses on the impacts of growth, immunity, and reproduction under various endocrine modulation treatments from royal jelly and juvenile hormone agonists.
Drosophila melanogaster
Click here ( sicb_poster_2018.pdf ) to see my poster from SICB (Society
for Integrative and Comparative Biology). In 2018, SICB was held in San
Fransisco, California. My first conference EVER and I had to travel to the
other side of the country to get there! As the youngest member of the lab
presenting, all of my lab mates made it their mission to ensure I had a
good time. Every morning, we would meet in the hotel lobby and highlight
the posters and talks that looked the most interesting. I really had no idea
what was interesting to me at that point in my research career, so I listened
to a little bit of everything. By the time I returned from the conference, there
was no questions- graduate school was calling my name!
Click here to see my SICB 2018 abstract (sicb_abstract_2018.pdf) Hawkins, T. M., Archer, J., & Davis, J. E. (2018, March). Effects of Royal Jelly in Combination With Juvenile Hormone Agonists and Antagonists on Drosophila melanogaster. In INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY (Vol. 58, pp. E335-E335). JOURNALS DEPT, 2001 EVANS RD, CARY, NC 27513 USA: OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC.
for Integrative and Comparative Biology). In 2018, SICB was held in San
Fransisco, California. My first conference EVER and I had to travel to the
other side of the country to get there! As the youngest member of the lab
presenting, all of my lab mates made it their mission to ensure I had a
good time. Every morning, we would meet in the hotel lobby and highlight
the posters and talks that looked the most interesting. I really had no idea
what was interesting to me at that point in my research career, so I listened
to a little bit of everything. By the time I returned from the conference, there
was no questions- graduate school was calling my name!
Click here to see my SICB 2018 abstract (sicb_abstract_2018.pdf) Hawkins, T. M., Archer, J., & Davis, J. E. (2018, March). Effects of Royal Jelly in Combination With Juvenile Hormone Agonists and Antagonists on Drosophila melanogaster. In INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY (Vol. 58, pp. E335-E335). JOURNALS DEPT, 2001 EVANS RD, CARY, NC 27513 USA: OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC.
Photos From SICB 2018/ San Fransisco Adventures
Gromphadorhina portentosa
Click here (hawkins_sicb_2019_abstract_.pdf) to see the abstract for my oral presentation at SICB in Tampa, Florida. Recently, I have transitioned my work to more closely focus on growth, immunity, and reproductive changes under various hormone modulation treatments. Specifically, I bleed hemolymph from our treated roaches and record coagulation and lysis responses when the samples are exposed to rabbit blood. We have developed custom assays to understand more about energy allocation in regards to the immune system, as well as continued monitoring of weight, size, and reproductive output.
Hawkins, T. M., Marshall, A. S., Short, R. A., Wolford, A. M., & Davis, J. E. (2019, March). Effects of Royal Jelly and Juvenile Hormone on Growth and Immunity in Gromphadorhina portentosa and Drosophila melanogaster. In INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY (Vol. 59, pp. E95-E95). JOURNALS DEPT, 2001 EVANS RD, CARY, NC 27513 USA: OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC.
Hawkins, T. M., Marshall, A. S., Short, R. A., Wolford, A. M., & Davis, J. E. (2019, March). Effects of Royal Jelly and Juvenile Hormone on Growth and Immunity in Gromphadorhina portentosa and Drosophila melanogaster. In INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY (Vol. 59, pp. E95-E95). JOURNALS DEPT, 2001 EVANS RD, CARY, NC 27513 USA: OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC.
Photos From SICB 2019/ Tampa Adventures
The PASSER Project
The PASSER (Programmable Automated System for Songbird Ecobehavioral Research) Project seeks to better understand how the environment effects bird behavior through the use of automated bird feeder collection sites. Most recently, the PASSER team has incorporated blood sampling into their data collection routine. I frequently join the team to assist in bird catching and bleeding in order to broaden my research background. Initially, I was not a fan of birds, but now I look forward to catching and learning more about bird behavior!
Funding Sources and Awards
The Ruth Bricker Painter (RBP) Award is an annual scholarship that provides one student in the Biology department with $3,000 in research funding. I am honored to have won this prestigious award for my Summer 2019 application. Please click here (hawkins_rbp_2019.pdf) to read my proposal and to learn more about the RBP from Radford University's website, click here (www.radford.edu/content/csat/home/biology/opportunities/student-awards.html ).
A Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) is a $2,500 stipend afforded to a select group of students from a campus-wide application pool. I have been awarded a SURF through Radford University in order to pursue my outreach mission and lab work during the summer of 2019. Please click here (surf_2019_hawkins.pdf) to read my SURF proposal.
Biology Research Award (BRA) is a $1,000 research award for a select group of applicants in the Biology department at Radford University. I was was awarded a BRA for my summer research in 2018. Click here to see my proposal (hawkins_bra.pdf)
A Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) is a $2,500 stipend afforded to a select group of students from a campus-wide application pool. I have been awarded a SURF through Radford University in order to pursue my outreach mission and lab work during the summer of 2019. Please click here (surf_2019_hawkins.pdf) to read my SURF proposal.
Biology Research Award (BRA) is a $1,000 research award for a select group of applicants in the Biology department at Radford University. I was was awarded a BRA for my summer research in 2018. Click here to see my proposal (hawkins_bra.pdf)