I currently serve as Missouri S&T’s Vice Chancellor of Strategic Initiatives and Chief Operating Officer of the Kummer Institute for Student Success, Research, and Economic Development. The Kummer Institute was created by a $300M gift to Missouri S&T from Fred and June Kummer in 2020, with the goals of elevating Missouri S&T as a scholarly organization, creating broad access to outstanding STEM education programs via outreach to K-12 communities, and driving economic development in the region, state, and beyond. The Kummer Institute invests heavily in faculty research and teaching, research centers, Ph.D. fellowships, undergraduate scholarships, capital projects, business development services, and camps, workshops, and other programs for K-12 students and teachers.

I am from north-central Illinois, where the Fox and Illinois rivers meet, and have held a university appointment continuously since 1989, beginning as an undergraduate teaching assistant of anatomy and physiology at Illinois State University. Following a doctorate from Arizona State University and a post-doctoral appointment at the University of Chicago in the 1990’s, I’ve held faculty and administrative appointments at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Central Michigan University, and Missouri University of Science and Technology.

As a scholar I focus primarily on the integrative and comparative physiology of insects. This work has yielded many journal articles, a book, major grants, research awards, coverage in mainstream media, and valuable friendships. My research is done in both lab and field settings and has taken me to every continent except Australia, and to all terrestrial biomes: tundra, boreal forests, temperate deciduous forests, tropical forests, chaparral, savanna, and deserts.