Tania Kim (Principal Investigator)
125 W. Waters Hall
1603 Old Claflin Place
Kansas State University
Manhattan KS 66506-4004
Email: tkim@ksu.edu
- Associate Professor Entomology (currently), Kansas State University
- Assistant Professor Entomology, Kansas State University
- Visiting Assistant Professor in Biology. Swarthmore College.
- Postdoc. Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin Madison. Supervisor: Dr. Claudio Gratton
- Ph.D. Biological Science, Florida State University, Advisor: Dr. Nora Underwood
- M.Sc. Zoology, University of Florida, Advisor: Dr. Bob Holt
- B.Sc. Resource Conservation, McGill University (Montreal, Canada)
Hobbies: Gardening, hiking, running, cycling, and hanging out with family
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Nicole Kucherov (Ph.D. student)
Nicole recently graduated from Miami University with her Master’s degree in Biology where her research focused on the influence of climate and landscape variables on the abundance, richness, and composition of Lepidoptera populations. As a PhD student at K-State, Nicole will examine the spatial distribution of insect pests and beneficial insects in Kansas agroecosystems. Nicole’s interests include sustainable agriculture, insect-plant interactions, landscape ecology, and community conservation. She is passionate about mentoring environmental stewards of all ages from preschoolers (she ran a nature preschool) to high schoolers (she taught high school science) and beyond. In her free time, Nicole enjoys hiking, kayaking, gardening, reading, and spending time with her family.
- Gus Brunette (M.Sc. student)
Gus graduated from UW-Madison with a B.S. in entomology where he worked on projects involving monitoring insect and plant communities in restored prairies and digitizing insect collections. At K-State Gus will be studying how restoration practices impact insect populations in tallgrass prairies. He is broadly interested in insect ecology and taxonomy, especially multi-trophic interactions and parasitoid Hymenoptera. In his free time, Gus enjoys camping, hiking, bird watching, and board games.
- Kaitlin Schieuer (M.Sc. student)
Kaitlin graduated from South Dakota State University with a B.S. in ecology and environmental science. While there she worked on various projects studying plants, soils, and insects. She has also worked for a USDA ARS lab, identifying bees and developing taxonomic keys for the Halictidae of eastern South Dakota. As a master’s student at K-State, Kaitlin will study insect communities found in urban gardens and farms. Her research interests include insect taxonomy and conservation, especially of bees and other pollinators. In her free time, Kaitlin enjoys hiking, archery, puzzles, and embroidery.
Rebecca Layne (MS student, co-advised by Cary Rivard)
Rebecca is an MS student in the Urban Food System program in the Horticulture and Natural Resources Department. Rebecca’s background in is conservation with an emphasis on invertebrates, and she is also a professor in the Biology department at Johnson County Community College. She is currently working on a project examining insect communities vary in urban and peri-urban farms in the greater Kansas City area.
Brice Benyshek (undergraduate student).
Brice is currently a junior in the Department of Engineering at K-State. Brice joined the lab in Fall 2024 and helped Kaitlin with insect identification and processing. Brice’s interests are in agriculture, entomology, and communications.
PAST LAB MEMBERS
Former postdocs:
Rachel Harman (Postdoctoral Scholar, 2020-2022). Currently an ORISE postdoc at the USDA-ARS in Manhattan, KS.
Rachel’s research interests lie in understanding movement patterns of insects within fragmented landscapes. Rachel worked with Tania to characterize beneficial and pest insect movement patterns within landscapes that vary with land use and climate change.
Former graduate students:
Marco Ponce (PhD student co-advised with Rob Morrison at USDA, 2019-2023): Currently a postdoc at NBAF (National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility) in Manhattan, KS.
Originally from Tijuana, Mexico, Marco graduated with a B.A. in biology from Kalamazoo College in 2019, and was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow during his PhD. Marco’s research interests include post-harvest insect-microbe interactions and their implications for global food quality, human health, and insect behavior. Marco’s long-term goals include increasing the sustainability of global food production, enhancing food security, and improving human health.
Maggie Anderson (M.Sc. student, 2021-2023): Currently a MS student in the Master’s in Teaching Program at Minnesota State University.
Maggie is a graduate of Luther College where she examined the community structure of ground beetles in different habitat types. For Maggie ‘s MS research, she examined arthropod spillover across different habitat boundaries with soybean using observational and mark-recapture experiments. In Maggie’s free time, she loves to play soccer, basketball, and card games.
Jessica Butters (M.Sc. student, 2019-2021): Currently an extension specialist in western KS.
Jessica graduated from Central College in Iowa. For her Master’s project, she examined the impact of different land management practices such as border crops, fire rotation, and grazing on pollinator communities. In her spare time, Jessica likes to hike, back, play guitar, sketch, swing dance, and even has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do! For past research, Jessica studied the benefits of planting tall grass prairie for soil health in poor quality, marginal, agricultural land. After graduation, Jess worked as a conservation biologist at Prairie Rivers of Iowa, Pheasants Forever, and NRCS.
Hannah Stowe (M.Sc. student co-advised with J.P. Michaud 2019-2021). Currently a postdoc at UC Riverside.
Hannah is a recent graduate of K-State and examined how variability in food resources within agricultural landscapes affects the fitness and physiology of lady beetles and biocontrol potential. Hannah likes working with her hands and spending time outdoors and hopes to use her interest in insects to further conservation and awareness of insect interactions with ecological recovery. In her spare time she enjoys reading, drawing and exploring new places and experiences through travel. Upon graduation, Hannah completed a PhD at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
Former technicians and undergraduates
Fabel Yáñez (undergraduate student turned research technician, current KSRE extension specialist)
Fabel graduated from K-State in Environmental Science with a minor in Biology and a certificate in Nonprofit Leadership. He joined the lab as a McNair scholar in 2024, and developed the research project, “Are bee hotels an ecological trap impairing native bees?”. Due to low nesting the project shifted to “Bee diversity in urban farms” with the help and data of M.Sc. student Kaitlin Schieuer. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, playing basketball, hanging out with friends, and watching nature documentaries. Fabel currently works as an extension specialist in western KS and plans on pursuing graduate school in the future.
Skyler Medlin (Undergraduate student): currently research tech for NEON in TX.
Skyler is a Junior at K-State majoring in environmental science. She is new to the university and the major as she transferred a year ago from Wichita State University. She is loving her field so far in just the year she has been here and hope to go into conservation and sustainability efforts with native floral communities. She loves being outdoors, hiking, paddleboarding, or travelling. When she is not outdoors, she loves to spend time with her family and friends and be involved in the community in MHK.
Noelle Schumann (Undergraduate student 2021-2024): currently a research tech for TNC in NE
Noelle Schumann joined the lab by studying habitat edge effects as part of the Department of Entomology’s Undergraduate Research Experience and afterwards assisted on various research projects in the lab such as lady beetle physiology, grasshopper microbiome, and arthropod spillover since January 2022. Noelle is also a member of Kappa Kappa Psi and the Kansas State University Marching Band. In their free time, Noelle enjoys rock climbing, painting, music shows, and traveling through the outdoors.
Ella Elmendorf (undergraduate student)
Ella is a junior at K-State majoring in Biology on the Ecology and Evolutionary track. She spent most of the summer in the field collecting samples for a variety of projects, including Kaitlyn’s urban farms project, Nikki’s soybean project, as well as long-term bee surveys on the Konza Prairie. Ella has also been looking into the use of radiotelemetry as an effective way to track the movement of ground beetles. She is interested in learning more about anthropogenic ecology, ecosystem connectivity, and ecological networks. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games, hiking, rock climbing, and weightlifting.
Emily Maynard (Research Technician 2023-2024). Currently a grad student at UC Riverside.
Emily graduated from Clark University with a B.A. in biology. While there, she worked in a myrmecology lab and focused on desert grassland ecology and restoration. She previously worked for an USDA APHIS lab, developing pheromone lures for Citrus Longhorned Beetle. She has an interest in insect community monitoring, especially bees and ants, in response to anthropogenic change. During her time at K-State, Emily helped on projects related to bee pollinators in KS grasslands.
Caroline Gatschet (Undergraduate student 2020-2022): Currently a MS student at Montana State University
Caroline graduate from KSU in Biology and worked in the Kim Lab from 2020-2022. Caroline was involved in many projects including assessing the impacts of diet on lady beetle physiology. Outside of school, she enjoys drawing, reading, playing tennis, being outdoors, and traveling to explore new places.
Bethany Plake (Undergraduate student, 2021)
Bethany is a current student in the Department of Agriculture, focusing in Agricultural Education. She joined the lab right before her junior year after just taking one of the many entomology classes K-State offers. In two years she hopes to be teaching at a high school as an ag teacher and FFA advisor, using what she’s been learning in this lab to teach her students. Bethany is a member of the Professional Agricultural Sorority Sigma Alpha as well as a member of the Agricultural Education club on KSU campus. She also enjoys cooking and baking for her friends in her free time.
Savannah Piper (Undergraduate student 2018-2020)
Savannah graduated in Fall 2019 in Animal Science with a minor in Entomology. Savannah was Tania’s research assistant and helped set up the new lab and greenhouse spaces, run bean beetle experiments, and helped with pollinator field work. In her spare time, she volunteered for the Purple Paws Cat Program, spent time with family and friends, played the piano, and paints. She is currently a research technician in Dr. Chuck Fox’s lab at the University of Kentucky.
Visiting undergraduates
Caleb Hines (KSRE Undergraduate Research Fellow, Summer 2024)
Caleb is a sophomore in Agriculture from Virginia State University and worked with our lab over the summer to investigate how an invasive ant affects crop growth on an urban farm in Kansas City. In particular, Caleb found that the pavement ant can reach high numbers quickly over the summer and can cause crop mortality but the effects vary with crop type. He also found that organic treatment using spinosad can reduce ant numbers but the effects are short lived and disappear after a few weeks. Therefore, multiple rounds of treatment are needed for season long suppression. Upon graduation, Caleb hopes to pursue a career in wildlife management and sustainable agriculture.
Chad Zerr (Undergraduate Researcher Fort Hays State University, Summer 2024).
Chad is a junior in Biology at Fort Hays State University with a background in entomology and wildlife biology. Chad worked with PhD student Nikki to examine insect communities within soybean fields across KS.
Aster Barajas (REU undergraduate student: Purdue University, summer 2023)
Aster is an undergraduate student visiting from Purdue University to work on a project involving insect communities in grazed and ungrazed land. They are interested in studying insect ecology to help conservation efforts for underrepresented insects. In particular, they enjoy studying ants and their effect on ecosystems. For fun, they enjoy playing the vibraphone in jazz band, creative writing, and singing.
Eli Cox (REU undergraduate student, University of Missouri Kansas City, summer 2022)
Eli is an undergraduate student visiting from UMKC working on a project examining ground beetle habitat use and foraging behavior. Eli is interested in regenerative agriculture and would like to pursue a career in conservation, Wildlife Biology, or natural resources. Specifically, he would like to help farmers and ranchers implements practices that regenerate their land from an ecological perspective
Interested in joining the lab? Check out the opportunities page for more information on how to join!
Spring 2024
Summer 2023
Fall 2021
Kim Lab 2020
Kim Lab 2019
The Insect Ecology Lab @ Kansas State University 
