People

**Interested in joining the Ison Lab? Please fill out our research interest survey!**

Jennifer L. Ison, PhD

jison(at)wooster.edu

I’m a plant ecologist who is broadly interested in population and community-level dynamics in native plant populations. My research has examined how flowering phenology, plant density, and pollinator taxa affect population genetic structure, inbreeding depression, and population persistence across a fragmented landscape.

▪Associate Professor of Biology, The College of Wooster, 2021-present

▪Assistant Professor of Biology, The College of Wooster, 2015-2021

▪Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology, Wabash College and Wittenberg University, 2013-2015

▪Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto, 2010-2013

▪Ph.D., Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago/Chicago Botanic Garden, 2010

▪B.A., Biology, St. Olaf College, 2003

Current and Recent Lab Members

Ison Lab presents on our ongoing research to the Wooster community during the September 2019 Science Cafe: Mia Stevens ’20, Avery Pearson ’20, Evan Jackson ’20, Maresa Tate ’21, Jess Roberts ’20, and KC Okoronkwo ’20 

IS (thesis) students during our weekly cohort meeting: KC Okoronkwo ’20, Jess Roberts ’20, Mia Stevens ’20, and Avery Pearson ’20 (not pictured: Evan Jackson ’20 and Preston Chamberlin ’20)

Team Echinacea East (2019 summer research students): Mia Stevens ’20, Ren Johnson ’22, Miyauna Incarnato ’21, Jennifer Ison, and Avery Pearson ’20

IS (thesis) and research experience students during 2018-2019 academic year: Maresa Tate ’21, Mia Stevens ’20, Nate Scheerer ’21, Zeke Zelman ’19, Mary Kate Norton ’19, and Evan Jackson ’20 (not pictured Michelle Chang ’20)

Team CoW Bee (2018 summer research students): Zeke Zelman ’19, Evan Jackson ’20, and Mia Stevens ’20

Team Bellflower (2017 summer research students and collaborators):  Jennifer Ison, Laura Galloway, Elizabeth Tuan ’18, Jack Whalen ’18, Sara Garcia ’19, and Ashley Padilla ’18 (not pictured Matt Koski)

Team Echinacea East 1.0 (2016 summer research students): Alyson Jacobs ’17, Jennifer Ison, Alex Hajek ’17, Laura Leventhal ’18, and Leah Prescott ’17

Previous IS (undergraduate thesis) students*:

  • KC Okoronkwo ’20: Learning and memory examination of Bombus impatiens bumblebees on Campanula americana American Bellflower
  • Avery Pearson ’20: Independent bees working together: Male fitness of prairie perennial Echinacea angustifolia is more influenced by cumulative bee visitation than by any individual species
  • Jess Roberts ’20: Through the lens of bumble goggles: Manipulating visual and olfactory cues of 3-D printed realistic flowers for Bombus impatiens to monitor their learning and decision making
  • Mia Stevens ’20: Hummingbirds are not Fab-aceae pollinators: Erythrina flabelliformis, a hummingbird-pollinated desert perennial, has significant fine-scale genetic structure and low pollen movement distances 
  • Mary Kate Norton ’19: Bumblebees Can Learn and Remember Floral Trait Differences
    on a 3D Printed Model of American Bellflower, Campanula americana
  • Zeke Zelman ’19: Specialist pollinator Andrena removes more Echinacea angustifolia pollen per visit than more generalist bee taxa
  • Ashley Padilla ’18: Busy bees: Comparing pollinator efficiencies of the three primary American bellflower pollinator taxa
  • Jack Whalen ’18: Visual acuity and pollen color preference in bumblebees
  • Elizabeth Tuan ’18: The Role of Pollinator Preference on the Maintenance of Pollen Color Polymorphisms in the American Bellflower, Campanula americana
  • Laura Leventhal ’18: Selection on phenological traits changes over the flowering season in a self-incompatible annual: Implications for the formation of adaptive temporal clines
  • Megan Zerrer ’18: The birds and the beans: Assessing phenotypic and genetic variation in populations of hummingbird-pollinated Erythrina flabelliformis
  • James Austin ’18: The Impact of Invasive Plant Competition, and Deer Grazing, on Native Plant Species in a Secondary-Growth Forest
  • Alex Hajek ’17: Lethal and sublethal effects of a neonicotinoid pesticide, imidacloprid, on native bees and bee mimic flies
  • Alyson Jacobs ’17: The biotic and abiotic effects of buckthorn removal on a Minnesotan bog. 
  • Leah Prescott ’17: How does generalist pollinators floral constancy behavior change over the flowering season?
  • Mallorey Stack ’17: The impacts of deer browsing and invasive species on native flowering plants at Fern Valley.
  • Annelise Bay ’16: Seed oil variation in Ghanaian populations of Moringa oleifera.
  • Kathleen Hogg ’16: Quantifying hybridization between the native Echinacea angustifolia and the introduced pallida using microsatellite markers.
  • *If you would like a copy of a thesis, please email me at jison(at)wooster.edu