The Birds and the Bugs

The signs of spring erupt at the Ides of March as the birds return from their southern migration. While the bees buzz by ears and the buds of flowers begin to sprout from the lion and lamb days, the season of new starts to grow. With the change of seasons comes fresh research opportunities at Saint Vincent for professors Dr. Michelle Duennes, Assistant Professor of Biology, and Dr. Jim Kellam, Associate Professor of Biology, who take this season of new to dive deeper into their research that begins to flourish as the days get a little longer.

Duennes became infatuated with bugs and the world of entomology early on in her undergraduate career at Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that infatuation eventually landed her in Central America during her studies at University of Illinois UrbanaChampagne, where she studied population genetics in bumblebees. Today, she brings that passion to the lab in the Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion, also known as the Duennes Lab.

She’s lead several students through their senior research projects, though