People

Micah Freedman (he/him) - Assistant Professor

I grew up in South Carolina and studied Entomology and Plant Sciences at Cornell University. After graduating, I spent a year working with the Ecology of Bird Loss Project in the Mariana Islands before starting my Ph.D. at UC Davis. I was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia before moving to Toronto. When I'm not working, I can be found hiking, running, taking photos, and posting to iNaturalist.

Bluesky, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Personal Website

Ben Pyenson (he/him) - EEB Postdoctoral Fellow

I study various insects, like crickets, ants, bees, and flies, to understand how the regulation of social behavior and host choice changes over evolution, using tools from endocrinology, neuroscience, chemical ecology, transcriptomics, and computational ethology. Before working in the Freedman lab as an EEB postdoc, I earned a Master’s from McGill, a PhD from the Social Insect Research Group at Arizona State, and completed a postdoc focused on wild bees at York University. I also work with the Cutter, Rodd, and Sztepanacz labs in EEB.

Google Scholar, ResearchGate

Adam Kai Chi Lee (he/him) - PhD student

I am a PhD student studying the migratory behavior of monarch and milkweed butterflies and climate change impacts on their migration in the Freedman Lab. Before joining the Freedman lab, I completed my studies in the University of Hong Kong studying the population genetics of a local distribution of the common swamp pitcher plants. When not at work, I enjoy a good hike, playing boardgames, listening to classical music and having rounds of badminton / table tennis matches.

May Jagodkin (she/her) - PhD student

I am a first-year PhD student using cardenolide fingerprinting to understand the role of changing milkweed host plant assemblages in monarch butterfly decline. Prior to joining the Freedman Lab, I completed an Honours Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, where I researched the ecotoxicological effects of paint microplastics on a benthic freshwater invertebrate. Beyond the lab, I can be found camping, gardening, or exploring our city.

LinkedIn

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