Medhavi Ambardar, Ph.D. student. Major advisor: Jennifer Grindstaff. Behavioral ecology, life history, endocrinology, evolutionary game theory.   M.S., 2011, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Email: medhavi@okstate.edu

Specific Interests

I am broadly interested in the physiological mechanisms (proximate causes) that underlie behavioral and life history traits, and how these traits are shaped by natural selection (ultimate causes). I use a wild population of eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) to investigate (1) how hormones mediate trade-offs associated with parental care and the fitness implications of these trade-offs, and (2) how selection maintains fixed and plastic behavioral strategies in variable environments.