Jessie C. Tanner
I am an animal behaviorist primarily interested in sexual signaling. I am especially interested in communication behaviors because they are complex, dynamic, conspicuous, and often critically important to individual fitness. The broad aim of my research is to understand the information present in signals, how that information is decoded and used by receivers, how the environment shapes communication interactions, and how communication evolves. I use empirical studies of behavior in the field and the lab to understand decision-making and its consequences. I work primarily with frogs and field crickets because they are excellent models for studies of acoustic communication. Before starting my lab at the University of Tennessee, I completed postdoctoral training at the University of Western Australia, where I studied the evolution of the mammalian baculum (penis bone). I earned my PhD at the University of Minnesota, studying some of the reasons receivers might not always be able to express their mating preferences in nature. I am also a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where I completed a BS in Zoology and a BA in French. For more information, see my CV.
I am an animal behaviorist primarily interested in sexual signaling. I am especially interested in communication behaviors because they are complex, dynamic, conspicuous, and often critically important to individual fitness. The broad aim of my research is to understand the information present in signals, how that information is decoded and used by receivers, how the environment shapes communication interactions, and how communication evolves. I use empirical studies of behavior in the field and the lab to understand decision-making and its consequences. I work primarily with frogs and field crickets because they are excellent models for studies of acoustic communication. Before starting my lab at the University of Tennessee, I completed postdoctoral training at the University of Western Australia, where I studied the evolution of the mammalian baculum (penis bone). I earned my PhD at the University of Minnesota, studying some of the reasons receivers might not always be able to express their mating preferences in nature. I am also a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where I completed a BS in Zoology and a BA in French. For more information, see my CV.
Trina Chou
I am a fourth year PhD candidate in the EEB Department. I am interested in the evolutionary pressures that shape animal acoustic communication systems, and how these pressures affect the behaviors of both signalers and receivers! My work takes place in comparative contexts, drawing comparisons across and among species, and I am currently working on several projects generally studying variation in signaler and receiver behavior. The first seeks to understand the effects of chytrid infection on male calling behavior, the second explores whether female treefrogs experience choice overload in complex environments, and the third studies how within-individual variation in male calling may act as a signal of interest for females making decisions. Before starting my PhD, I earned my B.A. at Vassar College, where I majored in Neuroscience and Behavior and minored in Mathematics. You can read more about me on my website!
I am a fourth year PhD candidate in the EEB Department. I am interested in the evolutionary pressures that shape animal acoustic communication systems, and how these pressures affect the behaviors of both signalers and receivers! My work takes place in comparative contexts, drawing comparisons across and among species, and I am currently working on several projects generally studying variation in signaler and receiver behavior. The first seeks to understand the effects of chytrid infection on male calling behavior, the second explores whether female treefrogs experience choice overload in complex environments, and the third studies how within-individual variation in male calling may act as a signal of interest for females making decisions. Before starting my PhD, I earned my B.A. at Vassar College, where I majored in Neuroscience and Behavior and minored in Mathematics. You can read more about me on my website!
Olivia Harris, PhD
I am the Collaborative for Animal Behavior (CoLAB) Postdoctoral Fellow, working in both the Claire Hemingway and Tanner labs. I am a visual ecologist broadly interested in the way color and color signaling affects behavior and cognition in invertebrates. My work in CoLAB will combine Dr. Tanner’s expertise in extracting signals from noisy environments with Dr. Hemingway’s expertise in decision-making in bumblebees to investigate how bee foraging behavior changes in artificial lighting conditions. I will be evaluating how UV-deficient environments, like those created by greenhouse agriculture, will affect the ability of bees to locate floral signals and navigate within and between flowers. For my PhD, I characterized color vision and visually-guided behaviors in jumping spiders at the University of Cincinnati, and was featured in a documentary available on YouTube.
Ashlesh Pattanaik
I joined the lab in Fall 2024 as a PhD student in EEB. Originally from India, I graduated from the National Science Education and Research (NISER) with an integrated BS-MS degree. I am fascinated by unique behavioural traits, specifically in the context of acoustic communication. With a bias towards insects, I want to understand the factors that drive the evolution of signalling strategies over time. This has led me to address a complex tool-making behaviour in tree crickets, known as “baffling”, wherein some species call from self-made holes (or baffles) in leaves to amplify their songs. My goal is to document the variation in baffling among ~25 tree cricket species found in the US and trace the evolutionary path of this trait using a phylogenetic approach. To achieve this, I am also relying on citizen science to gather data on baffling. Consider contributing to my iNaturalist project and find out more about me here!
I joined the lab in Fall 2024 as a PhD student in EEB. Originally from India, I graduated from the National Science Education and Research (NISER) with an integrated BS-MS degree. I am fascinated by unique behavioural traits, specifically in the context of acoustic communication. With a bias towards insects, I want to understand the factors that drive the evolution of signalling strategies over time. This has led me to address a complex tool-making behaviour in tree crickets, known as “baffling”, wherein some species call from self-made holes (or baffles) in leaves to amplify their songs. My goal is to document the variation in baffling among ~25 tree cricket species found in the US and trace the evolutionary path of this trait using a phylogenetic approach. To achieve this, I am also relying on citizen science to gather data on baffling. Consider contributing to my iNaturalist project and find out more about me here!
Katrina Pfennig
I am a second year PhD student and Simons Foundation Fellow in the EEB Department. I am broadly interested in how animals use behavior to maximize their fitness in their environments. I am especially interested in how female gray tree frogs potentially mitigate the non-ideal choice environment created by noise, and how that in turn creates behavioral and genetic differences between populations. I received BAs in Biology and in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I also completed a senior honors thesis in which I examined whether sea turtles might use plant olfactory cues for navigation, and how this usage differed by age.
Sasha Ewing
I joined the lab in January of 2024 as lab manager. I am broadly interested in animal communication and, before joining the lab, I worked on projects studying a variety of birds and some mammals. I completed my MS in the Moseley Lab at James Madison University, where my research focused on how urban environments affect song and reproductive success in gray catbirds, Dumetella carolinensis. I also work in the Derryberry Lab at UTK, where we take a variety of approaches to understanding signal evolution in birds -- largely using tree swallows, zebra finches, and white-crowned sparrows.
I joined the lab in January of 2024 as lab manager. I am broadly interested in animal communication and, before joining the lab, I worked on projects studying a variety of birds and some mammals. I completed my MS in the Moseley Lab at James Madison University, where my research focused on how urban environments affect song and reproductive success in gray catbirds, Dumetella carolinensis. I also work in the Derryberry Lab at UTK, where we take a variety of approaches to understanding signal evolution in birds -- largely using tree swallows, zebra finches, and white-crowned sparrows.
Miles Draper
I'm a statistics major at UTK. I joined the lab in spring 2025 and received a Faculty Research Assistantship to complete a project on gray treefrogs. Dr. Tanner and I are working to understand how fecundity is related to traits of female preference functions for acoustic signals, and whether these preference functions are shaped differently in the presence versus absence of chorus-shaped noise.
Camden Hargis
I am a senior majoring in neuroscience and joined the lab in the spring of 2026. I help collect frogs and test for many different projects. Right now, Dr. Tanner and I are testing whether frequency modulation makes it easier to find frog calls in noise.
Taylor McClain
I am a junior pursing a degree in Animal Science and joined the lab for the treefrog field season in 2025. As an undergraduate research assistant, I help collect and curate data on a range of projects about communication in crickets and frogs. In fall 2025, I assisted with field work on baffling in tree crickets and a related citizen science project.
Lab Alumni
Where do students go after their time in the Tanner Lab? Our students go on to careers in academia, often in ecology & evolutionary biology, psychology, or neuroscience -- or seek careers in industry. Many of our undergraduates go on to pursue graduate school, medical school, or dental school. Here are some of their stories.
Travis Born
Travis was one of the first students to join the lab, working the treefrog field season in 2023. He helped find field sites and record frogs, as well as measure treefrog calls to determine population-level characteristics. He graduated in 2023 and went on to medical school at A.T. Still University in Missouri.
Griffin collecting frogs at a pond in the Knoxville area.
Griffin Ward
Griffin joined the lab as a senior for the frog season in 2025 and continued to work with us through the summer after his graduation in 2026. He contributed to projects about preference functions and fecundity in gray treefrogs and the geometry of decision making. As a student researcher also working in the Hemingway lab, Griffin also worked on choice overload in bumblebees, a collaborative project with the Tanner Lab. After graduation, he accepted a job with the American Conservation Experience (ACE) and plans to attend graduate school in ecology, evolution, and animal behavior.
Taylor Martinez
Taylor was one of the first undergraduates to join the Tanner lab in the spring semester 2023. She helped get the lab established, assisting with identification of appropriate field sites and measuring frog calls to determine population-level characteristics. She graduated in 2025 and went on to attend dental school at Ohio State University, where she continues to excel -- she was awarded the Orville E. Russell Award of Excellence in 2026.
Sara (right) poses with Dr. Tanner (left) and Trina Chou (middle) with the first female treefrog tested in our new anechoic chamber, 2025.
Sara McClung
Sara joined the field crew for the 2025 and 2026 treefrog seasons. She recently accepted a research assistant position at the University of South Carolina in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Medicine. After gaining some additional work experience in science, she plans to attend graduate school in neuroscience.
Lauren (left) performs field work with Sasha Ewing.
Lauren Shinn
Lauren graduated from UTK in 2025, having double-majored in neuroscience and EEB. As a member of the Tanner Lab, she recorded and measured gray treefrog calls in East Tennessee to quantify their within- and between-individual variation as well as potential population differences. She did an independent research project funded by a Faculty Research Assistantship focusing on how within-individual variation affects male-male competition in natural choruses. Lauren was selected as EEB's Outstanding Undergraduate in spring 2025 and also won an award for best student poster at the CISAB conference held at Indiana University in summer 2025. She is now a PhD student in animal behavior at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Lauren graduated from UTK in 2025, having double-majored in neuroscience and EEB. As a member of the Tanner Lab, she recorded and measured gray treefrog calls in East Tennessee to quantify their within- and between-individual variation as well as potential population differences. She did an independent research project funded by a Faculty Research Assistantship focusing on how within-individual variation affects male-male competition in natural choruses. Lauren was selected as EEB's Outstanding Undergraduate in spring 2025 and also won an award for best student poster at the CISAB conference held at Indiana University in summer 2025. She is now a PhD student in animal behavior at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Owen Singleton presents his research at the University of Tennessee's annual EUReCA symposium.
Owen Singleton
Owen joined the lab in 2025 as an undergraduate researcher funded by a Faculty Research Assistantship. He worked closely with PhD student Trina Chou on a project about the range expansion of green treefrogs, Hyla cinerea, in and around the Knoxville area. Driven by a strong interest in vertebrate paleontology, Owen double majored in EEB and Geology. In 2026, eh was awarded the Beagle Memorial Award in Evolutionary Biology by the University of Tennessee's Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department. He graduated in 2026 and went on to pursue a master's degree in vertebrate paleontology at the University of Central Oklahoma.