News
october 2026
Several lab members participated in the Department of Biological Sciences Annual Symposium. Congratulations to Dr. Tyler Brown, who won the second place Postdoc Oral Presentation Award, Ph.D. Student Ella Kellner who won the first place Graduate Student Poster Award, and undergraduate student Ivy Pfeffer, who won the second place Undergraduate Poster Award. Many thanks to Ph.D. Student Sal DeAndrea, President of the Association for Biological Sciences Graduate Students, for leading the symposium organization.
Thanks to the Biology Graduate Outreach group for regularly organizing outreach events for the community. This event was Halloween themed, and included a table displaying live organisms and bones, potion making, dissection trays with skeletons that snap together, and microscopes with parasite slides.
july 2026
Dr. Stellwagen and Dr. Alex Sweger (Hartwick College) led the Spiders of the Southern Appalachians field course at the Highlands Biological Station in Highlands, North Carolina.
Dr. Tyler Brown, Ph.D. Candidate Hannah Faye, and Ph.D. Student Ella Kellner attended the American Arachnological Society Annual Meeting at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
May 2026
Congratulations to Ph.D. Student Sal DeAndrea who won the first place poster award in the Materials Research section of the UNC Charlotte Center for Innovation, Translational Research and Applications of Nanostructured Systems (CITRANS) annual symposium.
April 2026
Congratulations to Ph.D. Student Sal DeAndrea who won the second place oral presentation award in the Health and Science Research section at the UNC Charlotte Graduate Research Symposium.
January 2026
Congratulations to postdoc Dr. Tyler Brown for winning the Early Career Award – Best Paper Prize for his manuscript The reduction of nuptial gifts in sclerosomatid Opiliones coincides with an increase in sexual conflict-like behaviour, work he completed in the lab of Dr. Mercedes Burns.
October 2025
The lab hosted Dr. Todd Blackledge from The University of Akron for a departmental seminar. Dr. Blackledge came just in time to see the UNC Charlotte botanical gardens’ Amorphophallus titanum bloom, affectionately named Cadavera.
June 2025
Lab members traveled to Highlands, NC to collect specimens and the American Arachnological Society annual meeting in Golden, Colorado to present research.
May 2025
Postdoc Dr. Tyler Brown received a very prestigious National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB) to study native glow worm behavior, phenotypic plasticity, and web material properties. Congratulations Dr. Brown!
Ph.D. student Sal DeAndrea won second place for his poster presentation in the materials section at the UNC Charlotte CITRANS symposium. Congratulations Sal!
April 2025
Ph.D. student Hannah Faye received a very prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to study the circadian rhythm of native glow worms and its relationship with the material properties of their silk webs. Congratulations Hannah!
Ph.D. student Ella Kellner received a Herschel and Cornelia Everett Foundation First-Year Doctoral Fellowship to study the flexural and tensile properties of spider silks. Congratulations Ella!
Undergraduate student Hope Hulse presented her research about spider and insect diversity in the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens at the university’s Undergraduate Research Conference. Great job, Hope.
January 2025
The Stellwagen Lab traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the annual meeting for the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. Everyone gave excellent talks!
October 2024
2024 Oral presentation winners! Ella won second place in the undergraduate oral presentation section at the Southeastern Branch of the Entomological Society Meeting and Sal won second place in the graduate student talk section at the UNC Charlotte Department of Biological Sciences annual symposium. Congratulations!
July 2024
Dr. Stellwagen teaches the 2024 Spiders of the Southern Appalachians course at the Highlands Biological Station with Dr. Alex Sweger (Hartwick College) and Dr. Mercedes Burns (University of Maryland, Baltimore County).
June 2024
The Stellwagen Lab goes on its inaugural collecting trip to get glow worms in Highlands, NC!
May 2024
The Stellwagen Lab was featured in a university article!
February 2024
Dr. Stellwagen and collaborator Dr. Mercedes Burns went to Australia to collect glow worms, spiders, and onycophorans!
2023 November
Dr. Stellwagen and collaborator Dr. Mercedes Burns went to Oregon to collect Sabacon occidentalis for their NSF grant. It was cold and wet, and collecting was tough.
2023 October 31
The Stellwagen Lab was featured in a UNC Charlotte video!
2023 May
Dr. Stellwagen will officially start as Assistant Professor in August, 2023!