Meet the Principal Investigator

Gary Burness Principal investigator

Gary Burness, PhD

I am an ecological and evolutionary physiologist. My research focuses on animal energetics, particularly how animals allocate energy among the competing demands of metabolism, immunity, growth and reproduction. Because all living organisms use energy, students in our lab work with various species, from birds to fish to mammals, depending on the research question of interest.

Current lab members

  • Megan Heft

    Megan Heft, PhD Candidate

    Megan completed her BS (Hons) at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. She is interested in the interaction between artificial light at night and temperature regulation in birds. Currently, she is working with nest-box breeding tree swallows

    Personal website

  • Emma Byers holding dog

    Emma Byers, PhD Candidate

    Emma recently converted from an an MSc to PhD. Her thesis is research explores causes and consequences of phenotypic variation in butterflies. Emma is co-supervised by Michelle DiLeo (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry).

  • Morgan Jaggard  beside nestbox

    Morgan Jaggard, MSc student

    Morgan completed his BSc (Hons) at the the University of Guelph. He is studying whether the environment in which nestling birds are reared impacts their thermal physiology.

  • Eric St. Hilaire

    Eric St. Hilaire, Research assistant

    Eric completed his honours thesis research in the lab, and is currently helping out on our work with zebra finch thermal physiology