DR. TRAVIS RUSCH is a postdoctoral associate of the Tarone and Tomberlin laboratories. He received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2011 and his PhD. in biology from Arizona State University in 2017. Travis’s background is in thermal biology and species interactions. During his PhD, he studied how the distribution of microclimates influenced the thermoregulatory performance of ectotherms either competing with conspecifics or under predation risk. While here at the FLIES Facility, he will investigate the thermal limits and thermal preferences of carrion-feeding insects. He will also apply a Game Theory approach to study decision-making and fitness tradeoffs in blow flies, with an emphasis on oviposition site selection and larvae feeding competition.