TESS GRAINGER (she/her)
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor
Department of Integrative Biology
University of Guelph
tess.grainger@uoguelph.ca
I joined the University of Guelph as an Assistant Professor in 2023. I started my academic journey doing my undergrad at the University of Victoria, and then went on to do a Master’s degree at UBC looking at the effects of nutrient enrichment on boreal plants in the Yukon. I did my PhD at the University of Toronto, where I used milkweed specialist insects to look at the effects of climate change on species that live in patchy habitats. I then did a postdoc at Princeton, where I used field experiments with fruit flies to understand species’ rapid evolutionary responses to competition and climate, and a postdoc at UBC, where I conducted experiments with flour beetles testing the effect of temperature on species’ ability to adapt to degraded environments. Over the years I have become increasingly interested in founding my empirical research in theory, and in using controlled lab systems (e.g., flour beetles) to test fundamental (and fascintating!) ecological and evolutionary questions.
CURRENT GRAD STUDENTS
SAV EDWARDS (she/they)
MSc
Sav is conducting experiments with flour beetles that test the effect of temperature on competition and coexistence.
APRIL KOWALCHUK-REID (she/her)
PhD
April is testing questions related to the ecology and evolution of range dynamics.
HANNAH MACNEIL (she/her)
MSc
Hannah is conducting experiments with flour beetles that test factors that affect the likehihood of evolutionary rescue.
CURRENT UNDERGRADS
CATHERINE WANG (she/her)
NSERC USRA
Catherine is testing theory on the interactive effects of resources and temperature on population dynamics.
ABDALAH ABDURANEH (he/him)
Undergraduate research project
Abdalah is conducting experiments with flour beetles to test the factors that effect range expansion rate.
LAB ALUMNI
SYDNEY CHONG-KING
2024-2026
MSc
Project: Competition eliminates the effects of rapid evolution to temperature on population dynamics.
KATE ROBINSON
2024-2026
MSc
Project: The effects of warming and predators on population dynamics and dispersal in a tri-trophic field system.
TARESA FOSTER
2025-2026
Undergraduate thesis
Project: Heatwave eliminates the benefits of adaptation to temperature in an experimental model system.
CAITLIN BARTON
2025-2026
Undergraduate thesis
Project: The effect of competition on evolutionary rescue.
LAINA WEISS
2024-2025
Undergraduate research project
Project: An experimental test of the effects of temperature and resource quality on carrying capacity.
KAYLEY BRESLIN
2024-2025
NSERC USRA
Project: Warming speeds up range expansion in an insect model system.
EMMA GRUNTZ
2024-2025
Undergraduate thesis
Project: Persistent effects of heatwave duration on population dynamics.
ANIK CHHOKER
2024-2025
Work study student
NICOLE BYRNE
2024
Work study student
THE GRAINGER LAB 