Emma I Dietrich, PhD

Emma has long held passions for both ecological research and science communication, and is very excited to combine these interests in her position on the outreach and communications team at FORT. She started her career at the University of Rochester, where she studied the population genetics of fruit fly endosymbionts. After a short stint as a lab technician, she began her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. While there, she studied the behavioral ecology, natural history, and microbiology of a purportedly socially polymorphic spider. She also worked as a teaching assistant in a variety of biology courses and pursued numerous opportunities for sharing science with the public. After graduating, she worked as a program coordinator for an outdoor education nonprofit in Metro Detroit, then spent six months working on a bee survey in Indiana Dunes National Park.