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Save the Date for the 2026 BISCCITs Workshop! June 22-24, 2026, Wageningen, NL
Kathryn Feller, PhD
Kathryn Feller, PhD
Dr. Kathryn (Kate) Feller is an assistant professor in the Biological Science department at Union College and oversees the “seeing and stabbing” lab. She identifies herself now as a neuroscientist, but it took a long time to get there. Attending a small liberal arts college for her undergraduate, Kate almost pursued a studio art degree but made the career choice to pursue biology instead as she reasoned that she could always have art in her life with or without a degree and a science career was more tempting. Little did Kate know how much visual art and science could be combined until one summer in undergraduate, she serendipitously ended up doing a research project on bat vision. The ability to think about art and vision in this experience was very exciting to Kate. Previously, she hadn’t given much thought to how vision works, but in the first week of her summer project the PI sat her down with a textbook to learn about molecular pathways – a daunting task to some but an exciting one for Kate. From there, Kate worked with many great mentors in ecology and neuroethology that shaped her career. In fact, she ended up inheriting the entire lab of her predecessor Dr. Rob Olberg, a giant in the field of neuroethology. Now, her lab studies the complex visual system and extremely fast feed-forward strikes (the “seeing and stabbing”) of mantis shrimp. This work can lead to great improvements in the development of robotics and ballistic devices. Kate is excited about future directions in the neuromechanics work of her lab, investigating how these strikes are being engaged at the neuronal level. So far, this work has entailed doing single unit electrode recording in each of the four muscles involved in controlling the strike. However, Kate is now working on a collaboration with researchers in Atlanta to utilize flexible multi-array electrodes in her preparation. Additionally, Kate is working on another collaboration with researchers from Brown University on mantis shrimp strikes during antagonist behaviors, where they could study the mechanisms in freely-moving mantis shrimp. Most recently, Kate has been on sabbatical and well-at-work finishing up analysis, but is eager to continue in these new directions.
Throughout her post-doc, Kate was very involved in outreach and science communication. She helped found a science camp (Camp Quin) and was involved in science comedy, podcasts, science festivals – you name it! Now as a faculty, Kate doesn’t need to book a comedy show to fulfill her desires for science communication, she simply teaches a class. During her time as faculty at Union College, Kate has done a lot of interdisciplinary teaching. One recent class of interest was a cyborg class taught in collaboration between biology, computer science, and English! The class discussed how one understands a biological signal enough to construct a robot that can perform that function, read fiction on different types of technology (using cyborgs as a cautionary tale), and contemplated the impact these technologies could have on the disabled community, including how funding affects who could have access to such technologies. Kate finds that scientists sometimes can get stuck in the science and don’t fully consider what humans need at the end of the day and the potential impact of the science to everyday life. This class is one way for her to get her students thinking about science more holistically.
Fully electric weakly electric fish
Fiddling Crab
Even though Kate did not ultimately pursue a studio arts major in undergraduate, she did not leave her artistic ability behind. Kate was trained in taxonomic description and has made numerous science illustrations for publications. Nowadays, she also finds great inspiration for art in her research. Most of her illustrations are done in black pen, but she also does some watercolors with pen and ink. Last year, she sold two pieces at auction for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), pictured above, raising over $100 for student travel awards. The pieces were in a ‘scientific illustration meets pun’ category in the division for invertebrate biology. You can find many more examples of Kate’s scientific illustrations on her website.
When folks visit Schenectady, New York, Kate likes to take them to Milas Restaurant & Bar, a beautiful restaurant located in a 150 year old bank building with what Kate describes as “the best food.”
Quincy Brown
Quincy Brown
Union College is a small tight-knit school that, like many universities, is filled with amazing professors who love to talk about their research. Quincy Brown, currently a Biology PhD student at University of Washington, began her undergraduate studies at Union College with a focus on art, English, and the human experience. However, after taking two courses with faculty Dr. Kate Feller, Quincy was convinced to take a shot in the dark and join the Feller lab to investigate the more ‘hard biology’ side of her interests. Quincy always had an interest in sensory biology and understanding how organisms, particularly invertebrates, understand their environment and change their behavior accordingly, so the Feller lab (also known as the Sensing and Stabbing lab) studying mantis shrimp striking behavior was naturally a perfect fit. Additionally, Dr. Feller’s own interest in art and her holistic approach to science, centering what is cool and beautiful about all forms of life, attracted Quincy to continue pursuing work in the lab. Quincy completed a senior thesis project on her work on the hypothetical strike zone in mantis shrimp. Equipped with one of the most complicated visual systems in the animal kingdom, mantis shrimp have a very fast predatory strike. Quincy studied the discrete area of space in front of the mantis shrimp in which they have the highest probability of striking (the strike zone) and the related sensory systems that determine the dimensions of the strike zone. Understanding extreme sets of biological processes such as these and how they are possible is not just fascinating to Quincy but can lead to the development of new bio-inspired technologies. The Feller lab nurtured Quincy’s interest in understanding how organisms that are often forgotten about have evolved to understand their environments and behave accordingly. Quincy loved being the person responsible for taking care of these pretty and interesting creatures, and she benefitted greatly from the freedom she was given in the lab to explore science and find her own joy in it. Additionally, Quincy left the Feller lab with many tangible skills to prepare her for graduate school, so much so that she was awarded the Goodnow Neuroscience Endowed Prize – a prize given out by Union College every year to the undergraduate with the highest potential in graduate school for neuroscience. Outside of the lab, Quincy also developed her organizational and management skills by participating in Phonathon outreach events and being a co-general manager for the campus radio station. In 2025, Quincy made the move from New York state to Washington state to attend the University of Washington for graduate school. There, she intends to join Z Yan Wang’s lab and continue studying the neuroscience of invertebrates.
To folks visiting Schenectady, New York, Quincy recommends visiting Arthur’s Market. Arthur’s is a coffee shop located in a beautiful building in the historical district and offers a delicious, caramelized honey coffee syrup; tasty bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches; and overall good vibes - according to Quincy.
published 2026-04-02
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