Justin A. Bain, PhD

I am an ecologist studying how habitat characteristics and environmental change shape species interactions. My research asks how the nutritional landscapes available to wild bees influence their foraging and structure plant–pollinator networks, and how those networks respond when environmental change removes species or resources. To address these questions, I integrate niche theory, network analysis, and nutritional ecology, combining long-term field observation, macronutrient analyses of pollen and nectar, and statistical modeling in R.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at The Pennsylvania State University with Drs. Heather Hines and Christina Grozinger, where I study how pollen nutrition shapes bumble bee foraging, diversity, and health as part of a USDA NIFA-funded project. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Dr. James Hung at the University of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Biological Survey. I completed my PhD in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden with Dr. Paul CaraDonna.