Toxins & Secret Messages: decoding the chemical language of plants/insects

Dr. Richards will share vignettes from her research that highlight how plants and insects communicate via their chemistry. Whether it is defending against multiple enemies or recruiting partners, we'll see how investigating chemical patterns can tell us the stories of complex interactions.

Dr. Lora Richards is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she is also a faculty member in the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology graduate program, and Scientific Co-director of the Hitchcock Center for Chemical Ecology. Dr. Richards earned her B.S. in Evolution and Ecology from UC Davis (2000) and completed her Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Utah in 2006, with a focus on tropical ecology. For over 16 years, Dr. Richards has investigated how chemistry mediates ecological interactions and shapes herbivore community structure. Through her integrative approaches, she has helped establish chemical diversity as a central theme in chemical ecology, linking metabolomics with biodiversity studies and community ecology. She has published over 40 papers, which have been cited more than 2,000 times. Her research spans ecosystems from the tropical forests of Ecuador to the Sierra Nevada, offering a unique perspective on how chemistry contributes to diversity across different landscapes.

Host or Publisher University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe