Josh Kowal

My thesis work focuses on the trade-offs in sexual selection, reproductive biology, and behavior in the face of life history selection. Most notably Accelerated males are severely sperm limited, producing half as much sperm than our much slower growing control males and in turn accelerated males perform underwhelmingly in subsequent matings due to their limited sperm stores. As I spent more time in the lab, I came to deeply appreciate questions surrounding sexual selection and evolutionary biology; though when I started as an undergraduate researcher, I never would have guessed how much I would enjoy working with insects! Apart from fly pushing, I have explored skills which range from dissection all the way to engineering an Ethoscope that can automate the observation of flies for multiple days. I owe much of my knowledge as a researcher to past grad students like Dr. Harshavardhan Thyagarajan and the welcoming and collaborative nature of the Chippindale Lab! Outside of research, I’ve developed a passion for photography and spend much of my free time exploring Ontario’s natural landscapes which are a different kind of grandeur to my home province of Alberta.