# Dillon Wheeler Graduate Student Naomi Pierce Lab ![a person outside looking at the camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum6431/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/mcz/files/dillon_wheeler.jpg?itok=fFSTZdS7) email My interests center on the behavioral mechanisms, ecological dynamics, and evolutionary processes that shape symbiotic mutualisms, specifically multi-species interactions between insects, plants, and fungi. This interest was sparked during my B.S. in Biology at Lee University, where I worked with Dr. Thaddeus McRae to examine salticid-tree associations in temperate forests. I also worked at Michigan State University with Dr. Kadeem Gilbert to explore how captured plant detritus impacts the digestive mutualisms and nutritional strategies of the carnivorous pitcher plant, *S. purpurea*. I then earned my M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University, where I worked with Dr. Sunshine Van Bael to investigate how genotype specialization by fungal communities impacts tropical seedling fitness and drives conspecific negative density-dependence. I also studied at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute with Dr. Dale Forrister, where I executed high-throughput fungal growth bioassays, quantifying how plant secondary metabolites shape pathogen host range."