Biological Sciences
Dr. Stephen B. Malcolm
Professor
E-mail: steve.malcolm@wmich.edu
Office: 3151 Wood Hall
Lab: 3440 Haenicke Hall
Office phone: 269-387-5604
Lab phone: 269-387-5604
Visit his personal page (Click Here)
Research Description
Area of Research: Ecology/ Chemical Ecology
Professor of Biological Sciences. Steve Malcolm is a chemical ecologist interested in chemically mediated interactions among plants, herbivores and natural enemies. He is particularly interested in how cardiac-active steroids vary in milkweeds in response to insect herbivore attack, how these steroids are handled by the herbivores and how they impact parasitoids and predators. In addition, he works on ways to measure the ecological risks associated with widespread agricultural use of genetically modified plants. These interests merged with the recent controversy over the effects of Bt corn pollen on monarch butterfly larvae feeding on milkweeds. Dr Malcolm has published extensively in refereed journals and books and edited the interdisciplinary journal, Chemoecology, and a book on the Biology and Conservation of the Monarch Butterfly. He has also presented research papers at Gordon Research Conferences and at international meetings and universities in the USA, Europe and Australia.
Students in Dr. Malcolm's laboratory
Anthony O'Neal - Ph.D. degree program - Research: milkweeds, chemical defenses and volatile signals
Brett Blaauw - Master's degree program - Research: impact of sequestered chemical defense of an aphid against ladybird predators
Beth Whately - Ph.D. degree program - Research: comparative analysis of milkweed life histories in southwest Michigan
Tammi Roberts - Master's degree program - Research: monarch butterfly larval foraging behavior