Clare Rittschof

Clare Rittschof is an Associate Professor at the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Kentucky. Her research integrates behavioral ecology, neuroscience, and genomics to investigate how social experiences and environmental factors shape behavioral expression in insects, particularly honey bees.

• Location: 405 Plant Sciences Building, Lexington, KY
• Email: clare.rittschof@uky.edu
• Phone: (859) 218-3343

Research focuses on:

• Social cue integration and behavioral plasticity
• Impact of early-life experiences on adult phenotypes
• Neurogenomic mechanisms of aggression and disease resistance
• Environmental stressors in agroecosystems
• Epigenetic regulation of social behavior
• Systems approaches to plant-pollinator interactions

Recent publications highlight trends in honey bee aggression regulation, social context effects on behavior, transcriptomic responses to stress, and environmental impacts on colony dynamics. Her work bridges ecological and molecular perspectives through studies on brain mitochondrial bioenergetics, kleptobiotic events, and grooming behaviors.

Scientific award:

• National Science Foundation CAREER Award for 'Signal to Noise' research on social information processing

Mentoring initiatives emphasize undergraduate research opportunities, with lab social media platforms showcasing their NSF-funded work and bee behavior studies.