Claire Hemingway

Claire Hemingway is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (2020). Her research focuses on animal decision-making mechanisms, studying foraging behaviors in bats and bees, particularly how these animals evaluate rewards and signals when making choices. She investigates how ecological contexts influence decision strategies and their evolutionary implications.

Dr. Hemingway’s lab explores topics such as label-based expectations in bumblebees, context-dependent preferences in fruit bats, and cognitive constraints in foraging predators. Her work bridges behavioral ecology, neuroscience, and economics, with publications in journals like Biology Letters and Animal Behaviour.

Her research highlights the interplay between sensory processing, learning, and ecological pressures. Current projects include studying how floral reward complexity affects pollinator cognition and how anti-predator signals exploit auditory illusions. She is actively recruiting graduate students interested in these areas.

Dr. Hemingway’s work has been supported by grants examining decision-making trade-offs in both vertebrate and invertebrate systems. Her lab is located in Dabney Hall, and she maintains an active research website at https://www.thebatsandthebees.com/.