Karla Moeller
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Mail code: 7805Campus: Tempe
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After earning a BS in Ecology and Evolution from the University of California at Santa Cruz, I worked as a field biologist before joining the DeNardo lab at ASU. My dissertation focused on how dehydration affects physiological function in reptiles, mainly the Gila monster. During the final two years of my doctorate, I also worked with the Provost's Office as a Senior Educational Outreach Specialist managing Ask A Biologist and working to build other Ask An Expert channels. I then spent a year as a Postdoctoral Scholar for ASU's Center for Evolution and Medicine, where I worked on improving educational resources for the classroom and the public that focus on evolution and evolutionary medicine. Now I am back in the Provost's Office as an Executive Educational Outreach Coordinator.
As an outreach specialist and science communicator, I am interested in ways to increase public involvement in science education, in improving the ways scientists communicate with the general public, and in the psychological factors that influence people's concern for the environment.
As an ecological physiologist, I am interested in factors that affect the survival of animals in extreme environments. In particular, I research how survival strategies vary with life stage and how animal condition affects important physiological functions like immunity and stress responses.