Dr. Underwood received her BA in Biology from Vassar College, her PhD in Ecology from Duke University, and was a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Davis, before joining the FSU Department of Biological Science. She studies how plant and insect populations are controlled in both natural and agricultural settings, how variation in traits among individuals influences their interactions, and how climate change influences the timing of biological events. She and her lab members have research projects in the forests and fields of northern Florida, in Sweden, and in the montane meadows of Colorado, where she works for several months each summer at a high-altitude field station in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Dr. Underwood became a Professor because she loves research, teaching and thinking about how universities can better serve students and society, so she is very pleased to be associated with the Honors program, as well as chairing the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for her department. Outside of academic life, Dr. Underwood loves outdoor adventures like mountain climbing and running rivers, as well as biking, gardening, dancing, reading, cooking and hanging out with her husband, daughter, and dog.

To learn more about Dr. Underwood and her research, visit the Department of Biological Science's website: https://www.bio.fsu.edu/faculty.php?faculty-id=nunderwood .