Ellen D. Ketterson

Ellen D. Ketterson is an American evolutionary biologist, behavioral ecologist, neuroendocrinologist and ornithologist best known for her experimental approach to the study of life-history trade-offs in a songbird, the Dark-eyed Junco. She is currently a Distinguished Professor of Biology, Director of the Environmental Resilience Institute, and affiliate professor in Cognitive Science, Gender Studies, Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, and Neuroscience at Indiana University.

Education and career Ketterson obtained all of her degrees from Indiana University Bloomington. She earned an A.B. in 1966 and an M.A. in 1968, both in Botany.

In 2004, Ketterson received a Guggenheim fellowship to study plumage variation in junco species across North and Central America. She has also won several major awards recognizing her career achievements in ornithology, including the American Ornithological Society Elliott Couse Award (1996), Wilson Ornithological Society Margaret Morse Nice Medal (awarded jointly with Val Nolan, Jr. in 1998), and the Alden Miller Award from the Cooper Ornithological Society (2014). Early in her career, Ketterson focused on differential migration specifically on a pattern of movement in which female birds migrate farther than males.

Ketterson developed the experimental approach of manipulating levels of the hormone testosterone in free-living birds and comparing behavior, physiology, and fitness to controls in order to study the evolution of life-history trade-offs. She coined the term "phenotypic engineering" to describe this approach. They also exhibited higher reproductive success as a result of extra-pair fertilizations despite the lower success of broods that they parent. However, she also found that testosterone-treated males had shorter life-spans Her research has provided a mechanistic understanding of the fitness consequences of how animals allocate time and energy to competing demands (i.e. reproduction versus survival).

Later, her work explored whether hormones, which affect multiple target-tissues simultaneously and mediate coordinated suites of traits, either constrain or potentiate adaptation. This work foreshadowed her interest in addressing limits to organisms' ability to respond to environmental change and the role of hormonally-mediated seasonal timing of behaviors (like reproduction, molt, and migration) in the generation and loss of biodiversity. As the director of the Environmental Resilience Institute, she leads a team of Indiana University researchers to prepare the Hoosier state for the effects of on-going environmental change.

The Ketterson research group currently conducts field research at a number of sites throughout the range of junco species, including in Indiana at Kent Farm on the Indiana University Research and Teaching Preserve, in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia at the Mountain Lakes Biological Station, in northwest Wyoming at Grand Teton National Park, in Idaho, in South Dakota, in Mexico, and in Guatemala.

The 2013 documentary-film project, 'Ordinary Extraordinary Junco: Remarkable Biology from a Backyard Bird' highlights years of research conducted by Ketterson and her colleagues.

Personal life Ketterson was married for 28 years to the ornithologist Val Nolan, Jr., her Ph.D. mentor and long-time collaborator, until his death in 2008.

Awards and recognition Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union, elected 1988 Wilson Ornithological Society Margaret Morse Nice Medal (awarded jointly to both her and Van Nolan, Jr.), 1998 Animal Behavior Society Exemplar Award, 2003 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), elected 2009 Animal Behavior Society, Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award, 2018

Media Interviewed on Big Biology podcast in 2020

Publications Kimmitt, A.A., Sinkiewicz, D.M., Ketterson E.D. (2020). Seasonally sympatric songbirds that differ in migratory strategy also differ in neuroendocrine measures. General and Comparative Endocrinology 285, 113250. Whittaker, D.J., Slowinski, S.P., Greenberg, J.P., Alian O., Winters A.D., Ahmad M.M., Burrell M.J.E., Soini H.A., Novotny M.V., Ketterson, E.D., Theis, K.R. (2019). Experimental evidence that symbiotic bacteria produce chemical cues in a songbird. Journal of Experimental Biology 222 (20), jeb202978. Kimmitt, A.A., Hardman, J.W., Stricker, C.A., Ketterson, E.D. (2019). Migratory strategy explains differences in timing of female reproductive development in seasonally sympatric songbirds. Functional Ecology 33 (9), 1651–1662. Reed, S.M., Ketterson, E.D. (2019). Breeding Latitude and Annual Cycle Timing in a Songbird. IU Journal of Undergraduate Research. Liebgold, E.B., Gerlach, N.M., Ketterson, E.D. (2019). Density‐dependent fitness, not dispersal movements, drives temporal variation in spatial genetic structure in dark‐eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis). Molecular Ecology 28 (5), 968–979. Singh, D., Reed, S.R., Kimmitt, A.A., Alford, K.A., Ketterson, E.D. (2019). Breeding at higher latitude as measured by stable isotope is associated with higher photoperiod threshold and delayed reproductive development in a songbird. bioRxiv, 789008. Reichard, D.G., Atwell, J.W., Pandit, M.M., Cardoso, G.C., Price, T.D., Ketterson, E.D. (2019). Urban birdsongs: higher minimum song frequency of an urban colonist persists in a common garden experiment. bioRxiv, 761734. Graham, J.L., Bauer, C.M., Heidinger, B.J., Ketterson, E.D., Greives, T.J. (2019) Early‐breeding females experience greater telomere loss. Molecular Ecology 28 (1), 114–126. Needham, K.B., Bergeon Burns, C., Graham, J.L., Bauer, C.M., Kittilson, J.D., Ketterson, E.D., Hahn, T., Greives, T.J., (2019). Changes in processes downstream of the hypothalamus are associated with seasonal follicle development in a songbird, the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). General and Comparative Endocrinology 270, 103–112.