Rate My Professor Sarah DuRant

DuRant's research explores physiological responses of wildlife to environmental stimuli, with emphasis on parental effects, disease ecology, life history theory, and temperature impacts in birds. Her lab studies avian systems such as Eastern Bluebirds and domestic canaries to assess how parental disease history shapes offspring immune phenotypes and transmission dynamics in mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. She received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award in 2020, a five-year $1.5 million grant investigating disease effects on avian parental behaviors and offspring disease responses. Additional honors include the Connor Faculty Fellowship in 2020, recognition as an Extraordinary Woman by the Chancellor's Commission on Women in 2019, and an NSF Professional Awareness, Advancement, and Development Faculty Fellowship in 2017. Notable publications comprise "Ecological, evolutionary, and conservation implications of incubation temperature-dependent phenotypes in birds" (Biological Reviews, 2013), "Slight differences in incubation temperature affect early growth and stress endocrinology of wood duck ducklings" (Journal of Experimental Biology, 2010), "Incubation temperature affects multiple measures of immunocompetence in young wood ducks" (Biology Letters, 2012), and "Incubation temperature as a constraint on clutch size evolution" (Functional Ecology, 2021). She coauthored an opinion piece, "How to Tackle a Childcare-Conference Conundrum," in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018).