New assistant professor Dr. John Mola is an ecologist in the Forest of Rangeland Stewardship department. Learn more about why he came to Colorado State University, his favorite kind of bee, and what he plans to study in his lab.
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself!
A: I’m formally trained as an ecologist and have long been interested in pollination, bees, forests, and fire. Although I did not plan it this way, my dissertation ended up being on the effects of fire on bumble bee populations (among other things). Turns out when you live in California, the odds that your sites eventually burn is pretty high! Then, during my postdoc at USGS, I was working on various projects related to the conservation of the endangered bumble bee, Bombus affinis (Rusty Patched Bumble Bee). From reviewing the literature and working on a project about changes in plant abundance over time, it became more and more clear that we were overlooking the value of forests in bumble bee conservation. So a lot of my attention as of late has focused on that – how can we find shared strategies for forest and insect conservation.
Outside of professional life, I’m pretty obsessed with disc golf. Which is a funny sport from a Forestry perspective, as the game relies heavily on the existence of trees. Without trees you’re just throwing in an open field, with trees it becomes a fascinating game where you try to manipulate circles of plastic on complex angles. It’s a great way to get outside and enjoy friends and entertain dogs. I also like to play music, hang out with my wife and pets, play video games, ride bikes, and eat food.
Q: What brought you to Forest and Rangeland Stewardship and CSU?
A: I was working at USGS here in Fort Collins and although I loved the research I was doing, I really missed the culture of an academic lab, teaching, and the broader “mission” of University life. I saw the position come up and went for it. I’m very glad to be here as the students seem really jazzed about ecology and conservation and making the world just a little bit better.
Q: What are your research and teaching interests and how did you get interested in those topics?
A: My primary research interest is pollinator conservation, although I do hope to get back to some pollination ecology as well as dig in a bit more into some work I’ve been doing on understory plants agnostic to their insect interactions. I got interested in these topics by sort of meandering through the world of plants. When I first went to college, as a first-generation student, I did not have much guidance. But my dad mowed lawns for a living and so we would work together in the summer and talk about plants (mostly pretty boring suburban landscaping plants but ya know, it’s better than nothing). So when I had to choose a major I chose Environmental Studies because I saw you could take things like “Field Botany” and my mom had once said that maybe I’d enjoy something called “Ecology – although she wasn’t really sure what it was just that it had “something to do with plants and animals” (basically correct!). Long story short, if you’re interested in flowers eventually you may find yourself interested in the things that are more concerned with flowers than anything else on Earth: bees.
All that bee stuff said, the very first thing I ever researched independently and published on was the fire ecology of a rare, endangered conifer, Torreya taxifolia.
Q: What is a research question you are working on or curious about next?
A: One area I’ve been interested in for a while now, but have done very little on, is the impacts of smoke and ash fall events on plant-insect interactions. I’d be very curious to know how these changes in air quality may be impacting insect navigation, floral cues, pollination, herbivory, etc. It seems like a pretty wide-open topic but one that could be having large impacts (even if small effects but spread over large areas). Other areas we’ll be working on include the impact of different forest management treatments on overwintering insects, optimizing the selection of “pollinator-friendly” plants in cities under changing climates, and continued work on the conservation of bumble bees.
Q: What classes will you be teaching and when?
A: I will be teaching Forest Ecology in the Fall and Spring, starting this Spring 2023. I will also be teaching another TBD course depending on student and department needs. I have lots of aspirations for various courses near and dear to my heart, but it’ll be a ramping-up process.
Q: What is your teaching philosophy?
A: In short, my teaching philosophy is to imagine a train with many stops. Not all passengers get on at the same spot, and not all get off at the same either, but hopefully, they all get moved along a little bit toward their desired destination.
Longer and more practically, my teaching philosophy is an acronym: MEDIAA. I seek to Motivate students through examples and connection to their values. I then try to set clear Expectations for success. I do my best to understand and offer Diverse perspectives and foster an Inclusive learning environment. I use Active learning techniques and try to make classes practical and fun. Finally, I recognize that over time, I need to Adapt my strategies to changing cultural values, expectations, and technologies.
Q: What do you like/favorite part about CSU and the campus?
A: The people! Honestly, I haven’t learned a ton about CSU itself or the campus yet. But, because I’ve lived in the area for a couple of years, I’ve gotten to know a handful of students and faculty and I just think people here have a really good perspective on the value of the work we do without going overboard about it. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to handle reading about climate change and extinctions all day but to still want to do good and not give up. I think there are a lot of folks like that here. And the ones I have met, also know that this work means something, but life should still be enjoyed. The mountains should be explored, the rivers tumbled down, and the flowers should definitely get a faceful of our noses.
Q: Who should get in touch with you and how?
A: It’s best to contact me via email at john.mola@colostate.edu – Interested undergraduate students should simply email me about their interests and availability. Work-study positions should be going out soon. If you’re interested in joining the lab as a graduate student, please visit https://molalab.org/join-the-lab/