My primary academic interests are in evolution, dispersal ecology, and plant-animal interactions. My research has used diverse groups of animals, including forest herbs, ants, bats, bluebirds, and fish of headwater streams. I helped to start the Brown Family Environmental Center and serve as its Executive Director. My eduction includes an A.B. from Kenyon College and Ph.D. from Stanford University. I taught at Northwestern University before coming back to Kenyon in 1980.

Areas of Expertise

Ecology of mutualism, evolution of sex ratios, emergent behaviors of social insects

Education

Ph.D. Stanford University
A.B. Kenyon College

Selected Publications

Trophic dynamics in a relatively pristine subtropical fringing mangrove community. 2011. Marine Ecology Progress Series, with Patricia Heithaus, Michael Heithaus, Derek Burkholder and Craig Layman

Bono, J. M., and E. R. Heithaus. 2002. Sex ratios and the distribution of elaiosomes in colonies of the ant, Aphaenogaster rudis. Insectes Sociaux 49:320-325.

Heithaus, E. R., and M. Humes. 2003. Variation in communities of seed-dispersing ants in habitats with different disturbance in Knox County, Ohio. Ohio Journal of Science 103(4): 89-97.

Kordonowy, L. L., and E. R. Heithaus. 2004. Male biased sex ratio in young of Eastern Bluebirds (Siala sialis). Ohio Journal of Science 104(1): A-13.

Courses Taught

BIOL 106 Conservation Biology
BIOL 109-110 Introduction to Experimental Biology
BIOL 229 Ecology Laboratory
BIOL 241 Evolution
BIOL 251 Marine Biology
BIOL 261 Animal Behavior