R. Keating Godfrey

Keating Godfrey joined Middlebury college as an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience in 2025. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, a hub for training in insect neuroethology, then completed an NSF postdoctoral fellowship in study sensory receptor evolution at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera Biodiversity at the University of Florida. 

Research in the Godfrey lab centers on the evolution of cell types and circuits and differences in vulnerability to disease. Their work distills these broad aims into a tractable research program by focusing primarily on egg-laying, or oviposition, behavior in insects. 

For many insects, the “when” and “where” of egg-laying is a crucial decision in the survival of offspring and likely faces strong evolutionary pressure. Simultaneously, the neuroethology of oviposition is not well-characterized. The lab uses insect model systems and methods in genomics, histology, and behavior to characterize and compare this circuitry, along with AI- and ML-based approaches for pattern assessment in large, complex data sets. In addition to understanding the function of these circuits, the lab’s research characterizes dysfunction related to aging, disease, and anthropological pest-prevention interventions.