Juliette Rubin, Ph.D.

Education & Positions

• Education:
  • PhD in Biology, 2023, University of Florida and Florida Museum of Natural History
  • MS in Biology, 2017, Boise State University
  • BA in Environmental Studies, 2012, Oberlin College

• Positions:
  • Assistant professor, Texas Tech University, Department of Biological Sciences (2026-)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology, National Science Foundation (2024-2025)
  • Tony Coates Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (2023-2024)

Research Interests

Our lab studies the intense selective pressures of predation and mating and their role in driving the evolution of elaborate traits in animals. To do so, we take a sensory ecology approach - using behavioral experiments and sensory modeling to assess how animals perceive their predators, prey, and conspecifics, and to understand how these sensory experiences shape the evolution of other organisms in their environment. We work across levels of biological organization, from the microscopic structures of butterfly wing scales to the macroecological drivers of animal distributions, with constant attention to phylogenetic context.

We work primarily with arthropods (butterflies, moths, true bugs) and birds (motmots, wrens, and kingbirds), although our projects are not constrained by taxa. We seek to answer pertinent evolutionary questions to understand how the natural world came to look and sound as it does and to create predictions for the future as global change accelerates.

Our lab advocates for open science. We publish data and annotated code alongside our articles, and we are happy to share further details upon request. We are committed to making science a welcoming and inclusive space to all.

Please contact PI Juliette Rubin for more information.

Selected Publications

• Rubin JJ, Campbell CJ, Carvalho APS, St. Laurent RA, Crespo GI, Pierson TL, Guralnick RP, Kawahara AY (2025). Strong bat predation and weak environmental constraints predict longer moth tails. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. bioRxiv link: DOI
• Rubin JJ, Medina-Madrid JL, Falk JJ, Somjee U (2024). The matador bug’s elaborate flags deter avian predators. Behavioral Ecology. DOI, data & code DOI
• Gough H, Rubin JJ, Kawahara AY, Barber JR (2024). Tiger beetles produce anti-bat ultrasound and are probable Batesian moth mimics. Biology Letters. DOI
• Rubin JJ & Kawahara AY (2023). A framework for understanding post-detection deception in predator-prey interactions. PeerJ. DOI
• Rubin JJ & Kawahara AY (2023). Sexual selection does not drive hindwing tail elaboration in a moon moth. Behavioral Ecology. DOI, data & code DOI
• Rubin JJ, Martin NW, Sieving K, Kawahara AY (2023). Testing bird-driven diurnal trade-offs of the moon moth’s anti-bat tail. Biology Letters. DOI (data and code in Supplementary Material)

See Dr. Rubin’s google scholar page for a full list of published articles.