The MacMillan Lab studies how and why temperature sets limits to individual performance, and how differences in thermal tolerance among individuals, populations, and species arise. In other words, why can one species survive a canadian winter while another cannot?

By integrating observations at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and whole animal levels we strive to build and test conceptual models that can explain thermal limits. Using these models as a backbone for new questions, we study the mechanisms that allow for the wide variation in thermal tolerance we observe in nature.