Nathaniel Himmel obtained his BS in biology from the University of Florida, and thereafter studied ion and water homeostasis at Emory University under Dr. Mitsi Blount.

Nate’s PhD research at Georgia State University—in the lab of Dr. Dan Cox—concerned Drosophila cold and chemical sensing, insect cold acclimation, and the evolution of ion channels.

Nate has joined the Benton lab in February 2022 to perform comparative studies of protective behaviors in drosophilids, as well as to study the function of putative ligand-gated ion channels in unicellular eukaryotes, in the hopes of making inferences about the very early evolution and diversification of ion channels.