GRADUATE FACULTY

Acevedo-Gutiérrez, Alejandro  Ph.D. Assistant Professor

          I am interested in marine conservation and the role of marine mammals and seabirds in their environment.  Through the Science, Mathematics and Technology Program, I also attempt to improve the teaching of science to children at the K-12 grade levels.
 

Anderson, Roger A., Ph.D. Associate Professor

Biological specialization: Vertebrate physiology and ecology.

Research: Lizard energetics, ecology, and evolution.                        

Brown, Herbert A., Ph. D. Professor

Biological specialization: Morphology, ecology, and evolution of vertebrates.

Research: Development, comparative morphology and reproductive biology of amphibians and reptiles.

Donovan, Deborah, Ph.D. Associate Professor

Biological specialization: Marine biology and physiological ecology.

Research: Energetics of marine invertebrates focusing on locomotion and wave-swept environments

Hooper, David U., Ph.D. Associate Professor.

Biological specialization: Plant Community and Ecosystem ecology

Research: My research interests follow three related themes: 1) effects of plant functional traits on carbon and nitrogen cycling in ecosystems; 2) effects of biodiversity on ecosystem processes; 3) effects of riparian vegetation on stream ecosystems.

Selected Publications

Leaf, David S. Ph.D. Associate Professor

Biological specialization: Cell and developmental biology.

Research: Control of membrane traffic in early animal development.  Evolution of pattern formation in insect development.

Miner, Benjamin Ph.D.

                Marine invertebrate ecology and evolution

Moyer, Craig L.,Ph.D. Assistant Professor.

Biological specialization: Microbial evolution and molecular phylogeny.

Research: Natural history of prokaryotes; molecular approaches in exploring microbial diversity, community structure and ecology.

*Muller-Parker, Gisele, Ph.D. Professor (On leave to National Science Foundation until Fall 2006)

Biological specialization:  Marine biology.

   Research: My research program addresses how environmental factors (light quantity and quality, temperature, nutrients, prey availability) affect the interactions between algae and their invertebrate hosts such as sea anemones and corals.  Currently, the main focus of our student-centered research is to determine how temperature and light affect the growth and photophysiology of zooxanthellae in anemones and corals.  The contrasting conditions for symbiosis that exist in tropical and temperate environments are helping us to understand the role of the environment versus the role of the host in controlling production and growth of the symbiotic algae.  My tropical research is examining what factors trigger bleaching and how the symbiotic algae are affected by the stress-induced disruption of the symbiosis with their host.  Selected Publications      

(*this link takes you to Shannon-Point, choose faculty to view her page)  

Peterson, Merrill, A., Ph.D. Associate Professor.

Biological specialization:  Insect ecology and evolutionary biology.

Research:  "Insect ecology and evolutionary biology; Current research in my lab focuses on the evolution of reproductive barriers in a beetle hybrid zone, including analyses of population genetic structure, studies of conspecific sperm precedence, assessments of the fitness costs of hybridization, behavioral bioassays of reproductive character displacement, and chemical ecological analyses of the cues underlying sexual isolation.

Singh-Cundy, Anu., Ph.D. Assistant Professor.

Biological specialization:  Plant growth and development, plant physiology, plant molecular biology.

Research: Cell-cell interactions during reproductive and vegetative development in plants; self-incompatibility, graft formation.

Trent, Carol, Ph.D. Associate Professor

Biological specialization: Genetics and molecular biology.

Research: Developmental genetics of the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis.

Williams, Don C., Ph.D. Professor.

Biological specialization: Biochemistry.

Research: Our laboratory has two areas of research focus. Of primary interest is the digestive ecology and enzymology of echinoderms and molluscs, with a recent emphasis upon the gastropods Arion ater (common garden slug) and Ariolimax columbianus (banana slug).  Secondarily, we are interested in the biology and evolution of certain neurological disorders (primarily ADHD) and the relationship of those disorders to an organism’s fluctuating asymmetry (a small deviation from perfect symmetry in traits which are normally bilaterally symmetrical).

Young, Jeff, Ph.D. Assistant Professor.

Biological specialization: Plant genetics and genome studies.

Research: Using Arabidopsis as a model system to study transport in plants.

AFFILIATED GRADUATE FACULTY

*Sulkin, Stephen D., Ph.D. Professor and Director, Shannon Point Marine Center.

Research: The main thrust of the research of Sulkin and his students has been to describe the nutritional requirements of the planktotrophic larval stages of brachyuran crab species.  Recent work has indicated that newly-hatched larvae are opportunistic omnivores that can utilize a wide variety of prey, including detrital-based carbon sources, at least until they encounter higher quality meso-zooplankton prey in sufficient densities for effective feeding. Specifically, crab larvae can obtain nutrition from a variety of both autotrophic and heterotrophic protists, as well as microbially-colonized detrital particles.  Current research being carried out by graduate students includes assessment of the range of microbial prey ingested by crab larvae, ingestion rates on protistans, whether larvae consume microbial prey in the presence of mezzo-zooplankton prey, and temporal patterns of ingestion and digestion of protists.

(*this link takes you to Shannon-Point, choose faculty to view his page)

Selected Publications