Spring 2022 Outstanding Biology Learning Assistant Awards
The Biology Department recognized the hard work and innovation of all of our Learning Assistants (LAs) by presenting “The Outstanding Learning Assistant Award” to a group of Biology LAs for the spring 2022 semester. These students presented a poster that was judged by the Biology Honors Committee to best outline... More
Cameron Dixon Receives 2022 I. Alden Macchi Award
Cameron Dixon, MCBB PhD candidate of the McCall Lab, was selected as the winner of the 2022 I. Alden Macchi Award for excellence in the field of regulatory biology. Read more about Cameron's research below! Hormones orchestrate vital physiological pathways, such as metabolism, development, and reproduction. Beyond their influence on organismal... More
2022 Dr. Marion R. Kramer Scholarship Winners
The Department of Biology is excited to announce the two recipients of this year’s Dr. Marion R. Kramer Scholarships: Hannah Aichelman of the Davies Lab and Nahomie Rodriguez-Sastre of the Bradham Lab. Hannah Aichelman uses physiological and molecular tools to understand how both temperate and tropical coral species persist in... More
Heather Hook Receives Charles Terner Award
Heather Hook, Biology PhD candidate of the Siggers Lab, is this year’s recipient of the Charles Terner Award. In the Siggers lab, Heather has been working on the development of a novel, high-throughput technique to profile transcription factor – cofactor complex recruitment to DNA to determine a cell’s key regulators. More
Nicola Kriefall Receives Belamarich Dissertation Writing Award
Nicola Kriefall of the Davies Lab is the recipient of the 2022 Belamarich Dissertation Writing Award. This award complements the Belamarich Award, and is given to support an outstanding PhD student through the dissertation writing stage. Nicola is interested in understanding how reef environments affect corals and their symbioses with microscopic... More
Frank Azorsa Receives Long-term GRAF
Biology PhD student Frank Azorsa of the Traniello Lab recently received a Long-term Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship (GRAF). This fellowship program supports foreign-based research by doctoral students whose field-based or archival research requires an extended period of residence in another country or countries. . Frank’s research on brain evolution requires... More
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Recipient and Honorable Mentions
The awardees and honorable mentions for the 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition were recently posted and several Biology graduate students were recognized. Biology PhD student Emma Conrad-Rooney of the Templer Lab was awarded with a 3-year graduate research fellowship. Biology PhD student Christine Carroll of the Fiszbein... More
Yuan Tian Receives Brenton R. Lutz Award
Yuan Tian of the Man Lab is the recipient of this year’s Brenton R. Lutz Award. Yuan studies the UBE3A-dependent autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is one of the most common genetic factors in ASD etiology. Using transgenic mouse models, her research focuses on characterizing the sexually dimorphic behaviors, neuronal... More
Javier Méndez Narváez Published in Ecology and Evolution
Biology PhD alum, Dr. Javier Méndez Narváez of the Warkentin Lab recently had his first dissertation chapter “Reproductive colonization of land by frogs: Embryos and larvae excrete urea to avoid ammonia toxicity” published in the journal Ecology and Evolution and highlighted as News of the Week by AmphibiaWeb for the week... More
Graduate Students Awarded Warren-McLeod Fellowships
Congratulations to the 2022 winners of the Warren-McLeod Graduate Fellowships! Recipient of the full year Warren-McLeod Fellowship: James Fifer – Biology PhD candidate in the Davies lab | Taking an archipelago-wide perspective to predict coral resilience on the reefs of the Marianas Recipient of the summer Warren-McLeod Fellowships: Joshua Aguirre – Biology PhD candidate... More