Interdisciplinary research centers
The Department of Biology supports two interdisciplinary and globally-engaged research centers.
The Department of Biology is one of the premier teaching and research units on the 推荐杏吧原创 campus. Our faculty, post-docs and graduate students conduct internationally recognized research in a wide range of sub-disciplines and specialties. Below are just a few areas where the Department of Biology excels.
Faculty in the Department of Biology are active in all research areas relevant to ecology and conservation biology with both local efforts in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada as well as work relevant to conservation of tropical ecosystems and management responses to global change.
Many faculty conduct research relevant to evolutionary biology. From evolutionary ecology to phylogenetics, faculty and graduate students in the Department of Biology utilize the most modern tools and approaches to addressing exciting issues in evolution.
Cellular and Molecular Biology Biosciences research faculty have expertise in have expertise in a wealth of areas including bioinformatics, immunology and pharmacology and supported with state-of-the-art facilities.
Faculty in the Department of Biology participate in multidisciplinary research that brings together neuroscientists from across campus who support the research and mentoring of junior faculty as well as core facilities to provide access to modern neuroimaging techniques and to research with special neurological populations.
The Cellular and Molecular Imaging core facility of the Integrative Neuroscience COBRE center provides users with instruments and services for analyzing and quantification of biomolecules, and microscopic investigation of cells, tissues, organs, and small animals with imaging capabilities for brightfield and fluorescent microscopy.
Explore the CMI core facilityThe Department of Biology supports two interdisciplinary and globally-engaged research centers.
Proposal development and processing support is available to all Department of Biology faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Find out how the research support team can help you.
The Department of Biology supports graduate students in their research from here in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains and around the world. Below are just a few examples of research being conducted by some of our current graduate students.
Lanie's interests revolve around comparative evolution, genetic architecture of adaptive traits, and genome divergence. She is investigating how historical, geographical, and environmental factors (including global climate change) shape genomic and phenotypic variation in multiple systems. Lanie is pursuing her Ph.D. in the Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology Program.
For the past three years, Lanie has been traveling to northern Mongolia to study the threatened taimen, the world's largest trout in an effort to influence its conservation.
Danielle Salcido is pursuing her Ph.D. under advisor Lee Dyer. Her research is focused on tri-trophic interactions between insects, particularly caterpillars and parasitoids, in Costa Rica and Ecuador. With 22 years of data to work with from these two sites, Danielle is pursuing the question of whether or not population declines are happening and why. She is also interested in the benefit of citizen scientists and incorporates volunteer researchers in her work.
Chris Halsch joined the Department of Biology under advisor Matt Forister to contribute to a long-term study of butterflies that includes 10 sites across Northern California which span an elevational gradient and have been monitored for more than 40 years. This is one of the longest-running studies of its kind and is a valuable and unique record of the biodiversity of the western US. Butterflies, like other insects, are very sensitive to environmental changes and can respond more quickly than longer-lived organisms. By continually surveying these sites we can better understand how these often overlooked animals are responding to a changing world.