Graduate Research Opportunities
Faculty in the Department of Biology look for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to work with them. Openings change year-by-year depending on current staffing and funding levels. The faculty listed below have active research programs, and those who are recruiting new graduate students are noted.
Go to the Research page for a grouping of faculty by research area with descriptions of research and contact information, or select any faculty member to learn more about their research interests.
- Peter Armbruster: Evolutionary dynamics of range expansion, adaptation genomics, diapause. (recruiting students for Fall 2027)
- Shweta Bansal: Network modeling of disease; quantitative disease ecology; epidemiology and public/animal health problems. (recruiting students for Fall 2027)
- Shaun Brinsmade: Host-pathogen interactions, virulence, bacterial physiology/metabolism, gene regulation, and polymicrobial infection. (recruiting students for Fall 2027)
- Thomas Coate: Developmental neuroscience; axon guidance; inner ear neurobiology.
- Isaac Cervantes-Sandoval: Encoding memory; mechanisms of forgetting; neurobiology.
- Iuliana Ene: Antifungal drug responses, genome plasticity, phenotypic heterogeneity, antifungal drug discovery. (recruiting students for Fall 2027)
- Matthew Hamilton: Population genetics and mathematical biology.
- Haiyan He: Neurobiology; plasticity; inhibitory neurons. (recruiting students for Fall 2027)
- Jeff Huang: CNS neuron-glia interactions, myelin biogenesis, inflammation, and regeneration. (recruiting students for Fall 2027)
- Sarah Johnson: Geobiology, astrobiology.
- Maryam Kohram: Biophysics, tumor microbiome, cancer mechanics, microbial aging.
- Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss: Neuroinflammation; misfolded protein disorders; neuron-glia communication; neurodegenerative diseases
- Janet Mann: Behavior of dolphins; mother-calf interactions; social networks. Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project, Shark Bay Dolphin Project. (recruiting students for Fall 2027)
- Pete Marra: Migratory birds; conservation
- Leslie Ries: Butterfly community dynamics; biogeography, climate and land-use change, ecological and biodiversity informatics.
- Ronda Rolfes: Regulation of gene expression; inositol pyrophosphate signaling; molecular genetics of yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans.
- Anne Rosenwald: Protein trafficking in Saccharomyces cerevisiae; cell wall biosynthesis in Candida glabrata; microbial genomics.
- Elena Silva: Neurogenesis and the evolution of the CNS.
- Steven Singer: Host-parasite interactions, Giardia immunology.
- Martha Weiss: Evolutionary ecology; plant-animal interactions and butterfly learning, wasp learning and caterpillar behavior.
- Gina Wimp: Community ecology; genetic and environmental factors that structure biodiversity.
- Tiffany Zarrella : Polymicrobial interactions, bacterial behaviors, molecular microbiology.