Biology Ph.D. and M.S. Programs - Dr. Steve Dorus, Director of Graduate Studies
Nine Ph.D. students and five M.S. students (see list below) successfully defended their dissertations this past year.
Several of our graduate students have also received prestigious awards. Nikhila Krishnan was awarded the Alexander Gourevitch Memorial Award in Biology for research excellence. Julia Dombroski received one of the All-University Doctoral prizes awarded to students in the College of Arts and Sciences for her impactful research in the Parks laboratory. Dan Wang and Sarah Araldi-Brondolo were awarded Research Excellence Doctoral Fellowships to support their graduate research. Valeria Perez, a PhD student in the Parks laboratory, was a recipient of the prestigious National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for 2023.
The Biology Department is also excited to welcome our new graduate students starting in the Fall 2023! Stephanie Schmid (Fernandez laboratory) has been selected as our new Marilyn Sue Kerr Fellow and Sara Tennant (Parks laboratory) has been selected as our new Syracuse University Fellow.
Ph.D. Degrees Awarded
- Nikolaus Wagner (MacDonald laboratory), Investigating the role of the transcriptional coregulator Cited2 in regulating intermediate progenitor proliferation and modulating behavior
- Muqing Ma (Welch laboratory), Nla28 activator modulates σ54-dependent gene regulation in Myxococcus xanthus
- Nikhila Krishnan (Hehnly laboratory), Molecular mechanisms that regulate centrosome movement during tissue morphogenesis
- Jessica Comstock (Welch laboratory), Redundancy and developmental coordination in Myxococcus xanthus: Insights from the phenome
- William Haws (Lewis laboratory), Identification and characterization of HMX3/Hmx3a binding partners
- Abrar Aljiboury (Hehnly laboratory), The role of centrosome-based structures during embryonic development
- Julia Dombroski (Parks laboratory), Manatees and noise: individual exposure and behavioral responses to disturbance
- Eduardo Caro (Welch laboratory), Myxococcus xanthus: a systems approach to phenotyping complex biofilms
- Colin Swider (Parks laboratory), Acoustic behavior, habitat use, and poaching risk in African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis): Insights from passive acoustic monitoring
M.S. Degrees Awarded
- Bethanie Natalie (Coleman laboratory), The effects of genotype and nutrient conditions on poplar growth and physiology
- Jane Pascar (Dorus laboratory), Quantifying natural microbiome variation in Mosquito species
- Gwen Bode (Althoff laboratory), The ecology of fine-scale, tissue-specific floral scent patterns in an obligate brood-pollination mutualism
- Karma Thomas (Althoff laboratory), From Dusk Till Dawn: Evaluation of nocturnal pollination networks with an emphasis on moths
Biotechnology M.S. Program – Dr. Ankita Juneja, Biotechnology Program Director
The Biology Department is also pleased to announce our Biotechnology Master’s degree recipients from the past year.
Fall 2022 Degrees Awarded
Yilin Xu
Bofang Yi
Tianxiong Li
Michael Mahaney
Seungchan Kim
Tamara Abu Manneh
Amye Patel
Amaya Vlacich
Spring 2023 Degree Candidates
Kellin Tasber
Amy Mueller
Matthew Tani
José Alvarado-Pineiro
Christina Reilly
Jessica Tarino
Kaitlyn Knapp
William Lewis
Anushree Keni