Faculty

OEB brings together more than 75 faculty, providing critical mass needed for effective graduate training. Our faculty are drawn from 10 departments at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and from across the Five College System (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith Colleges), as well as from off-campus institutions. OEB faculty are engaged in cutting edge research, with research clusters in four broad areas:

Animal Behavior

Behavioral ecology, communication, learning

Ecology

Community ecology, population ecology, landscape ecology, conservation biology

Evolutionary Biology

Evolution, phylogenetics, population genetics, molecular evolution

Organismal Biology

Physiology, morphology, paleontology, developmental biology

All OEB faculty are listed below. To help applicants to our graduate program locate a faculty sponsor, the faculty list can be filtered by four broad research areas. A list of faculty who are activiely seeking graduate students can be found HERE

Name	Research Interests
Lynn Adler Professor, Biology	Ecology and evolution of insect-plant interactions
Jesse Bellemare Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College	Plant ecology, biogeography and evolution
Jeffrey L. Blanchard Associate Professor, Biology	Microbial cellular and community networks; influence of environmental change on the evolution of molecular processes; systems biology; bioinformatics
Bethany A. Bradley Professor, Environmental Conservation	Biogeography and spatial ecology of terrestrial plant invasions
Jill L. Bubier Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, Mt. Holyoke College	Carbon cycling in northern wetlands
John P. Buonaccorsi Professor Emeritus, Mathematics and Statistics	Statistical theory, methods and applcations, Quantitative ecology
Theodore Castro–Santos Adjunct Assistant Professor, Biology	Biomechanics and Behavior of Migratory Fishes; Bioengineering of Fish Passage Structures
Brian S. Cheng Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation	Marine global change ecology and the dynamics of predator-prey interactions
Daniel R. Cooley Professor of Plant Pathology, Stockbridge School of Agriculture	Epidemiology, ecology and sustainable management of plant diseases
Cristina Cox Fernandes Lecturer/Adjunct Research Associate Professor, Biology Curator of Fishes, Natural History Collections	Ecology and evolutionary diversity of neotropical freshwater fishes, particularly within the Amazon River
Andy J. Danylchuk Professor, Environmental Conservation	Fish conservation, recreational fisheries, sustainable aquaculture
Kristen M. DeAngelis Professor, Microbiology	Community ecology and physiology of soil microbes, climate change, plant-soil interactions
Graziella V. DiRenzo Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation Assistant Unit Leader, USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research	Quantitative ecology, population dynamics, applied ecology
Joseph S. Elkinton Professor, Environmental Conservation	Population dynamics and biological control of invasive forest insects
Jenn Fair Research Hydrologist, USGS Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center
Laura Figueroa Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation	Agroecology, applied ecology, pollinator health, invertebrate monitoring
John Finn Professor Emeritus, Environmental Conservation	Network Analysis of Acoustic Telemetry
Alexander R. Gerson Associate Professor, Biology	Integrative ecological physiology of birds, energetics, water balance, bird migration
Jessica Gersony Assistant Professor	How plants respond to climate change, and physiological processes underpinning how plants interact with the changing climate around them
Curtice R. Griffin Professor, Environmental Conservation	Wildlife ecology and conservation
Rachel Hestrin Assistant Professor, Stockbridge School of Agriculture	Plant-microbe interactions, biogeochemistry, ecosystem response to change, sustainable agriculture
Martha Hoopes Professor of Biological Sciences, Mt. Holyoke College	Spread dynamics, impacts, and lag times in invasion ecology, as well as metacommunity dynamics, particularly for plants and herbivores.
Peter W. Houlihan Senior Lecturer II, Biology	Animal Behavior, Vertebrate Ecology, and Conservation Biology
Adrian Jordaan Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation	Ecosystems, modeling, tagging, movement, trophic dynamics, diadromous, marine, fisheries, historical ecology
Jason M. Kamilar Professor, Anthropology	Comparative biology of primates and other mammals
Ashley D. Keiser Assistant Professor, Stockbridge School of Agriculture	Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology; Climate Change Biology; Soil Ecology; Biogeochemistry
David King Adjunct Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation Research Wildlife Biologist, USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station	Wildlife ecology and conservation
Lisa Komoroske Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation	Conservation genomics and ecophysiology in marine and freshwater ecosystems
Michael L. Lavine Professor Emeritus, Mathematics and Statistics	Statistical Theory and Methods
Susannah B. Lerman Adjunct Research Professor, Environmental Conservation	Urban and suburban ecology, wildlife conservation, and citizen science
Benjamin Letcher Adjunct Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation Section Leader, USGS Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center	Population ecology of stream fishes
Rachel A. Levin Senior Lecturer in Biology and Environmental Studies, Amherst College	Plant systematics, biogeography and ecology
Meghan Graham MacLean Lecturer, Environmental Conservation	Aboveground carbon consequences of future land use in New England, Carbon accounting of timber from current harvest trends in Massachusetts, Modeling direct and indirect impacts of forest insects and pathogens, and Inclusive pedagogy in quantitative undergraduate biology
Jill Miller Professor of Biology, Amherst College	Ecology and evolution of plant reproductive systems, molecular phylogenetic systematics, population and evolutionary genetics, hybridization and speciation
Toni Lyn Morelli Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation Research Ecologist, USGS	Climate change ecology, montane and boreal wildlife, and decision analysis and translational ecology for climate adaptation
Keith H. Nislow Adjunct Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation Research Fishery Biologist, USDA Forest Service	Ecology and conservation biology of stream fishes and invertebrates
Klaus Nüsslein Professor, Microbiology	Microbial ecology of terrestrial and aquatic environments
Adam H. Porter Associate Professor, Biology	Evolutionary biology; hybridization, introgression & speciation; ecological genetics; evolution of regulatory genetic pathways; computer and mathematical modeling; invasion and range expansion; insects, especially butterflies and moths
Allison H. Roy Research Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation	Freshwater ecology, fish and macroinvertebrates, urban ecology, conservation
Tristram Seidler Extension Assistant Professor, Biology	Plant ecology, plant diversity, invasive plants, climate change
David A. Sela Associate Professor, Food Science	Nutrition, human milk, gut microbiome, systems biology, host-microbe interactions/co-evolution, translational research
Nathan Senner Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation
Paul R Sievert Adjunct Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation	Conservation biology, physiological ecology and biostatistics
L. David Smith Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College	Ecology and evolution of marine predator-prey interactions
Maria Stager Assistant Professor, Biology
Michelle Staudinger Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation Ecologist, USGS	Climate change impacts on coastal biodiversity and trophic relationships
Kristina Stinson Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation	Plant Ecology, Invasive Plants, Biological Responses to Global Change
Ethan J. Temeles Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, Amherst College	Foraging behavior; Territoriality; Intra- and Interspecific competition; Resource partitioning; Mutualism; Coevolution; Sexual dimorphisms and polymorphisms
Paige S. Warren Professor, Environmental Conservation	Urban ecology, human-environment interactions, animal behavior
Tammy L. Wilson Research Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation Unit Leader, USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research	Landscape ecology, spatial ecology, wildlife conservation and management, structured decision-making