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
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 |
R. Craig Albertson Professor of Biology, University of Massachusetts |
Evolutionary Developmental Biology |
Dominique R. Alfandari Professor of Developmental Biology, University of Massachusetts |
Cell migration in Developmental systems |
Courtney C. Babbitt Associate Professor, Department of Biology |
Evolutionary Genomics |
Madelaine Bartlett Associate Professor, Biology |
Evolution of plant development; Molecular evolution |
Jesse Bellemare Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College |
Plant ecology, biogeography and evolution |
Jeffrey L. Blanchard Associate Professor, Department of Biology |
Microbial cellular and community networks; influence of environmental change on the evolution of molecular processes; systems biology; bioinformatics |
Patricia Brennan Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Mt. Holyoke College |
Evolutionary consequences of interactions between behavior, morphology and the environment |
Jill L. Bubier Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, Mount Holyoke College |
Carbon cycling in northern wetlands |
John P. Buonaccorsi Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics |
Statistical theory, methods and applcations, Quantitative ecology |
Ana Caicedo Professor, Biology |
Evolutionary genomics of adaptation and divergence in wild, weedy and crop plant species |
Erin Conlon Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics |
Statistical methods in genomics and bioinformatics |
Graziella V. DiRenzo Adjunct Assistant Professor Department of Environmental Conservation Assistant Unit Leader of Wildlife U. S. Geological Survey MA Cooperative Research Unit |
Quantitative ecology, population dynamics, applied ecology |
Robert L. Dorit Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College |
Molecular evolution; comparative & statistical approaches to molecular & genome evolution |
Gerald B. Downes Professor, Department of Biology |
Development and function of spinal cord networks |
Lillian Fritz–Laylin Associate Professor of Biology |
Quantitative Evolutionary Cell Biology |
John G. Gibbons Assistant Professor of Food Science |
Genomics, Evolution, Bioinformatics |
Brigitte M. Holt Associate Professor of Anthropology |
Biocultural evolution of the genus Homo, functional morphology and biomechanics of the appendicular skeleton, paleoecology, forager ecology, Old World prehistory, Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene ecology, bone mass and physical activity. |
Duncan J. Irschick Professor, Department of Biology |
Functional Morphology, Evolution, and Behavioral Ecology |
Elizabeth M. Jakob Professor, Biology Department |
Animal behavior, especially perception, learning, and social behavior |
Norman A. Johnson Adjunct Research Assistant Professor, Biology & Environmental Conservation |
Evolutionary genetics, evolution of development |
Jason M. Kamilar Associate Professor of Anthropology |
Comparative biology of primates and other mammals |
Laura A. Katz Elsie Damon Simonds Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College |
Genome evolution and biodiversity studies of microbial eukaryotes |
Paul S. Katz Director of Neuroscience and Professor of Biology |
Neuroethology, central pattern generators, single neuron RNA-seq, developmental neuroscience, evolution of neural circuits, molluscan systems
|
Diane A. Kelly Senior Research Fellow, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences |
Neurobiology, biomechanics, and evolution of reproductive systems. |
Lisa Komoroske Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation |
Conservation genomics and ecophysiology in marine and freshwater ecosystems |
Michael L. Lavine Emeritus Professor, Mathematics and Statistics |
Statistical Theory and Methods |
Benjamin Letcher Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation Section Leader, Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center |
Population ecology of stream fishes |
Rachel A. Levin Senior Lecturer, Department of Biology, Amherst College |
Plant systematics, biogeography and ecology |
Li–Jun Ma Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology |
Fungal comparative genomics, eukaryotic genome evolution and organism adaptation |
Jill Miller Professor of Biology, Amherst College |
Ecology and evolution of plant reproductive systems, molecular phylogenetic systematics, population and evolutionary genetics, hybridization and speciation |
Benjamin Normark Department Head and Professor of Biology |
Evolution of alternative genetic systems; evolution of host range; scale insect systematics |
Jeffrey E. Podos Professor, Department of Biology |
Mechanisms and evolution of vertebrate behavior, bioacoustics |
Adam H. Porter Associate Professor of Biology Admissions Committee Chair, OEB |
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 |
Stan P. Rachootin Professor of Biological Sciences, Mount Holyoke College |
Evolution and development, history of evolutionary theory |
Stephen Rich Professor of Microbiology |
Molecular Evolution and Population Genomics of Arthropod-borne Microbial Pathogens |
Charles Ross Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Hampshire College |
Ecological and evolutionary genetics of hybrid zones and speciation |
Tristram Seidler Extension Assistant Professor, Biology |
Plant ecology, plant diversity, invasive plants, climate change |
David A. Sela Associate Professor, Department of Food Science |
Nutrition, human milk, gut microbiome, systems biology, host-microbe interactions/co-evolution, translational research |
Lynnette Sievert Professor of Anthropology |
Evolution of menopause |
Michelle Staudinger Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation Science Coordinator, DOI Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center |
Climate change impacts on coastal biodiversity and trophic relationships |
Ethan J. Temeles Professor of Biology, Amherst College |
Foraging behavior; Territoriality; Intra- and Interspecific competition; Resource partitioning; Mutualism; Coevolution; |
Elsbeth Walker Professor, Biology Department |
Molecular genetic approaches to studying mechanisms of metal ion homeostasis in plants |
Tammy L. Wilson Research Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Conservation USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Assistant Unit Leader |
Landscape ecology, spatial ecology, wildlife conservation and management, structured decision-making |