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 |
|---|---|
|
R. Craig Albertson Professor, Biology |
Evolutionary Developmental Biology |
|
Tobias Baskin Professor, Biology |
Regulation of Plant Morphogenesis During Growth & Development |
|
Annaliese Beery Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Biology, Smith College |
Neuroendocrinology of social behavior |
|
Jesse Bellemare Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College |
Plant ecology, biogeography and evolution |
|
Eric L. Bittman Professor Emeritus, Biology |
Circadian Rhythms, Reproduction, and Seasonal Changes in Brain Function |
|
John P. Buonaccorsi Professor Emeritus, Mathematics and Statistics |
Statistical theory, methods and applcations, Quantitative ecology |
|
Graham Caldwell Associate Professor, Kinesiology |
Muscle mechanics and modeling in human motor performance |
|
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 |
|
Lillian Fritz–Laylin Associate Professor, Biology |
Quantitative Evolutionary Cell Biology |
|
Alexander R. Gerson Associate Professor, Biology |
Integrative ecological physiology of birds, energetics, water balance, bird migration |
|
Cynthia Gill Associate Professor of Physiology, Hampshire College |
Human and comparative physiology, neuroscience, endocrinology, herpetology, conservation biology, and behavioral biology |
|
Gary B. Gillis Professor of Biological Sciences, Mt. Holyoke College |
Biomechanics and neuromuscular control of vertebrate locomotion |
|
Barry Goodell Professor, Microbiology |
Fungal biochemical mechanisms involved in human disease, and also involved in the degradation of lignocellulose biomass and xenobiotics |
|
Steven Goodwin Professor, Microbiology |
|
|
Rachel Hestrin Assistant Professor, Stockbridge School of Agriculture |
Plant-microbe interactions, biogeochemistry, ecosystem response to change, sustainable agriculture |
|
Brigitte M. Holt Professor, 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. |
|
Abigail Jensen Associate Professor, Biology |
Molecular and cellular mechanisms of vertebrate retinal development and retinal disease. |
|
Ilia Karatsoreos Associate Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences |
The general research objective in our lab is to understand the neural and physiological systems that the brain and body use to protect us from harm and adapt to changes in the environment. We focus on biological rhythms, stress, immunology, and metabolism |
|
Rolf O. Karlstrom Professor, Biology |
Developmental neurobiology; axon guidance and forebrain patterning |
|
Paul S. Katz Professor, Biology |
Neuroethology, central pattern generators, single neuron RNA-seq, developmental neuroscience, evolution of neural circuits, molluscan systems
|
|
Diane A. Kelly Senior Research Fellow, Psychological and Brain Sciences |
Neurobiology, biomechanics, and evolution of reproductive systems. |
|
Jane Kent Professor, Kinesiology |
Quantifying age, gender, and activity based changes in human skeletal muscle function. Measuring the roles of neural activation, intramuscular metabolism, contractile function and blood flow in the development of muscle fatigue in a variety of populations. |
|
Michael L. Lavine Professor Emeritus, Mathematics and Statistics |
Statistical Theory and Methods |
|
R. Mark Leckie Professor, Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences |
Micropaleontology, Biostratigraphy, Paleoceanography |
|
Stephen D. McCormick Adjunct Professor, Biology Adjunct Professor, Environmental Conservation Scientist Emeritus, USGS Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center |
Environmental Physiology of Fish |
|
Jeffrey E. Podos Professor, Biology |
Mechanisms and evolution of vertebrate behavior, bioacoustics |
|
Luke Remage–Healey Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences |
Neural basis of behavior |
|
Alan M. Richmond Retired Senior Lecturer, Biology Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles, Natural History Collections |
Phylogeography of New England amphibians and reptiles |
|
Allison H. Roy Research Associate Professor, Environmental Conservation |
Freshwater ecology, fish and macroinvertebrates, urban ecology, 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 |
|
John Stoffolano Professor, Stockbridge School of Agriculture |
Behavior and physiology of flies especially of the adult crop organ and the mechanisms regulating filling and depletion |
|
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 |
