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
R. Craig Albertson Professor of Biology, University of Massachusetts	Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Tobias Baskin Professor, Biology	Regulation of Plant Morphogenesis During Growth & Development
Annaliese Beery Associate Professor, Departments 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, Department of Biology	Circadian Rhythms, Reproduction, and Seasonal Changes in Brain Function
John P. Buonaccorsi Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics	Statistical theory, methods and applcations, Quantitative ecology
Andy J. Danylchuk Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation	Fish conservation, recreational fisheries, sustainable aquaculture
Kristen M DeAngelis Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology	Community ecology and physiology of soil microbes, climate change, plant-soil interactions
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
Lillian Fritz–Laylin Associate Professor of Biology	Quantitative Evolutionary Cell Biology
Alexander R. Gerson Assistant Professor, Biology	Integrative ecological physiology of birds, energetics, water balance, bird migration
Cynthia Gill Associate Professor of Natural Sciences, Hampshire College	Human and comparative physiology, neuroscience, endocrinology, herpetology, conservation biology, and behavioral biology
Gary B. Gillis Norman Wait Harris and Emma Gale Harris Foundation Professor of Biological Sciences; Associate Dean of Faculty; Director of the Science Center, Mount Holyoke College	Biomechanics and neuromuscular control of vertebrate locomotion
Barry Goodell Research Professor, Department of Microbiology	Fungal biochemical mechanisms involved in human disease, and also involved in the degradation of lignocellulose biomass and xenobiotics
Steven Goodwin Deputy Chancellor and Chief Planning Officer; Professor of Microbiology
Rachel Hestrin Assistant Professor, Stockbridge School of Agriculture	Plant-microbe interactions, biogeochemistry, ecosystem response to change, sustainable agriculture
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.
Abigail Jensen Associate Professor, Department of 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, Department of Biology	Developmental neurobiology; axon guidance and forebrain patterning
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.
Jane Kent Professor, Department of 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 Emeritus Professor, Mathematics and Statistics	Statistical Theory and Methods
R. Mark Leckie Professor and Department Head, Geosciences	Micropaleontology, Biostratigraphy, Paleoceanography
Stephen D. McCormick Adjunct Professor of Biology Research Physiologist, Conte Anadromous Fish Lab	Environmental Physiology of Fish
Jeffrey E. Podos Professor, Department of Biology	Mechanisms and evolution of vertebrate behavior, bioacoustics
Luke Remage–Healey Program Leader / GPD of Neuroscience and Behavior Program; Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences	Neural basis of behavior
Alan M. Richmond Lecturer in Biology Curator of Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles , NaturalHistory Collections	Phylogeography of New England amphibians and reptiles
Allison H. Roy Research Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation	Freshwater ecology, fish and macroinvertebrates, urban ecology, conservation
Paul R Sievert Research Associate Professor of Environmental Conservation	Conservation biology, physiological ecology and biostatistics
L. David Smith Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program	Ecology and evolution of marine predator-prey interactions
Michelle Staudinger Adjunct Assistant Professor, Environmental Conservation Science Coordinator, DOI Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center	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, Department of Environmental Conservation USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Assistant Unit Leader	Landscape ecology, spatial ecology, wildlife conservation and management, structured decision-making

Kadambari Devarajan in Zambia

Upcoming Events

Friday, Apr 7

Sara Hermann

[CANCELED] Exploring a more holistic view of predation by considering both consumptive and non-consumptive effects on prey ecology

Friday, Apr 14

Kristina Smiley: "Lactation hormones in birds and dads: How prolactin shapes parenting behaviors across taxa" (Host: Luke Remage-Healey)
Allison Rugila: "Acclimatization in a changing environment linking larval and juvenile performance in the quahog Mercenaria mercenaria" (Host: Brian Cheng)

OEB Postdoc Talks

Friday, Apr 21

Lynn Adler

The role of floral rewards mediating pollinator-pathogen interactions