Biology

Department of Biology doctoral candidate, Sikander Khare, from the Holt Lab, has received the 2026 Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award by the Ecological Society of American (ESA), one of the nation’s leading organizations dedicated to advancing ecological science. Sikander is currently in Washington D.C., for policy, communication and career training followed by meetings […]

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Post-doctoral Associate, Dr. Audrey Goeckner, from Chris Dutton’s lab in the Department of Biology, was recently awarded the New Investigator Community Science program grant from the Joint Genome Institute (US Department of Energy Office). This study will leverage JGI’s metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing resources to identify microbial communities and functions mediating carbon cycling along terrestrial-aquatic […]

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Congratulations to Whitney Lab scientists, Dr. Jim Strother (Assistant Professor of Biology) and Sandra Loesgen (Associate Professor of Chemistry) for winning the inaugural UF Chemistry Gator Angel Wing Award.   The team have discovered a new fungal derived alkaloid named atheliapyrrolidine that acts as an agonist for the human serotonin receptor (5-HT2A) with nanomolar activity […]

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Department of Biology, PhD graduate Caitlin Campbell published a new study in Ecology Letters focused on the migration patterns of bats and their relationship with wind turbines. Bats with more complex migratory patterns are more likely to interact with wind energy facilities.

Read more "Bats on the move: study reveals migration patterns behind wind turbine fatalities"

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from the Gareth Fraser Lab has shed light on the evolution and development of a strange appendage that sits on the forehead of ghost sharks. The articulated club-shaped rod of cartilage, called a tenaculum, present only in male ghost sharks or chimaeras, […]

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Forests across the U.S. are affected by multiple factors that pose potential threats to forest health. Since 2000, rates of wood production have increased in eastern U.S. forests but decreased in western U.S. forests. There are growing concerns over widespread forest dieback in the western U.S. due to the combined effects of fire, insect and […]

Read more "Dr. Jeremy Lichstein awarded grant to study changing U.S. forests"

Researchers from the University of Florida (led by Professor Bob McCleery at the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation) and the South Florida Water Management District have collaborated to help control the Burmese python populations in South Florida – using robot bunnies.

Read more "Dr. Chris Dutton and his Robo-bunnies tackle the Burmese Python problem in the Everglades"

Department of Biology and Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience Professor Jimmy Liao enlightened the TEDxUF audience with his talk at this years conference “Metamorphosis” in April: “What studying fish teaches me about human life”. You can watch Jimmy’s talk on YouTube, link below. Congratulations Jimmy!  

Read more "Jimmy Liao delivers a thought-provoking talk at TEDxUF"

Nick Keiser, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, has been awarded a collaborative National Science Foundation grant from the Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics Program. Dr. Keiser will work alongside Dr. Timothy Colston from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez to investigate how venom complexity – the combined diversity of venom toxins and venom-associated microbial […]

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Dr. Amanda Subalusky, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, has been awarded the prestigious 2025 University of Florida Water Institute Early Career Faculty Fellowship! This award recognises Amanda’s excellent interdisciplinary research program focused on terrestrial aquatic ecosystem ecology, as well as her ongoing and planned engagement with the Water Institute. Amanda’s Fellowship term will […]

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Department of Biology, Associate Professor Gareth Fraser was featured on BBC World News (June 26th) to discuss the legacy of JAWS, 50 years since its release, and how research has progressed to change our perception of sharks.

Read more "JAWS at 50: UF Biology on BBC News"

Congratulations to Hannah Vander Zanden and David Duffy, promoted to University of Florida Associate Professors with Tenure! The Department of Biology is thrilled to announce that Biology Faculty members Dr. Hannah Vander Zanden and Dr. David Duffy have been awarded promotion to Associate Professor of Biology with Tenure by the University of Florida Board of […]

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Zuania Colón-Piñeiro, a doctoral student in the Longo Lab, has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (NSF-PRFB). Her project, PRFB: Rules of Life: Characterizing maternal nutritional profiles to understand reproduction-immunity tradeoffs in amphibians, will explore how seasonality and disease shape nutrient transfer from parents to offspring in amphibians.   […]

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Shelly Gaynor, Department of Biology Graduate student with the Soltis and Ponciano Labs, had her PhD research recently featured in a news blog at The American Naturalist “Probing the probability of Polyploid Persistence”. Shelly’s dissertation chapter was published in The American Naturalist – Congratulations Shelly and the team! Shelly is now working on her NSF-funded […]

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Jane Brockmann, emeritus faculty in the Department of Biology, has just been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences – the oldest learned society in the United States (since 1780). Prior to her retirement in 2011, Jane spent her entire career here at UF, where she served as Chair of the Department of […]

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Congratulations to our Chair, Brad Barbazuk, who was elected Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in this year’s list. The AAAS has recognised Brad for his distinguished contributions to the field of computational biology and bioinformatics, particularly using comparative genomics to provide insight into genome architectures and evolution in scientifically […]

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Karen Bjorndal, Distinguished Professor of Biology and the Director of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research has officially retired this past January, after more than 50 years in the Department. Congratulations on a truly amazing, dedicated and decorated career. https://news.clas.ufl.edu/karen-bjorndal-retirement/

Read more "Celebrating Karen: Karen Bjorndal retires after over 50 years at UF!"

To understand how life works, synthetic biology aims to design and build cells, with current efforts focusing on genes, vesicles, and biochemical pathways. However, higher-level phenomena, such as metabolism and evolution, remain difficult to engineer. In their new article, Zhanar Abil from the Department of Biology, and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial […]

Read more "Assistant Professor Zhanar Abil Publishes on Synthetic Life in Nature Reviews Bioengineering"