Biology

Congratulations to Distinguished Professors of Biology Doug and Pam Soltis who have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780 and is “… one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business, and […]

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Evolutionary Developmental Biology, ZOO3603C, was selected to receive the 2017 Online Education Excellence Award from UF for their innovative approach to online teaching. This award recognizes the team effort required for quality on-line course development. CLAS Associate Dean Brian Harfe coordinated the course that included Biology faculty Malcom Maden, Martin Cohn and Keith Choe.  They […]

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Derek Cummings and colleagues have published a landmark paper in understanding Dengue transmission in Science last week, revealing that most Dengue infections are transmitted in and around the home. Outbreaks of the dengue virus appear to be largely driven by infections centered in and around the home, with the majority of cases related to one another […]

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Please join me in congratulating Department of Biology 2017 Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants recipients: Leslie Kollar (advised by Stuart McDaniel), John Pfeiffer (advised by Larry Page), and Jerald Pinson (advised by Emily Sessa), Sharon Holte (advised by David Steadman), and  Xiaoxian Liu (advised by Doug Soltis and co-advised by Brad Barbazuk).  Great work, all!!!

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Biology Preeminence Professor Derek Cummings will help lead the Southeast Regional Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases, recently established by a $10 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This collaborative program will bring together researchers from the University of Florida, University of Washington, University of Miami, Florida International University, and University […]

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José Miguel Ponciano, associate professor in Biology, received special recognition from F1000Prime for a paper he co-authored with colleagues from the University of Idaho, “Evolutionary Paths That Expand Plasmid Host-Range: Implications for Spread of Antibiotic Resistance” (2016 Molecular Biology and Evolution 33(4): 885-897; DOI: 10.3410/f.726014860.793526600). The paper was recommended by the F1000Prime faculty as being of “special significance” to […]

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Nicole Gerlach, Lecturer in Biology, has been chosen as CLAS Teacher of the Year.  The CLAS Teacher of the Year award recognizes excellence, innovation, and effectiveness in teaching undergraduate students.  Congratulations to Nicole! 

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Inspiring: UF alumni Gloria Tavera honored by Forbes magazine as one of “30 Under 30” people to watch for her work to make medicines accessible to developing countries.  Gloria was a double major in IDS Neurobiology & Political Science and spent a lot of time here in Bartram-Carr. She is currently enrolled in medical school at […]

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Ten Biology majors were selected to join Phi Beta Kappa from the class of 2016.  These students have exceptional GPAs as well as significant breadth of study in the liberal arts and sciences outside their major discipline.  Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest (founded Dec 5, 1776) and most prestigious academic honor society.  Congratulations […]

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Three Biology faculty were elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by the AAAS Council:  Alice Harmon, Jack Ewel and Robert Holt.  This award recognizes these scientists for their distinguished research, teaching and service careers and for their many contributions to the fields of plant physiology (Harmon) and ecology (Ewel and […]

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Biology graduate students Sarah Allen (working with Steve Manchester) and Jing Jiao (working with Craig Osenberg and Sergei Pilyugin) received Charles Vincent and Heidi Cole McLaughlin Endowment Dissertation Fellowships from CLAS.  Sarah is studying the fossilized plants from the early Eocene Blue Rim site of southwestern Wyoming.  Jing uses spatial and theoretical models to study […]

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Biology graduate student, Francisca Leal, and Professor Marty Cohn published an important new paper in Current Biology, “Loss and re-emergence of legs in snakes by modular evolution of sonic hedgehog and HOXD enhancers”  (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.020 ). They show that hind limb development in python embryos is arrested due to mutations that abolish an essential transcription […]

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Congratulations to Fatma Kaplan, who is pursuing a research career outside academia.  She describes her path to this new scientific home in an article published in Science! You can read more here: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6309/254  (14 October 2016) Great job Fatma! Thanks for sharing your experiences which will no doubt inspire others to be creative in finding […]

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A sea snake that behaves like plankton? Dr. Harvey Lillywhite has just published this work in Biology Letters. The yellow-bellied sea snake (Pelamis platurus) spends much of its time at or near the ocean surface and ranges from the southeastern coast of Africa across the Indo-Pacific to the western shores of Central America. This colorful, venomous snake […]

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Biology Eminent Scholar, Robert D. Holt, together with colleagues from the US and seven other countries, published an important new paper in Science, “Improving the forecast for biodiversity under climate change” (9 September 2016).  The paper argues that most current models for the effects of climate change on biodiversity do not provide sufficiently accurate predictions. […]

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Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students from Biology and the Florida Museum of Natural History teamed up Saturday morning (24 September 2016) for a BioBlitz of Bartram-Carr Woods.  Organized by Dr. Jack Putz, 30 participants spread out across the conservation area identifying whatever they found.  The plants were a central focus, separating invasive from native species and doing […]

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Congratulations to Derek Cummings for co-authoring two major papers in Science, one on Zika and the other on Dengue.  Together with colleagues from Johns Hopkins, Institut Pasteur, Imperial College, Princeton and UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, Biology Professor Derek Cummings co-authored an important review “Assessing the global threat from zika virus” (Science 12 August 2016).  The […]

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Congratulations to Dr. Ping Huang – recent graduate of the Kimball & St. Mary labs!  She won the inaugural Mark E. Hauber Award from the American Ornithologists’ Union (August 2016).  This Award recognizes the most outstanding student oral presentation on avian behavior at the annual North American Ornithological Conference.  Her talk was titled “Phenotypic integration […]

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Dr. Peter Hosner, post-doc in the Kimball Lab, received the 2016 Young Professional Award from the Cooper Ornithological Society presented at the North American Ornithological Conference.  This award recognizes early-career researchers for their outstanding contributions to ornithology.  Pete studies how geographical, environmental, and ecological factors limit avian distributions and how these factors influence patterns of […]

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Biology Professor Michael Miyamoto and co-instructor Michelle Tennant led a 6-week Study Abroad course to Madagascar this summer.   Together with 12 UF students, they travelled in one of the world’s most biologically diverse landscapes and explored the many conservation issues the country faces.  The students participated in a number of valuable projects, including planting more […]

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