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Biology

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

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 […]

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

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.

Nick Keiser Awarded National Science Foundation Grant

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 […]

Dr. Amanda Subalusky Awarded Early Career Faculty Fellowship

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 […]

Hannah Vander Zanden, David Duffy Promoted to Assoc. Prof.

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 […]

Zuania Colón-Piñeiro Awarded NSF Research Fellowship

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.   […]

Shelly Gaynor research in The American Naturalist blog

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 […]

Emeritus Prof. Jane Brockmann elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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 […]

Brad Barbazuk Elected Fellow of AAAS

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 […]

Violence Alters Human Genomes for Generations, Researchers Discover

Department of Biology, Assistant Professor Chris Dutton was involved in a study that shows maternal exposure to violence lingers as epigenetic signatures, present across three generations. The study was published in Scientific Reports:   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-89818-z   https://news.ufl.edu/2025/02/syrian-violence-epigenetics/   Also covered by science – https://www.science.org/content/article/children-war-refugees-may-inherit-their-parents-trauma

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

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 […]

Bryndan Durham designated a 2024 Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences announced the selection of 162 of the nation’s brightest young scientists from industry, academia, and government to take part in the 2024 Kavli Frontiers of Science symposia. Frontiers symposia bring together early-career scientists who have already made recognized contributions to science in a variety of disciplines. These symposia provide a […]

Assistant Professor Zepeng Yao Co-Authored not one, not two, but THREE Nature Papers!

A recent issue of Nature published nine papers on the completion and analyses of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) whole-brain connectome—the detailed wiring diagram of the fly brain, which includes approximately 140,000 neurons and 50 million synapses. Assistant Professor Zepeng Yao was part of an international team, the FlyWire Consortium, that contributed to THREE of […]

Stefanie Gazda Part of Team Awarded Gulf Research Program Grant

Stefanie Gazda, Associate Instructional Professor in the Biology Department, is part of a team that was awarded a 2-year, $427,065 grant from the Gulf Research Program (Empowering K-8 Youth through Place-Based Education). Led by Julie Brown and Kent Crippen in the College of Education, the Guardians of the Gulf will engage 6th to 8th grade […]