Biology

Biology Assistant Professor Joe Ryan has been awarded the UF 2020 Graduate Education Diversity Champion Award. This award recognizes a faculty or staff member who has enhanced the graduate environment by promoting diversity and improving cross-cultural understanding and inclusivity. This commitment includes taking a leadership role in promoting diversity as Dr. Ryan has done in […]

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Teresa Mutahi, Biology Lecturer and Undergraduate Coordinator for the Biology Major, is the 2019-2020 University of Florida Adviser of the Year. This award is UF’s highest recognition for undergraduate advising. It is based on excellence in innovation, professional engagement and outreach for undergraduate advising. Congratulations Teresa!

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Biology graduate student Leslie Kollar (McDaniel Lab) has been awarded a National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program Postdoctoral Fellowship.  She will be working in the Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University to study the function and evolution of regulatory elements in the development of different, locally adapted populations of the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus […]

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Biology professor Ana Longo discussed One Health and research on the corona virus in a column for the Puerto Rican publication ENDI ElNuevoDia.com.  Biology professors José Miguel Ponciano and Ana Longo co-authored an article for PlazaPublica on the corona virus pandemic in Guatemala:  “Covid19: Origen, tendencias actuales y escenarios para Guatemala”.  For more information see […]

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Three Biology graduate students, Andre Naranjo (P. Soltis Lab), Jenna Moore (Paulay Lab) and Pat Milligan (Palmer Lab) have been awarded National Science Foundation grants to support their post-doctoral research.  Andre Naranjo received his award from the NSF Interdisciplinary Research Using Biological Collections Program to study spatial, functional and phylogenetic diversity of vascular plants in […]

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A paper authored by Biology Department PhD student John Park  and coauthored by two UF faculty (Jeremy Lichstein, Biology; Stephanie Bohlman, School of Forest Resources and Conservation)  was selected as an “Editor’s Choice” by the journal Remote Sensing. The study used images acquired from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or ‘drones’) and a machine-learning algorithm to […]

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Biology courtesy faculty member and former graduate student Dr. Joseph Pfaller from the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research has published new evidence that sea turtles are attracted to plastics by their smell.  Prior to this study it was assumed that sea turtles mistake plastics floating in the ocean for prey by using visual […]

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An important advance in understanding the population dynamics of infectious disease was published by Biology Associate Professor José Miguel Ponciano in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   Using field collected data from Namibia on plains zebra and coalescence modeling, the study develops a new method for estimating the duration of anthrax infections and […]

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Germ cells are the cells that create reproductive cells known as gametes (eggs and sperm) in animals. Somatic cells are all the cells not involved in reproduction, such as muscle cells, skin cells, or blood cells. In many animals, including flies, worms, and humans, the separation of germ cells from somatic cells is an irreversible, […]

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Teresa Mutahi, Biology Lecturer and Undergraduate Coordinator for the UF Biology Major, has received the 2019-2020 Faculty Adviser of the Year award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  This award recognizes excellence, innovation, and effectiveness in undergraduate advising. Congratulations Teresa!

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Each year the International Center and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recognize the accomplishments of international students and faculty at the University of Florida. This year members of Biology received many of these special awards.  Tom Hladish, Ph.D.  won a Junior Faculty International Educator for the Year Award for his efforts in teaching […]

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Multiple award-winning Biology undergraduate Aaron Sandoval (CLAS scholarship, Goldwater scholarship) has now won a Marshall scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge for one year and King’s College London for a second year. This is only the second Marshall scholarship awarded to a UF student (the first was to Steven Robinette, ten years ago). Past Marshall scholars in […]

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded $1.2 million to Emily Sessa, who will lead a collaborative, multi-institution team in a study of the “fern spore spike”, a phenomenon in the fossil record in which fern spores are disproportionately highly represented relative to spores and pollen of other plant groups following mass extinction events. The […]

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An important new paper describing the development of shark teeth has been published in Nature Scientific Reports by Biology Assistant Professor, Gareth Fraser.  One remarkable feature of shark teeth is that they are continually replaced whereas humans have only two sets of teeth.  Together with colleagues from the University of Sheffield, UK, Fraser found similarities […]

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Two Ph.D. students in Biology, Harrison Jones and Patrick Milligan, will receive Dissertation Fellowships during Spring 2020 funded by the Charles Vincent and Heidi Cole McLaughlin Endowment to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Both are Ph.D. students in Todd Palmer’s lab.  Patrick Milligan is studying how the plants and animals in a Kenyan […]

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Christopher Krieg, a Ph.D. student in Emily Sessa’s lab, has been awarded a 2019 National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology.  The Fellowship will fund Chris’ post-doctoral research on the ecology and physiology of cycads, an ancient and primitive seed plant.  His research includes studies of the critically endangered South African cycad species.   The […]

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  Zachary Emberts, a recent Ph.D. from Colette St. Mary’s and Christine Miller’s labs, has been awarded a 2019 National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology.  The Fellowship will fund Zach’s post-doctoral research on the evolution of animal weapons, the factors that affect variation in weapons and the role of male-male competition in driving […]

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Nerine Constant and Alexandra Gulick recently returned from a very successful expedition on a Greenpeace research vessel in the Sargasso Sea where they evaluated the thermal properties of Sargassum mats — important developmental habitat for sea turtles — and how those properties may be affected by climate change. Alexandra and Nerine are PhD Candidates in Karen Bjorndal […]

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Christine Schnitzler, Assistant Professor of Biology, has published an important new study in Science on regeneration in Hydra, a tiny freshwater cnidarian (related to jellyfish) known for its ability to regenerate its entire body after injury.   Together with colleagues from the University of California-Davis and Harvard University, Schnitzler mapped individual cells and the changes in […]

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Biology Assistant Professor Emily Sessa is the recipient of the 2019 Emerging Leaders Award from the Botanical Society of America (BSA).  In awarding her this honor, the BSA describes Emily as, “…one of the brightest botanical stars of her generation… and already an active leader in the botanical research community.”    Congratulations to Emily!   For […]

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