Biology

  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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What happens when a new lizard predator moves to your idyllic island community? If you are its prey, fear takes over and causes increased competition— and thus a fundamental change in community structure and the ability of prey species to coexist. Read more about this non-intuitive result from Professor Todd Palmer and colleagues here. Original […]

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Palmer Lab’s recent research in ant-plant mutualism: In a study published May 16 in the journal Ecology, University of Florida researchers Ryan Tamashiro and biology professor Todd Palmer show that ant-protected plants are much more vulnerable to herbivores during the cool hours of early morning and evening.  In a study published May 16 in the […]

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The Ecological Society of America has awarded its highest honor, the Eminent Ecologist Award, to Robert Holt, Biology Eminent Scholar and Arthur R. Marshall, Jr., Chair in Ecology.  The Eminent Ecologist Award from the ESA “honors a senior ecologist for an outstanding body of ecological work or sustained ecological contributions of extraordinary merit.”  Bob joins […]

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Biology Assistant Professor Ana Longo is part of a global team that is assessing the effect of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis on amphibian populations.  This worldwide amphibian pandemic has resulted in the decline of over 500 amphibian species and caused 90 extinctions over the past 50 years.   Many species are still in decline.  Wildlife trade is […]

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One of our Biology Graduate Alumni, Dr. Jackie Wilson, was recognized along with seven other women today for her leadership in Electronic Technologies by NOAA Fisheries. You can hear all about Jackie’s stories and the pro-woman stance of NOAA at either of her talks this Friday the 29th: undergraduates, 12:35 pm (including information on internships […]

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Congratulations to Biology staff members Pete Ryschkewitsch and Mike Gunter! They are recipients of 2019 Superior Accomplishment Awards. This university-wide program recognizes staff members who contribute outstanding and meritorious service to their departments. Pete and Mike were singled out for their extraordinary work in coordinating the renovations of the introductory biology labs last summer, an […]

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The department extends its warmest congratulations to this year’s BGSA award and grant winners. A huge thanks goes to our faculty advisors, Karen Bjorndal and Jamie Gillooly, for their guidance in reviewing and ranking applications, as well as Marta Wayne and John Dew for their help organizing the funding for the awards/grants. Here are all […]

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Robert Johnson, a Ph.D. student in Karen Bjorndal’s Lab., received the Archie Carr Best Student Paper Award at the 39th International Sea Turtle Symposium for his paper “Green turtle grazing causes a consistent response in seagrass ecosystem metabolic carbon capture across Caribbean meadows.”    The meeting was held in Charleston, SC and attended by more than […]

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Biology Eminent Scholar and Professor Robert Holt has been awarded the Batsheva de Rothchild Fellowship from the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities.  He will visit Ben-Gurion University, Hebrew University and Tel-Aviv University to initiate new research collaborations with Israeli scientists in the areas of endo- and ectoparasitism, foraging, risk management and community structure. 

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Aaron Sandoval, an undergraduate research student in Malcolm Maden’s Lab, won first prize in the Life Science competition at the National Collegiate Research Conference.  His poster described his research on skin regeneration in spiny mice.  Over 200 undergraduate students from 81 universities attended this national conference held at Harvard University in January 2019. Aaron, a […]

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Kelsey Lewis, a Ph.D. student in Martin Cohn’s lab, won the Best Student Paper Aubrey Gorman Award at the 2019 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meeting in Tampa, FL.  The award is from the SICB Division of Comparative Endocrinology.  Kelsey’s talk described her research on how “The anti-androgenic fungicide vinclozolin disrupts sexual differentiation […]

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Biology Assistant Professor Emily Sessa will be receiving a highly competitive CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for her research on African ferns.  The continent of Africa contains fewer fern species in general than regions in the Neotropics or Old World tropics. Her study will address “Resolving a paradox of global botanical biodiversity: why […]

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Kelsey Lewis is the People’s Choice winner of the UF Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.  3MT is a research communication competition sponsored by the Graduate School that challenges graduate students to make a compelling presentation on their thesis topic and its significance in just three minutes. Kelsey is a Ph.D. student in the Cohn lab.  […]

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 The Palmer lab is part of a global study to examine the effects of herbivores on plant biodiversity.  The study, published recently in Nature Ecology and Evolution (2:1925-1932), was written up in Futurity.  This international team of plant and animal scientists synthesized results from large-herbivore exclusion studies across a wide range of habitats around the […]

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Tao Zhang, a Post-Doc in Jeremy Lichstein’s lab, was featured in The Wire for his research on the response of forests to climate change.  For more information see: https://thewire.in/environment/climate-change-is-reducing-the-ability-of-forests-to-store-carbon  Link to the original article in the April 5, 2018 issue of Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature26152  

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Biology Associate Professor Jimmy Liao explains the science behind sport fishing in his videos from Fish Code Studios.  See the latest addition at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=N4aZ2UYDWKM&t=28s  Watch how fish respond to lures; why they are found behind rocks in a stream; and watch a dead trout swim!

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