Faculty Research Seminars

Faculty Research Seminar Series Spring 2008

The Department of Biological Sciences hosts a research seminar series, bringing about 15 speakers to our campus annually. Our usual seminar schedule is every other Tuesday at 12:30 pm in Monroe Room 157

February 19. Nathan Markward. Ph.D. Dissection of the phenotypic variance: Are related individuals needed to demonstrate a genetic effect? Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge and LSU Department of Experimental Statistics.
March 4 . Yves Carlier, M.D., Ph.D. Congenital Chagas disease: from laboratory to public health. Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre De Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium.
March 25 . Fiona Inglis, Ph.D. Learning to walk: Understanding the basis of synaptic plasticity and psychiatric disease. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University . New Orleans.
April 15 . Sergio Sosa-Estani, M.D., Ph.D . Evidence supports treating Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Department of Epidemiology, Ministry of Health, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
April 22 . Michael Blum, Ph.D. Genetic dissection of an expanding hybrid swarm. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Fall 2007

October 2 . Shawn Vincent. Ph.D. Sex, Ecology, and the P-matrix: Are there limits to the evolution of dimorphism?. Department of Biological Sciences. Illinois State University. Normal, Illinois.
October 23 . Mary Breslin. Ph.D. Transcription-regulated suicide gene therapy for neuroendocrine cancers. Research Institute for Children. LSUHSC. New Orleans.
October 30 . Hank Bart. Ph.D. Systematics of Ictiobinae – something fishy. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Tulane University. New Orleans.
November 13 . Laura Schrader. Ph.D. Potassium channel modulation of learning and memory. Department of Cell and Molecular Biollogy. Tulane University. New Orleans
November 27. Kyle Harms. Ph.D. Processes maintaining species diversity in a Neotropical forest. Department of Biological Sciences. Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge.

Spring 2007

January 30. Trent Holliday. Ph.D. “The last of the Neandertals & modern human evolution.” Department of Anthropology. Tulane University . New Orleans .
March 6. Rick Miller. Ph.D. “Evolution of regulatory genes in morning glories.” Department of Biological Sciences. Southeastern Louisiana University . Hammond .
March 20. Rebecca Howard. Ph.D. “Wetland restoration in Louisiana : importance of genetic diversity within plant communities.” National Wetlands Research Center . U.S. Geological Survey. Lafayette .
April 10. Clark Pearson. Ph.D. “Trophic diversity in two grassland ecosystems.” Department of Ecology & Evolution. Tulane University. New Orleans.

Fall 2006

September 26.-- Mike Ferris, Ph.D. “Species abundance and bacterial vaginosis.” The Research Institute for Children. Louisiana State University Health Science Center . New Orleans .
October 10.-- Jeff Chambers. Ph.D. “ Wind driven tree mortality impacts on forest structure and functioning in the Amazon and Gulf Coast .” Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Tulane University . New Orleans .
October 18.-- David Patterson. Ph.D. “New taxonomically intelligent tools for biology on the internet.” Marine Biological Laboratory. Woods Hole. Walter Moore Lecture in Ecology. Note time is 7:00 pm
October 24.-- Vicki Traina-Dorge. Ph.D. “Pathogenesis of viral infections animal model development.” Division of Microbiology. Tulane University National Primate Research Center . Covington .
November 14.-- David Millie. Ph.D. “Phytoplankton as Ecological Sentinels: Characterizing the Influences of Environmental Forcing within Great Lakes Coastal Systems.” Florida Institute of Oceanography. St. Petersburg
December 5.-- Gene Turner. Ph.D. "Linking Landscape and Water Quality in the Mississippi River Basin for 200 years." Coastal Ecology Institute. Louisiana State University . Baton Rouge .

Spring 2006

February 7. Duncan Irschick, Ph.D. Sexual selection and performance: An integrative view. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University , New Orleans .
February 21. Lee Dyer, Ph.D. Extreme weather events and tritrophic interactions. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University , New Orleans .
March 14. Andrew Curtis, Ph.D. After Katrina: using a Geographic Information System to respond and recover. Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
March 28. Ham Farris, Ph.D. Auditory processing in crickets: listening to bats and calling songs. Center for Neuroscience. Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center , New Orleans .
April 11. Volker Stiller, Ph.D. The vulnerable pipeline: water transport in plants with emphasis on rice. Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Hammond, LA.

Spring 2005

February 15 . Jason Jolliff. Ph.D. Three-dimensional computer modeling of ocean color: understanding physical, optical, & biological processes in the coastal ocean. University of South Florida . College of Marine Science. Tampa .
March 1 . Rodney Nairn. Ph.D. The platyfish-swordtail hybrid melanoma model & the genetics of tumor function. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center . Smithville.
March 15 . Fiona Inglis. Ph.D. Learning to walk: motor neurons, gravity, & glutamate receptors. Department of Cell & Molecular Biology. Tulane University , New Orleans .
March 17. Michael Willig. Ph.D. Biodiversity in a Changing World: Pattern, Process, & Preservation. Division of Environmental Biology, National Science Foundation. 2005 Walter Moore Lecture in Ecology. Thursday at 7:00 pm.
April 5 Kyle Piller. Ph.D. Studies of a traveling ichthyologist: here, there, and everywhere. Department of Biological Sciences. Southeastern Louisiana University . Hammond . Note this is a changed date for that previously posted.
April 16 Robert Paine. Ph.D. The conundrum of alternative states in deterministic rocky shore systems. And are they stable? . University of Washington, Seattle. 15th Annual Southeastern Louisiana Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Group Lecture. Saturday, Nunemaker Hall at 11:00 am.
April 19 . Michel Tibayrenc. M.D., Ph.D. Evolutionary genetics and molecular epidemiology of pathogens; the Trypanosoma cruzi story; and the ecological niche of Infection, Genetics and Evolution: why is it so timely? Research for Development Institute. Montpellier , France. Note this is a changed date for that previously posted.
May 3 Arthur Hass. Ph.D. Cell regulation through ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, LSU Health Sciences Center . New Orleans .

Fall 2004 (Click here for pdf version)

September 28. Craig Hood, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University. Ecology of a fragmented landscape: mammalian biodiversity of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park.
October 12. CANCELLED -- (Look for a rescheduled time/date in the future) Michel Tibayrenc, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, Montpellier, France. Evolutionary genetics and molecular epidemiology of pathogens; the Trypanosoma cruzi story; and the ecological niche of Infection, Genetics, and Evolution: why is it so timely?
November 2. Patricia Dorn, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University. Preliminary analysis of the use of microsatellite markers for Triatoma dimidiata, Chagas disease vector.
November 16. Jeffery Hobden, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Parasitology, Louisiana Health Sciences Center, New Orleans. The molecular pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa corneal infections.
November 30. Sammy King, School of Renewable Natural Resources, Lousiana State University, Baton Rouge. Restoration and habitat management in the Lower Mississippi River alluvial valley: issues and opportunities.

Spring 2004

Mike Taylor, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. Speciation without barriers: a colorful twist on Caribbean reef fishes.
Michael Guill, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Architectural and phylogenetic constraints on life-history variation in the darters. JOB SEMINAR.
Wes Colgan, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana Tech University. Mushrooms gone down under: the story of Australian truffles. JOB SEMINAR.
Daniel Wang, Department of Biology, University of Miami. Genetic structure of rice rat populations in South Florida: implications for conservation. JOB SEMINAR.
Nicola M. Anthony, Biology Department, University of New Orleans. Molecular ecology and conservation of western lowland gorilla.
Michelle Wood, Center for Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Oregon. A new view of picocyanobacteria in the coastal ocean.
James Robinson, Department of Pediatrics Infectious Diseases, Tulane University School of Medicine. Antigenic structure of HIV envelope glycoproteins.

Fall 2003

Leslie Lyons, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California at Davis. Companion animals as models for human disease and traits.
Leslie Lyons, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California at Davis. Cloning animals: Frankenstein's monster or just another pussycat.
David Heins. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. The interplay between little fish & big parasites.
Donna Drury, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi. Effects of grass shrimp (Palaemonetes) and nutrient manipulation on widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima) conditions, epiphyte load, and epiphyte community composition.
Michael Schurr, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University Health Science Center. The role of Alginate-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis pneumonia.

Spring 2003

Christian Kamenik, Institute for Limnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences. Climate reconstruction based on Chrysophyte resting stages.
Jenneke Visser, Coastal Studies Institute, Louisiana State University. Changes in Louisiana’s coastal wetland vegetation.
Jay Pinchney, Department of Oceanography, Texas A & M University. To HAB and to HAB not – relating ecological processes to harmful and nuisance algal blooms in Galveston Bay, Texas.
Kent Buchanan, Department of Microbiology & Immunity, Tulane University Health Sciences Center. TBA.

Fall 2002

Quay Dortch, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. Harmful algal blooms-a global and local problem.
Mark Hester, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. The importance of salinity and flooding stress in structuring coastal plant communities.
Thomas Wiese, College of Pharmacy, Xavier University and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Exploring the estrogen, androgen and progesterone receptor interactions of endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Albrey Arrington, Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Alabama. Dynamics of community assembly, disassembly, and reassembly in a neotropical floodplain river.
William Halford, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. Understanding how Herpes simplex virus alternates between productive replication and latency.
Terry Christenson, Department of Psychology, Tulane University. Spider sex - the throbbing palp and long copulation.

Spring 2002

Robert Andersen, Culture Center for Marine Phytoplankton, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (Maine). Protistologist looks at species concepts.
Michael Silverman, Oregon Health Sciences University. Protein rtransport in cultured hippocampal neurons.
Gene Godbold, College of William & Mary. Involvement of small GTPases in the pathogenicity of the protozoan parasite Entaboeba histolytica.
Rosalie Anderson, Tulane University. Sonic hedgehog Regulation in the Developing Vertebrate Limb.
Don Baltz, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University. Nursery habitat food webs in coastal Louisiana: models for juvenile spotted seatrout and red drum.
Prescott Deininger, Cancer Center for Basic Science Programs, Tulane University Medical School. Human retroelements: a significant risk factor?
Dawn Wesson, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Modeling risk for mosquito transmitted viruses in Louisiana.
Douglas Hixson, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Brown University Medical School. Please give me some hepatic stem cells, but I’ll pass on the onions.
Tom Doyle, United States Geological Survey. Monitoring and modeling tallow invasion and Sabal palm ingrowth of a bottomland hardwood forest in the Louisiana delta.

Fall 2001

Letitia Beard, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Religion and alcoholism in Luiseno Mission Indians-a sabbatical study.
Henry Hagedorn, Department of Entomology, University of Arizona. Exquisite vermin: discovering what makes mosquitoes tick.
Jim Moroney, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University. Carbon dioxide levels in air: the interplay between photosynthetic organisms and the atmosphere.
Catherine Correa, Louisiana Tumor Registry, Department of Health and Preventative Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Cancer incidence in Louisiana and the industrial corridor.
Whit Gibbons, Department of Ecology, University of Georgia and Savanah River Ecology Laboratory. The global decline of reptiles, déjà Vu amphibians: how do we protect our hidden biodiversity?
Cindy Morris, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tulane Medical Center. Angiogenesis.
Marion Freistadt, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. RNA virus pathogenesis.

Spring 2001

Jerry Howard, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Organization of foraging in leaf-cutting ants.
Mark Beilke. Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Section, Tulane School of Medicine. Retroviral co-infections in New Orleans.
Bernard B. Rees. Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Responses of the gulf killifish to hypoxia: from behavior to biochemistry.
Nancy Colburn, Gene Regulation Section, National Cancer Institute. Molecular targets for cancer prevention or what causes cancer.
Suzanne Fredericq, Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Phylogeny, biogeography and life history evolution in the marine red algal Family Phyllophoraceae (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta).
Joel Trexler, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University. Can marine protected areas restore and conserve stock attributes of reef fishes?
Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University. Human natures and the human future.

Fall 2000

David White, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Ecological research in Mexico and other adventures while on sabbatical leave.
Robert Garry, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane School of Medicine. Possible role for an endogenous retrovirus in human breast cancer.
Jim Grace. National Wetlands Research Center, United States Geological Survey. Species diversity in plant communities: towards a synthesis of competing theories.
Michael Poirrier, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Effects of Mississippi River diversions, hurricanes, and restoration efforts on the environmental quality of Lake Pontchartrain.
Scott Michael, Department of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Retroviral assembly and proteolytic processing: new drug targets for HIV.
T.J. Evans, USDA-ARS-Southern Regional Research Center. Photobioreactors and phosphorus: new culturing technologies for use in experimental phycology.

Spring 2000

Mark Schneegurt. Isolation and characterization of novel soil bacteria active in the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. JOB SEMINAR.
Karl Indest. A model system to study gene expression in Borrelia burgdorferi. JOB SEMINAR.
Maureen Shuh. The HTLV-I transforming protein Tax: a molecular mechanism for cancer. JOB SEMINAR.
Sharon Isern. Development of tropism-modified adenoviral vectors for targeted gene delivery. JOB SEMINAR.
Sean Powers, Institute of Marine Science, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The role of ecological experiments in management and conservation of marine and estuarine resources.
Stephen Ross, Department of Biology, University of Southern Mississippi. Habitat and the conservation of riffle inhabiting fishes: population and assemblage responses to temporal and spatial habitat change.
Joseph Pechmann, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Population regulation, complex life cycles, and the need for a metamorphosis in conservation.
Cesar Fermin, Tulane University Medical Center. Temporary and permanent expression of s-100ß.
Richard Dicarlo, Louisiana State University School of Medicine. Vaccination against HIV: the current status of clinical trials.

Fall 1999

Karen Kandl, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. What can genetics contribute to conservation? Examples from mussels and mosquitofish.
Mary Clancy, Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans. Higamous, hogamous, are these genes orthologous? Possible roles of a "mammalian" enzyme in yeast meiotic development.
Paul Fidel, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Medical Center. Host defense against mucosal candidiasis: site specific differences.
Paul Ewald, Department of Biology, Amherst College. Evolutionary control of virulence and antibiotic resistance: backdoor alternatives to frontal assaults.
Hank Bart, Jr. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Tulane University. Fish diversity in the southeastern United States: testing the limits.

Spring 1999

Jeffrey Green, Department of Anatomy, Louisiana State University Medical Center. Proteases in Shrimp fertilization.
Joseph J. Luczkovich, Department of Biology and Institute for Coastal and Marine Resources, East Carolina University. How to study spawning in estuarine fishes -- listen.
Joseph Travis, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University. Population dynamics and life-history expression in Poeciliid fishes.
James M Hill, Department of Ophthalmology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, Louisiana State University Medical Center. Everything you always wanted to know about the AIDS pandemic but were afraid to ask.
Robert F. Garry, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. The earliest confirmed case of AIDS in the United States: implications for the origins of the pandemic.
Betsey Dresser, Audubon Endangered Species Center (ACRES). Reproductive strategies for endangered species in captivity.
Lauren Chapman, Department of Zoology, University of Florida. Conservation and ecology of tropical freshwater fishes.

Fall 1998

Robert F. Garry, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. The earliest confirmed case of AIDS in the United States: implications for the origins of the pandemic.
Donald P. Hauber. Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Chromosome pairing in a natural autotetraploid: Machaeranthera pinnatifida.
Pamela J. Hornby, Department of Pharmacology, Louisiana State University Medical Center. The brain in the ‘brain-gut’ highway: central influences on gastric and esophageal motor functions.
Mario T. Philipp, Department of Parasitology, Tulane Medical Center & Tulane Primate Center. Spirochetal lipoproteins and the control of inflammation in Lyme disease.
David S. Gross, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Medical Center (Shreveport). How heat shock factor battles nucleosomes to activate transcription.
Wayne V. Vedeckis, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Medical Center. The role of glucocorticoid receptor and alternative promotor utilization in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Phillip C. Stouffer, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Area effects on understory birds in Amazonian forest fragments.

Spring 1998

Mark Ford, National Wetlands Research Center, United States Geological Survey. Soil elevation and shallow subsidence in Louisiana Coastal marshes: impacts of mammal herbivores and spray dredging.
Tom Sherry, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University. How are populations of neotropical migrant birds limited?
Andy Nyman, Department of Biology, University of Southwestern Louisiana. Exploring the role of plant/soil interactions in wetland dynamics.
Carolyn Ferguson, Department of Botany, University of Texas. Phylogenetic relationships of eastern North American phlox (Polemoniaceae) based upon molecular data.
Sonia Montenegro-James, Oschner Alton Medical Foundation & Department of Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Cytokines and immunopathogensis of Chagas disease.
Jack Lancaster, Jr., Department of Physiology & Medicine, Louisiana State University Medical Center. The physical properties of nitric oxide as a critical determinant of its biological actions.

Fall 1997

Craig Hood, Department of Biological Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Geometry meets Biology -- geometric morphometric approaches to the study of biological forms.
David Millie, USDA-ARS-Southern Regional Research Center. Using algal photophysiology to characterize scalar rate processes.
Jakob Waterborg, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri (Kansas City). Histone acetylation reveals that gene transcription in plants affects the structure of chromatin in a different way than in animals.
Laura Levy, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Tulane University School of Medicine. Pathobiology of SIV-associated lymphoma.
Carol Burdsal, Department of Cell & Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Mesoderm differentiation in the mammalian embryo.
Arthur Lustig, Department of Biochemistry, Tulane University School of Medicine Telomere dynamics in yeast.

Spring 1997

Ken Muneoka, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University. Fibroblast growth factors and cell migration in limb morphogenesis.
Ousmane Koita, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University. Use of PCR-based methods to study coloniality, severe disease and transmission of malaria.
Pat O’Hara, Amherst College. Flourescence energy transfer as a probe of structure and dynamics in biological sciences.
Peter Siver, Connecticut College. Historical changes in Connecticut lakes.
Mary White, Department of Biological Sciences, Southeastern Louisiana University. Evolution of multi-gene families in vertebrates and invertebrates.
Candidate 1.
Candidate 2.
Frank Jordan. Departments of Biology and Marine Science, Jacksonville University.
Jared Diamond, University of California at Los Angeles. The evolution of adaptations for fast-and-binge feeding in snakes and frogs.

In This Section

Other Links

Department Homepage