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Biology MS/PhD Program Faculty
PhD Program Director
Mangone is interested in study how eukaryotic RNA transcription is terminated and how the messenger RNA is regulated on its way to the expression into proteins, using the wound worm C. elegans as model system.
MS Program Director
Biology (PhD)
The PhD in biology program allows the student to acquire high research competency in one or more specialized areas while...
Biology (MS)
Do you have an adventurous spirit? This program is highly recommended for those who want to pursue a degree that encompasses a greater breadth of research...
Program Faculty
Abbaszadegan is a professor of environmental microbiology and engineering and founding director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Water & Environmental Technology (WET) Center at ASU.
Amdam is a Norwegian biologist who is internationally known for her research on behavior and aging in honey bees.
Michael Angilletta combines models and experiments to understand how animal populations adapt to changing environments.
Armendt is a philosopher who works on rational decision making and the epistemology of rational belief. He also works on causality, and on patterns of social interaction among individuals.
Baluch oversees the W.M. Keck Bioimaging Laboratory in the School of Life Sciences. Her research is focused on studying the behavior of cells and tissue using advanced microscopy techniques.
Bean applies bioanalytical chemistry methods to characterize microbial metabolomes and identify biomarkers of lung disease.
Brownell is a neuroscientist turned full-time education researcher, who teaches undergraduate biology while studying biology education.
Capco is a cell biologist who studies how different types of cells in the human body relate to disease, illness, and birth defects.
Chang is an immunologist who studies the development and function of the immune system and uses DNA nanostructure to design and construct more useful vaccines and immunotherapeutic agents.
Chen is a professor of biochemistry at ASU. His research interests are in structure and function of RNA molecules and ribonucleoprotein complexes.
Chen is a molecular biologist who specializes in developing novel human therapeutics and vaccines in plants to combat infectious diseases, cancer, and biological warfare agents.
Collins is an evolutionary ecologist whose research group studies the role of host-pathogen interactions in species decline and extinction, as well as ecological ethics.
Dr. Carolyn Compton is an academic pathologist specializing in gastrointestinal disease and is board certified in both anatomic and clinical pathology.
Creath is a philosopher of science who uses historical methods to study fundamental questions about the role of logic, mathematics, scientific methods and even philosophy within science.
Day is a plant ecologist who studies factors that control plant performance, plant litter decomposition and carbon cycling.
DeNardo has been a faculty member with the School of Life Sciences since 1998 and has published more than 100 scientific papers in the field of environmental physiology.
Deviche is an animal physiologist who studies how the environment controls the reproductive system and stress responses of vertebrates.
Ellison's research and teaching focus on research ethics and ethics education. She directs the School of Life Science Ethics Program, is an editor for the Online Ethics Center (onlineethics.org), and serves on the APPE board.
Fewell is a President’s Professor and faculty leader for the Organismal, Integrative and Systems Biology Group. Her research centers around the organization and evolution of insect societies.
Rebecca Fisher's primary appointment is at the UA COM-Phoenix, where she designed the anatomy curriculum. Fisher studies the functional anatomy and evolution of the musculoskeletal system in vertebrates and cephalopods.
Frasch has developed new assays to examine the rotation of single molecules of molecular motor proteins under a microscope.
Garcia-Pichel is the Director of the Center for Applied and Fundamental Microbiomics. He studies the roles, adaptations and impacts of microbes in natural environments, from desert soils to shallow marine waters.
Gaxiola studies the physiological mechanisms by which plants regulate root activity and nutrient uptake. His work may be used to engineer crops that could help secure future food supplies.
Gerber aims to accelerate the success of biodiversity management and sustainable biodiversity outcomes by fostering relationships among academics and decision makers.
Gile is an evolutionary microbiologist who studies single-celled eukaryotes (protists) and symbiosis.
Grimm is an ecosystem scientist who studies desert streams and cities and their resilience to extreme events.
Hall is an ecologist and conservation scientist who studies connections between people and the environment. She is the faculty lead for the Conservation Bio & Ecology degree program and an award-winning teacher in her field.
Harrison is an environmental physiologist who studies how insects function, interact with their environment and evolve.
Haydel is an infectious disease microbiologist investigating new antibiotics to fight resistant infections, new technologies to diagnose infections in less than 2 hours, and how bacteria cause disease in humans.
Hölldobler is a Pulitzer Prize-winning sociobiologist who uses insect societies to study behavioral mechanisms of communication, cooperation and conflict. He's a member of several national and international academies.
Hogue is a virologist who studies how coronaviruses, a large family of RNA viruses, that includes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), assemble and cause disease.
Silvie Huijben is an evolutionary biologist who studies the evolutionary ecology of resistant organisms. Her aim is to optimize treatment strategies that minimize resistance evolution, with a focus on malaria.
Jacobs is an expert on a poxvirus called vaccinia. He has genetically engineered vaccinia as a vehicle against infectious agents, bioterrorism threats, cancer and other viruses, including HIV.
A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Jacobs is the author of more than 50 publications on the physiological and molecular control of plant development, He is also the dean of Barrett Honors College at ASU.
Johnston work focuses on innovative solutions to fundamental problems in biomedicine, including the development of a universal preventative cancer vaccine. He holds 20 patents.
Katsanos is an exercise physiologist studying metabolic responses in humans. His laboratory utilizes stable isotope tracer and molecular biology techniques to understand muscle protein and fat metabolism in obesity.
Kinzig looks at how humans shape and influence their natural environments and what this means for human health and Earth's ecosystems. Her work focuses on ecosystem services and the resilience of natural-resource systems.
Dean of natural sciences and professor in the School of Life Sciences in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Kusumi's research focuses on vertebrate genomics.
Lake is a cellular and molecular immunologist who is working on biologic inhibitors of tumor cell metastasis. He is also developing a new test for Valley Fever that provides a diagnosis for patients with acute disease.
Leslie Landrum is a senior research scientist and ASU Herbarium Curator.
Laubichler is a complex systems scientist, theoretical biologist and historian of science. He is director of the School of Complex Adaptive Systems and the Global Biosocial Complexity Initiative at ASU.
Mor is a molecular biologist and biochemist whose research focuses on using plants to produce useful and therapeutic polypeptides, proteins and enzymes.
Liebig studies the organization, chemical communication, reproductive regulation, and behavioral and physiological plasticity of ants and termites with a focus on the colony, the individual, and the olfactory system.
Maienschein and her team research embryology, genetics, and cell biology. She specializes in the history and philosophy of biology and the way biology, bioethics and bio-policy play out in society.
Honing in on the intersection of stem cells, diet and cancer, Mana's research focuses on how various diets, ranging from high-fat to calorie restriction, impact stem cells and create vulnerabilities.
Mangone is interested in study how eukaryotic RNA transcription is terminated and how the messenger RNA is regulated on its way to the expression into proteins, using the wound worm C. elegans as model system.
Marchant frequently lectures about the intersection of law and science at national and international conferences. He's authored more than 150 articles and book chapters on various issues related to emerging technologies.
Martins studies behavioral evolution by mapping the ancient history of lizard communication in the southwestern US and by studying how sensory systems impact social behavior in the biomedically-important zebrafish.
Hugh Mason was the first to publish peer-reviewed work on the use of plants for production of vaccine antigens.
McGraw is an integrative behavioral ecologist who primarily studies the colors of animals such as birds to understand the costs, benefits and evolution of visual signals.
Minteer is an environmental ethicist and conservation scholar who writes on species extinction, wilderness, zoos, and the evolution of American environmental thought and practice.
Rajeev Misra is a microbial geneticist who studies how proteins, synthesized in the cytoplasm, are targeted to the bacterial outer membrane. He also examines the mechanisms of drug resistance.
Neuer is a biological oceanographer and plankton ecologist and studies the oceanic carbon cycle, particularly the role of plankton organisms in uptake and sequestration of anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
Dr. Newbern's research is centered on developmental neuroscience. His laboratory studies the biochemical mechanisms that direct the formation of the brain and spinal cord.
Cheryl Nickerson studies the effects of biomechanical forces on living cells, how this response is related to normal cellular homeostasis or infectious disease, and its translation to clinical and biotechnology applications.
Paaijmans is a disease ecologist with a strong interest in how the biology and ecology of parasites, viruses and insect vectors shape the distribution and intensity of infectious diseases
Pavlic works in interdisciplinary decision-making problems in natural and artificial autonomous systems. He is also the associate director of research for The Biomimicry Center at ASU.
Pigg is a paleobotanist who studies fossil plants that are related to modern groups of conifers, ferns and woody hardwood trees. Her group studies the origin of plants of the temperate deciduous biome.
Pratt studies the emergence of complex behavior in leaderless groups, especially social insects. He works with engineers to translate lessons from biology to artificial systems, and to develop new tools to analyze behavior.
Rittmann is director of the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology. He is an international leader in the use of microbial communities to provide services to society.
Jason Robert is Dean's Distinguished (Associate) Professor in the Life Sciences.
Todd Sandrin serves as vice provost of ASU's West campus, dean of the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, and professor in the School of Mathematical and Natural Science focusing on microbial biosignatures.
Daniel Sarewitz is professor of science and society at Arizona State University, where he is co-director of the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO), which he helped to found in 1999.
Yixin Shi’s research is focused on molecular biology, bacteriology and biochemistry. Shi analyzes the virulent elements necessary for bacterial survival in host environments.
Shrivastava uses biology, physics, and bioinformatics to find factors that shape spatial structure of the microbiome. His lab aims to find how changes in the microbiome correlate with the occurrence of diseases.
Smith is a behavioral neuroscientist studying learning and memory systems in both insects and mammals. His work is being applied to studies of human diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Stone's specialization and main area of interest is anthropological genetics. Her current research focuses on population history and understanding how humans and the great apes have adapted to their environments.
Sweazea is a physiologist who specializes in diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Throop is an ecosystem scientist who studies how global-scale changes influence arid and semi-arid ecosystems. She is co-director of the Environmental Life Sciences PhD program.
Tyler's primary research and development interests focus on developing and applying noninvasive neuromodulation methods and devices intended to optimize human performance and brain health.
Varsani is a molecular virologist who works across ecosystems from plants to animals and from the tropics to polar regions.
Vermaas and his team conduct basic and applied research on cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic microbes, using these organisms as a chassis to produce useful compounds (biofuels, green chemicals) from sunlight and CO2.
Webber is a professor of molecular and cellular biosciences and also serves as executive director in the Office of the University Provost where he oversees University Accreditation and Academic Program Reviews.
Wideman strives to understand the emergence of complexity in eukaryote evolution. Using comparative genomics and cell biological approaches he reconstructs features of the last eukaryotic common ancestor.
Wilson-Rawls' research focuses on understanding the regulation of cell fate during development and regeneration with an emphasis on skeletal muscle stem cells and gametogenesis.
Martin Wojciechowski is an evolutionary biologist who studies plants, with an emphasis on the genomics, biogeography, and phylogenetics of legumes (family Leguminosae) and cacti (family Cactaceae).
Wu is a Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Sustainability Science at Arizona State University. His research areas include: landscape ecology, urban ecology, and sustainability science.