Biology Directory
Current Biology Graduate Students
My current projects investigate the neuroendocrine mechanisms of behavioral plasticity. Using the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata), I am characterizing changes in neuronal activation to explain how prior experiences and genetic lineages shape behavioral patterns.
Disease ecology, quantitative ecology, waterfowl migration.
I am broadly interested in trait evolution, physiology, and conservation. As a PhD student in the Funk lab, I am part of a diverse team working towards uncovering patterns in vulnerability across elevation gradients in tailed frogs.
Ph.D. Student in the Knapp Lab interested in plant and ecosystem ecology and legacy effects of drought
I am an aquatic ecologist. I use biota (primarily insects) to look at response to disturbance in stream ecosystems. I am particularly interested in "life below the flow" or invertebrates living in the hyporheic zone.
Second-year MS student addressing questions about the evolutionary loss of middle ears in amphibians. Previously worked on bio-inspired engineering projects and is now an aspiring functional/quantitative morphologist and biomechanist.
Hello! I am a first year master's student in the PSM program, focusing in zoo management. This summer I will studying the effects of installing a motorized enrichment feeder on giraffe stereotypic behavior at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
Conservation genetics and phylogeography of Fremont's leather flower (Clematis fremontii)
Alicia is a Masters student, originally from Beatrice, NE. She graduated with her Bachelors in Environmental Studies, with an emphasis in Biology and Water Science. From 2013-2015, she worked in Paraguay as Peace Corps volunteer, organizing projects in environmental conservation, and from 2017-2020, she worked for the EPA in the Biological and Economic Analysis Division, reviewing pesticide registrations. Now as a student at CSU, her thesis project will focus on studying the recovery of plant communities in the Colorado shortgrass stepp after a four-year extreme drought. Her hobbies include photography, crochet, and collecting musical instruments without actually playing them.
I am a PhD candidate in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology advised by Dr. Meena Balgopal. My research focuses on how scientists communicate about and carry out citizen science projects.
I study pulse/press resource dynamics in grassland plant communities.
I am from Nectar, AL, and I graduated from Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, AL in May 2019 with a Bachelor's in General Music and a Bachelor's in General Biology. I am now a part of the PSM program here at CSU studying zoo management. I will be completing my project at Denver Zoo working on gathering baseline behavioral data for various species to help better inform the zoo on exhibit design and animal enrichment practices.
I'm a Cell and Molecular Biology M.S. student in the Medford lab engineering Arabidopsis thaliana for directed expression of transcription factors.
My background is diverse, I have previously been involved in disease ecology, conservation, and human disease genetics research. I am broadly interested in climate change, conservation, and genetics.
I am a PhD candidate in Cell and Molecular Biology. My research is done in Dr. Garrity's lab where we study embryonic heart development using a zebrafish model.
Thirs year PhD candidate in the Peers lab studying chlorophyll biosynthesis in diatom algae NSF Graduate Research Fellow TA for BZ415-Marine Biology
I study how grasslands respond to altered precipitation patterns as a result of climate change. Specifically, my research focuses on how more frequent deluges (large rainstorms) will affect ecosystem processes in the shortgrass steppe of Eastern Colorado.
I am a 3rd year PhD student in the Cell & Molecular Biology Program in Tai Montgomery's Lab. My research interests are focused around regulatory genetic pathways, genomics and computational biology.
My research integrates telomere dynamics, applied conservation genomics, and evolutionary genomics to better understand the effects of climate change on migratory birds.
Interested in how abiotic drivers shape above- and belowground communities through plant-soil interactions. Working from the individual to ecosystem scale to elucidate mechanisms of change.
I am a plant and ecosystem ecologist studying impacts of global change. My PhD research focuses on how extreme drought affects root traits and patterns of aboveground vs. belowground plant production and carbon cycling.
I am interested in biogeochemical nitrogen (N) cycling and the N transformations that generate or consume the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O). I primarily use stable isotopes to address my research questions, which broadly correspond to better understanding the environmental factors that control microbial N2O emissions.
I am interested in evolution of DNA replication/recombination and repair machinery. I study how these mechanisms drive variation between, and within, the three genomes housed inside plant cells: i.e nuclear, mitochondrial, and plastid genomes.
A PhD candidate student in Dr. Dan Sloan's lab studying the effects of mitochondrial gene loss by utilizing new RNA sequencing technologies and a biological system that is undergoing rapid mitochondrial tRNA gene loss.
I am a PhD student in the Garrity Lab whose research centers on diversity, equity, and inclusion in science. I also partner with the Amplify Learning Community at CSU, which is a co-curricular residential community, to support and mentor students with marginalized identities in STEM fields.
After teaching middle and high school science for 25 years, I am taking on a new challenge. I research how teachers use place-based education curriculum to teach ecological concepts.