The graduate programs in Biology are research-based and provide an opportunity for instruction and mentorship from world-class faculty studying both basic and applied problems in biology. This strong, shared culture of mentorship provides the unique opportunity for close collaboration and for high-quality, individually directed mentoring by advisors and advisory committees. The programs include a number of formal and informal activities designed to promote a strong sense of community among all students on campus. Faculty advisors for the programs are from the Departments of Integrative Biology, Anthropology, Biochemistry, Biostatistics, Cell and Developmental Biology, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Craniofacial Biology, Geography, Mathematics, Pharmacology, Physics, Physiology, and Psychology; additional faculty advisors are affiliated with Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Botanic Gardens.
Interests: Julie is a doctoral research fellow with the National Science Foundation. Her research interests are interdisciplinary in the fields of ecology literacy, environmental education, and ethnographic research. Through studying the intersections of ecological systems, environmental education, and socio-historical equity, she creates culturally inclusive pedagogy and equitable evaluation practices. She has extensive background experience in designing, managing, and evaluating formal and informal K-12 science education programs, as well as conducting...
Interests: I am broadly interested in understanding how plant communities respond to and interact with disturbance in forested ecosystems and how changing plant communities influence biogeochemistry, biogeography, and energy balances. Currently, I am pursuing these interests in the temperate coastal rainforest of Southeast Alaska. Please visit my professional website for more information, https://www.trevoracarter.com/
Interests: Demographics, Species Distribution Modeling, Population Genetics, Plant Conservation. The study of applied plant conservation. I conduct field research on plant population dynamics and model species distributions, population level genetic structure, and response to climate change.
Interests: include restoration ecology, seed-based conservation, and plant ecology. Her PhD dissertation is on the ‘Implications of Local Adaptation on Seed Sourcing for North American Prairie Restoration Under Climate Change’. She conducts field, greenhouse, and genetic research on prairie restoration at Denver Botanic Gardens York St. and Chatfield Farms.
Ph.D. • 2018 • Cushing Lab, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Department of Integrative Biology
Research Interests: Desert zombies, mata vendados, spawns of satan, and madre de alacranes are all colloquial names for camel spiders. Camel spiders, in the arachnid order Solifugae, are an interesting and perplexing group of arachnids distributed on all continents except Antarctica and Australia. Erika Garcia is a doctoral student based at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science working with Dr. Paula Cushing on camel spiders within the family Eremobatidae...
Research Interests: I’m a landscape and spatial ecologist, in my 4th-year as a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver. I work in the intersection of paleoecology, landscape ecology, and disturbance ecology, using field, lab, and modeling tools to study how ecosystems change over space and time.
Interests: Fear extinction, stress resilience, exercise, sex differences and estrous cycle effects. My research focuses specifically on the estrous cycle modulation of fear extinction learning and memory.
Ph.D. • 2021 • Cushing Lab, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Department of Integrative Biology
I am currently studying evolutionary relationships between camel spiders (solifuges) using phylogenomics and revising taxonomic characters used to name camel spider species. I also am interested in camel spider behavior, specifically how they locate their prey and their use of daytime retreats.
Interests: I am interested in self-organization and its intersection in social insects (ants) and neuroscience. Both are centerless systems which nonetheless exhibit flexible, directed behavior which arises from their constitutive parts. My research centers on recruitment and warfare in the pavement ant Tetramorium immigrans , a widespread tramp species across Europe and North America.
Research Interest: I am interested in evolutionary ecology, animal behavior, and wildlife conservation through the lens of global change. I am driven to explore how wildfire and extreme events affect wildlife populations. Currently, I am researching how habitats burned by wildfire impact the sexually selected traits of dragonflies.
Interests: My broad research interests include animal population dynamics and behavioral ecology. Currently, my research focuses on migratory ecology and demography of an inland breeding shorebird of conservation interest, the Mountain Plover. I am interested in how migration strategies vary between individuals across the landscape and how this variation is affected by environment and phenotype. Additionally, how does this variation translate to population level effects on seasonal distribution and population...
Interests – Research Interests: Investigating fungal stress responses, tolerance, and adaptation to high metal concentrations. For my dissertation, I will be using fungi in the genus Suillus , known to form mutualistic symbioses with pine trees, with a focus on species that are found in metal polluted soils in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Interests: My doctoral work is on limber pine at treeline in Rocky Mountain National Park, determining its treeline distribution, variables associated with its occurrence there, and the viability of limber pine seeds produced across high elevations. More broadly, my research interests include remote sensing and GIS applications to landscape ecology and biogeography, and restoration ecology under changing climate.
Interests: I am a plant taxonomist and biogeographer interested in the origins of the flora of the Southern Rockies. My research combines phylogenetic, biogeographic, and morphologic lines of evidence to clarify the taxonomic relationships within Physocarpus, a genus of deciduous shrubs in family Rosaceae.
Ph.D. • 2022 • Dr. John Fisk, CU Denver Department of Chemistry
Department of Integrative Biology
Research Interests: I am interested in work to expand the genetic code via incorporation of noncanonical amino acids as well as working on developing a computational model of phage infection in filamentous bacteria for the purposes of modeling phage display and delving deeper into how to reverse bacterial "curing" during a phage infection. To learn more about our research, please visit our lab's website.
Interests: My research interest is in nanomedicine, that is, using nano-sized materials in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. I focus on the fabrication of chemiluminescent and fluorescent nanoparticles for use in early detection and image-guided surgery of cancer for clinical use. I also work on the development of therapeutic contact lenses coated with metal chelators for the treatment of corneal diseases.
M.S. Program • 2022 • Rebecca Hufft, Denver Botanic Gardens
Department of Integrative Biology
Interests: I am interested in using Terrestrial Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) data collected in burn scars on public lands to determine if current land management decisions are efficient in restoration efforts post- wildfire.
Gabrielle’s research interests include urban ecology and native wildflowers of Colorado. She is especially interested in the resiliency of native plants in the face of climate change and urbanization.
Interest: I'm interested in urban raptor ecology and the urban wildlife information network. Please visit my professional website for more information. https://www.alyssadavidge.com/
M.S. Program • Ackerfield, Bruederle and Ragland Lab
Department of Integrative Biology
Interest: Tiffany is a first-year master’s student and botanist advised by Dr. Jennifer Ackerfield, Dr. Leo Bruederle, and Dr. Greg Ragland. She is interested in the processes of evolution and speciation at a molecular level. Tiffany’s research involves examining the phylogenetic relationships within the genus Eutrema , specifically through the lens of chromosome duplication. She is exploring how this phenomenon contributes to within-genus diversification and distribution. Tiffany will be applying...
Alyssa has graduated into the department's PhD Program. Interests: Fear extinction, stress resilience, exercise, sex differences and estrous cycle effects. My research focuses specifically on the estrous cycle modulation of fear extinction learning and memory.
Research interests include understanding how young adults learn biological concepts using cooperative and phenomena-based approaches and how to best support teacher implementing those strategies.
Interests: My interests include topics in microbiology and microbial ecology. I'm currently researching the degradation of 1,4-dioxane, a potentially carcinogenic chemical, by microorganisms at a Colorado landfill. My undergraduate research was focused on microbial fuel cells, a technology to harvest electricity from microorganisms.
Research Interests: Urban and Evolutionary Ecology, specifically how urban ecological and evolutionary processes can be better understood and used to inform environmentally conscious city and land-use management. My thesis work will involve surveys of water quality within City of Denver, and more specifically along the Highline Canal, using aquatic invertebrate and plant diversity as quality indicators.
M.S. Program • Cushing Lab, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Department of Integrative Biology
Interests: Center around camel spider (Solifuges) systematics. My focus is in analyzing currently used characters and devising morphometrics that may shed light on a complex group of camel spiders
Joseph has graduated into the department's PhD Program. Interests: designing a novel way to extract and isolate nascent-RNA in hopes to determine the thermal sensitivity of transcription.
Research Interests: Broadly I am interested in all things related to insects and have a passion for pollinators and how they interact with their environment. My research questions use Drosophila melanogaster to answer questions about developmental plasticity and further our understanding of how insects respond to cold stress.
PhD Student Graduates:
April, 2018:
Dr. Adrienne Narrowe- Thesis Title: Genome-Enabled Resolution of Archaeal Diversity in Methane-Cycling Wetlands. Dr. Narrowe is our first Integrative and Systems Biology doctoral program graduate and will be doing postdoctoral research at The Ohio State University and Colorado State University.
Dr. Lamya'a Dawud - Thesis Title: The Effects of Post-weaning Social Isolation on Social Fear Conditioning
Spring 2022:
Andrew Andrade - Thesis Title: Competing Environmental Influences on Early Understory Successional Development Following Severe Fire: Potential Implications for a Warming Climate
Margaret Tanner - Thesis Title: Clarifying Exercise-Induced Stress Resilience
Roubina Tatavosian - Thesis Title: Pleiotropic Function of the Master Regulators, of Gene Expression, the Polycomb Group (PCG) Complexes and the P53 Proteins, During Early Development
Benjamin Lagasse - Thesis Title: Population Connectivity and Migratory Dynamics of the Dunlin (Calidris alpina) along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
