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.

PhD Student Graduates:

Summer 2204:

Dr. Gabrielle Brandt - Thesis Title: Regulatory mechanisms underlying mESC pluripotency and m⁶A methylation dynamics: AMF and AMFR

Spring 2024:

Dr. Trevor Carter - Thesis Title: Carbon Dynamics in the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest: An Ecosystem Science Approach

Dr. Michelle DePrenger-Levin - Thesis Title: Using demography to inform plant conservation: An examination of uses and pitfalls of conventional population models

Fall 2023:

Dr. Laurel Sindewald - Thesis Title: Limber pine (Pinus flexilis) in the alpine treeline ecotone: Potential for upslope movement with changing climate

Dr. Allison Pierce - Thesis Title: Life history trade-offs of seasonal migration: A theoretical foundation for understanding the migration ecology of an inland shorebird (Charadrius Montanus)

Spring 2023:

Dr. Erika Garcia - Thesis Title: A taxonomic re-assessment: Phylogenomics, morphological evolution, and historical biogeography of North American camel spiders (Arachnida: Solifugae)

Summer 2022:   

Dr. Julie Byle - Thesis Title: The Ethnography of Environmental Education: Honoring Funds of Knowledge Through Equitable Evaluation, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, and Program Decolonization    

Dr. Andrew McDevitt - Thesis Title: Advancing Understanding of Student-Centered Instruction in Undergraduate Stem by Promoting the Connection of Theory with Analytical Techniques

Spring 2022:

Dr. Andrew Andrade - Thesis Title: Competing Environmental Influences on Early Understory Successional Development Following Severe Fire: Potential Implications for a Warming Climate

Dr. Margaret Tanner - Thesis Title: Clarifying Exercise-Induced Stress Resilience

Dr. 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       

Fall 2022:

Dr. Katherine Hayes - Thesis Title: Short-interval reburning changes forest composition, carbon, and fire behavior of boreal forests

Fall 2021:

Dr. Adam Duster - Thesis Title: Advancing adaptive partitioning QM/MM methods for proton transfer through ion channels and transporters

Dr. Katherine Fu - Thesis Title: Implications of seed source on North American shortgrass prairie restoration under climate change

Spring 2020:

Dr. Lamya'a Dawud - Thesis Title: The Effects of Post-weaning Social Isolation on Social Fear Conditioning

Fall 2019:

Dr. Feyza Yilmaz - Thesis Title: Structural Variants in Health and Disease

Dr. Elizabeth (Libby) Pansing - Thesis Title: Assessing the impacts of climate-altered fire regimes on population and community dynamics in Rocky Mountain Forests

Spring 2019: 

Dr. Munira Lantz - Thesis Title: Impacts of environmental change on freshwater nitrite oxidation.

Dr. Paul Le - Thesis Title: Facilitating inclusion and access of undergraduate students in large-enrollment science classrooms.

Spring 2018:

Dr. Adrienne Narrowe - Thesis Title: Genome-Enabled Resolution of Archaeal Diversity in Methane-Cycling Wetlands. 

Master's Student Graduates:

Fall 2024:

Spring 2024:

Margaret Garcia - Thesis Title: The Importance of Oct60 in GS17 Transcription and Embryogenesis

Nicole Laurita 

Fayelynn Scheideman - Master's Thesis 

Jasmine Vidrio - Master's Thesis

Evan Webber - Thesis Title: Tropomyosin Directs Myogenesis by Regulating Actin Dynamics

Fall 2023:

Alyssa Davidge - Thesis Title: Cooper’s Hawk Occupancy Across Socio-Economic Boundaries in Denver, Colorado

Tiffany Gentry -  Thesis Title: Allopolyploid origin of Eutrema edwardsii: determining diploid progenitors

Jessica Romero - Thesis Title: Using Metagenomic Sequencing to Elucidate the Bacterial Degradation of 1,4-Dioxane in Groundwater Associated With a Colorado Landfill

Spring 2023:

Alyssa Brostowitz - Thesis Title: Identifying Limb Enhancers in Eublepharis macularius Genome

Megan Clark - Thesis Title: Informing seed sourcing for restoration using two dominant native Colorado grassland species

Hazel Carr - Thesis Title: Contact zone characteristics contribute to patterns of divergence in lineages of the Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)

Alissa Iverson - Thesis Title: Evaluating potential for plant community and functional change in an urban canal undergoing hydrologic disturbance from Green Stormwater Infrastructure

Alex Smith - Thesis Title: Uncovering the Transcriptomic Profile of Zinc Tolerance in Suillus luteus

Erin Twaddell - Thesis Title: Impacts of fuels reduction treatments and wildfire on carbon stocks of semi-arid Pinus ponderosa-dominant forests

Summer 2022:

Alyssa Hohorst - Thesis Title: Estrous Cycle Modulation of Fear Extinction and Relapse

Jeffrey Mayfield - Thesis Title: Protein and RNA Interactions of Zygote Arrest Proteins 1 and 2 in Xenopus Laevis

Spring 2022:

Sarah Louie - Thesis Title: Sperm, phosphatidic acid, and calcium ionophore induce Xenopus egg Src cycling and tyrosine phosphatase activity. 

Thomas McLaren - Thesis Title: Clark’s Nutcracker Forest Community Use in Yellowstone National Park and Analyses for Long Term Monitoring Efforts

Fall 2021:

Clark G. Olds - Thesis Title: Applying a Modified Metabarcoding Approach for the Sequencing of Macrofungal Specimens

Katherine Fu - Thesis Title: Implications of Seed Source on North American Shortgrass Prairie Restoration Under Climate Change

Adam Duster -   Thesis Title: Adaptive Multiscale Methods for Ion Transport in Biology:

Michael Kain - Thesis Title: Differentiation of Soil Status and Microbial Community Structure 30 Years after Severe Forest Fire

Spring 2021:

Gabrielle Brandt 

Fall 2020:

Emily Scott -  Thesis Title: Effect of Serotonin on Mating Success in Teleopsis dalmanni

Megan Cerney -  Thesis Title: Differential Expression of Oct Paralogs During Early Development of Xenopus Laevis

Richard Jones -  Thesis Title: An empirical evaluation of traditional taxonomic characters in North American solifuges / Indications of site fidelity in solifuges at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

Erin Sanders - Non Thesis MS:  The Effects of Dopamine on Mating Receptivity of Stalk-eyed Flies.

Summer 2020:

Maria Nikulkova -  Thesis Title: Novel Genomes Reveal Phylogenetic Breadth and Metabolic Insights for the Candidate Phylum Aenigmarchaeota

Paige Friedentag -  Thesis Title: Impacts of Exposure to Polysluorinated Alkyl Substances Contaminated Groundwater on Reproductive Biomarkers in Fathead Minnow, Pimephales Promelas

Spring 2020:

Liam Cullinane -  Thesis Title: City Bees: An Investigation of the Drivers of Bee Abundance and Bee Richness Along a Rural-to-Urban Gradient

Margo Pace - Thesis Title: Beaver Dam Analogs Impact Riparian Plant Communities

Marianne Davenport - Thesis Title: Variability in Adult Reproductive Diapause of the Spruce Beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis

Tyler Michels - Thesis Title: Spatiotemporal patterns of habitat use during incubation by a uniparental shorebird in a heterogeneous landscape

Fall 2019:

Benjamin Lagasse - Thesis Title: Population Connectivity and Migratory Dynamics of the Dunlin (Calidris alpina) along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.