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:
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.
April 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.
December 2019:
Dr. Feyza Yilmaz - Thesis Title: 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
March 30, 2020:
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
Summer 2022:
Julie Byle - Thesis Title: The Ethnography of Environmental Education: Honoring Funds of Knowledge Through Equitable Evaluation, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, and Program Decolonization
Andrew McDevitt - Thesis Title: Advancing Understanding of Student-Centered Instruction in Undergraduate Stem by Promoting the Connection of Theory with Analytical Techniques
Spring 2023:
Erika Garcia - Thesis Title: A taxonomic re-assessment: Phylogenomics, morphological evolution, and historical biogeography of North American camel spiders (Arachnida: Solifugae)
Masters Student Graduates:
December, 2019:
Benjamin Lagasse - Thesis Title: Population Connectivity and Migratory Dynamics of the Dunlin (Calidris alpina) along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
January, 2020:
Liam Cullinane - Thesis Title: City Bees: An Investigation of the Drivers of Bee Abundance and Bee Richness Along a Rural-to-Urban Gradient
April 2020:
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
July 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
September 2020:
Emily Scott - Thesis Title: Effect of Serotonin on Mating Success in Teleopsis dalmanni
November 2020:
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.
September 2021:
Clark G. Olds - Thesis Title: Applying a Modified Metabarcoding Approach for the Sequencing of Macrofungal Specimens
November 2021:
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:
December 2021:
Michael Kain - Thesis Title: Differentiation of Soil Status and Microbial Community Structure 30 Years after Severe Forest Fire
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
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 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