Biology at University of Massachusetts Amherst

47 faculty and 0 courses in Biology at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Faculty

• Tobias Baskin, Professor h-index 84
  Regulation of Plant Morphogenesis During Growth & Development Plant forms have long delighted artists and naturalists with their variety and beauty. These forms arise through morphogenesis in a process that depends on growth. Cel
• Duncan J. Irschick, Professor h-index 62
  Functional Morphology, Evolution, and Behavioral Ecology Duncan J. Irschick is an integrative biologist and innovator interested in the evolution and ecology of animal athletics, and how biological form informs synthetic design. Some
• Jeffrey Podos, Professor h-index 45
  Mechanisms and Evolution of Vertebrate Behavior; Bioacoustics Research in my laboratory addresses the interface of animal behavior, organismal biology, and evolutionary biology. We are particularly interested in a question first arti
• Margaret Riley, Professor h-index 44
  Microbial Ecology and Antimicrobial Drug Discovery I have a broad set of research interests that range from studies of experimental evolution of microbes to developing novel antimicrobials and redefining the microbial species concept
• Ana L. Caicedo, Gilgut Professor h-index 40
  Plant Molecular Evolution and Evolutionary Genomics Adaptive evolution, the product of natural selection, underlies much of all biological diversity. My research seeks to understand the genetic basis of adaptation, as well as the pop
• Paul S. Katz, Professor, Department Chair, Director of Initiative on Neurosciences h-index 38
  Dr. Katz is interested in the structure, function, development, and evolution of nervous systems. In particular, his lab focuses on the nervous system of the nudibranch mollusc, Berghia stephanieae. Unlike vertebrates, Berghia, octop
• Benjamin Normark, Professor h-index 37
  Evolution of Unusual Genetic Systems The laws of genetics are not universal. While many species have classical Mendelian genetics, in which both parents contribute equally to the genomes of all offspring, several other genetic system
• Jeffrey Blanchard, Associate Professor h-index 36
  Microbiomes, Ecology, Evolution, Genomics, Bioinformatics Microbiome research is one the most exciting areas of science today. Our laboratory’s long-term research goal is to contribute to the understanding of forest microbial c
• Elsbeth Walker, Professor h-index 35
  Plant Genetics and Physiology Iron Homeostasis in Plants Iron Homeostasis in Plants Iron is one of the most important and most problematic of all the micronutrients used by living organisms. Iron is an essential cofactor for many cel
• Adam Porter, Associate Professor h-index 34
  Evolutionary Biology; Computational Biology Research Areas Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department of Biology University of Massachusetts 221 Morrill Science Center III 611 North Pleasant Street Amherst, MA
• Rolf O. Karlstrom, Professor h-index 31
  Developmental Neurobiology: Axon Guidance, Forebrain Patterning, and Pituitary Developement My laboratory uses zebrafish as a simple vertebrate system to study how the forebrain and pituitary gland develop, and to investigate how axo
• Andrew Stephens, Assistant Professor h-index 29
  Molecular and Cellular Biology Why you should care about nuclear mechanics and morphology - Abnormal nuclear morphology has been associated with human disease since the development of microscopes that could image the nucleus of the c
• Alexander R. Gerson, Associate Professor h-index 28
  Integrative Eco-physiology - Environmental Physiology of Birds My interests lie in the field of integrative eco-physiology and my research has focused primarily on the environmental physiology of birds. I seek to understand how birds
• Elizabeth M. Jakob, Professor and Associate Dean for Student Success, Graduate School h-index 24
  Neuroscience and Behavior, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department of Biology University of Massachusetts 221 Morrill Science Center III 611 North Pleasant Street Amherst, MA Footer Academics Research News P
• Sarah Pallas, Professor h-index 24
  Developmental Neuroscience, Sensory Neurophysiology
• Elena Vazey, Associate Professor h-index 23
  Neuromodulation and Neurodegeneration It is clear that brain functions are not determined by individual neurons but by many coherent networks interacting. Our lab focuses on understanding the balancing act between cells and circuits
• Thomas J. Maresca, Professor h-index 23
  Cell Division We study the vital process of cell division. The goal of cell division is to ensure equal segregation of the genome, which is packaged into a defined number of chromosomes, between two daughter cells. Mistakes in this p
• Courtney C. Babbitt, Professor of Biology and Commonwealth Honors College h-index 22
  Evolutionary Genomics My research is in evolutionary genomics and I am interested in changes in gene regulation over evolutionary time that impact phenotypic change. In particular, I investigate the evolution of cis-regulatory elemen
• Gerald B. Downes, Professor h-index 17
  Motor Behavior and Epilepsy
• Karine Fenelon, Assistant Professor h-index 17
  Synaptic Transmission and Neural Circuits Underlying Sensory Information Filtering Our brain is constantly exposed to a myriad of sensory information coming from the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, skin, muscles, joints and internal organs.
• Michelle Facette, Associate Professor h-index 16
  Plant Biology Representative Publications: Facette, MR, Park Y, Sutimantanapi D, Luo A, Cartwright, H, Yang, B Bennett EJ, Sylvester AW, and Smith LG. 2015. The SCAR/WAVE complex polarizes PAN receptors and promotes divis
• Maria Stager, Assistant Professor h-index 15
  My research program focuses on determining the mechanisms that enable organisms to mount responses to changing environmental conditions. This work integrates tools from physiology, ecology, and genomics, as well as combines la
• Laura I. Francis, Senior Lecturer II h-index 10
  Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Function Although I do not have an active research lab, I remain interested in fundamental questions of how cells control their function at the molecular level. As a graduate student and post-doctoral res
• Andrew J. Spracklen, Lecturer h-index 9
  Actin Cytoskeleton & Cell Adhesion during Development One of the most fascinating things in all of biology is the ability of a single cell (the zygote) to give rise to an organism consisting of thousands, millions, or even trilli
• Elizabeth A. Connor, Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Development h-index 9
  Neuromuscular Junction: Development and Maintenance Communication between a motor neuron and a skeletal muscle fiber takes place at a synapse, the neuromuscular junction. Here both the neuron and muscle fiber are specialized in molec
• Yelena Bernadskaya, Assistant Professor h-index 8
  All reproducing multicellular animals sculpt their body plans from a single fertilized egg. While they achieve incredible diversity in form and function they must all use the same building blocks deployed in context-dependent w
• Jessica M. Rocheleau, Lecturer h-index 6
  Molecular and Cellular Biology Representative Publications: Rocheleau, JM. Converting a Cell Biology Laboratory Course from Cookbook labs to Guided Inquiry Investigations. Tested Studies for Laboratory Teaching, Pr
• Amanda Cass, Lecturer h-index 5
  I am an evolutionary biologist broadly interested in the developmental mechanisms that generate morphological novelty, particularly in ray-finned fishes. My research has used a variety of techniques to characterize gene expression patterns
• Joshua Lonthair, Lecturer h-index 4
  Conservation Physiology of Fishes I am fascinated by how an animal’s physiology can be modulated to allow adapt to a changing and possibly hostile environment, especially in the context of global climate change. Over the last decade
• Abigail Jensen, Associate Professor
  Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Vertebrate Retinal Development and Retinal Disease Vertebrate photoreceptors are specialized light sensing neurons that have a morphology and die in retinal degeneration diseases, including macula
• Akiko Okusu, Senior Lecturer
  Invertebrate Evolution and Phylogeny Evolution Molluscan Bauplan Molecular Systematics Representative Publications: Normark, Benjamin B, A. Okusu , G. E. Morse, D. A. Peterson, T. Itioka, and S. A. Schneider. “Phylogeny a
• Amanda Raimer, Lecturer
  I am interested in using genetic and molecular techniques to study disease. In graduate school I utilized fruit flies as a model to study the function of the SMN protein and elicit how patient mutations in the gene lead to the neuro
• Brian Whyte, Lecturer
• Caleb M. Rounds, Senior Lecturer II, Associate Department Chair, and Undergraduate Program Director
  Plant Physiology I am interested in the physiological mechanisms that allow for tip growth in highly polarized plant cells. Specifically, I focus on lily pollen tubes and to a lesser extend the moss Physcomitrella patens. These two s
• Cana Park, Assistant Professor
  The Park Lab is dedicated to advancing our fundamental understanding of cognitive decline associated with aging and age-related neurological conditions, with a specific focus on body-to-brain communication.
• Caralyn Zehnder, Senior Lecturer II
  Population & Community Ecology, Entomology, and Science Education Research Areas Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department of Biology University of Massachusetts 221 Morrill Science Center III 611 North Pleasant Street Amher
• Christiane I. Healey, Senior Lecturer II
  Ecology, Evolution, and Animal Behavior Research Areas Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department of Biology University of Massachusetts 221 Morrill Science Center III 611 North Pleasant Street Amherst, MA
• Lillian Fritz-Laylin, Professor and HHMI Investigator
  Quantitative Evolutionary Cell Biology Cell biology’s roots reach back over 300 years, at least as far as Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of motile “animacules” in a drop of water. From the beginning, one of the clearest signatures
• Lynn Adler, Distinguished Professor
  Ecology and Evolution of Insect-Plant Interactions Although many ecological and evolutionary studies focus on single species or two-species interactions, there is a growing recognition that the factors determining the distribution and abun
• Peter W. Houlihan, Senior Lecturer II
  Animal Behavior, Vertebrate Ecology, and Conservation Biology Research Areas Neuroscience and Behavior, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department of Biology University of Massachusetts 221 Morrill Science Center III 611 North Pl
• R. Craig Albertson, Professor
  Evolutionary Developmental Biology Research in my lab aims to better understand the relationship between genotype and phenotype (i.e., G-P). For reasons of experimental utility and evolutionary richness, our main experimental model i
• Randall W. Phillis, Associate Professor
  Neurogenetics of Drosophila In my laboratory we are applying the techniques of Drosophila genetics to problems in developmental neurobiology. This work stems from a project in which we isolated and characterized mutations that disrup
• Rosa Moscarella, Senior Lecturer
  Genetics Education Although I am trained as a biologist, the focus of my research interest shifted to biology education. Teaching is a scholar, data-driven activity that I approach using the same scientific principles I learned as a
• Samuel P. Hazen, Professor
  Molecular and Cellular Biology, Plant Biology Department of Biology University of Massachusetts 221 Morrill Science Center III 611 North Pleasant Street Amherst, MA Footer Academics Research News People About Give
• Steven D. Brewer, Senior Lecturer II
  As a non-tenure-track faculty member, I seek to empower students to conduct small scale research projects often related to local ecology and natural history. These have included surveys of tardigrades and terrestrial mollusks (contri
• Tadasu Nozaki, Assistant Professor
  Chromosomes are living information media within the cell, integrating digital genetic information with their physical entity. The processing of this information relies on molecular interactions, thermodynamic fluctuations, and mechanical fo
• Tristram G. Seidler, Extension Assistant Professor and Director of the UMass Natural History Collections
  Plant Diversity, Ecology, and Conservation Research Areas Plant Biology Department of Biology University of Massachusetts 221 Morrill Science Center III 611 North Pleasant Street Amherst, MA Footer Academics

Roster/catalog compiled from the college’s public directory. Faculty counts are directory headcounts; the named list may be a subset. h-index shown only for ORCID-backed or high-confidence OpenAlex matches. Data as of 2026-07-01.