Departmental Seminar Series 2021-2022

Departmental Seminar Series


Thursdays, 12:30-1:45 PM, In-person & Virtually

The Department invites scholars in Biology to present their research on most Thursdays throughout the academic year. The seminars are followed by a Q&A session.

Fall semester

September 23, 2021
Dr. P’ng Loke, NIH
Senior Investigator
“Heterogeneity of type 2 immune responses to helminth infections”  
Hosted by: Steven Singer

October 7, 2021
Dr. Bill Snell, UMD College Park
Chief
“Using a unicellular organism’s flirtation with multicellularity to uncover broadly conserved cellular and molecular mechanisms of fertilization.”  
Hosted by: Drs. Mark Rose and Thomas Coate

October 14, 2021
Dr. Christina Riehl, Princeton
Assistant Professor, EEB
“Group living and life history tradeoffs: insights from a cooperatively breeding bird”  
Hosted by: Dr. Janet Mann & Vivienne

October 21, 2021
Dr. Tammy L. Kielian, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Professor
“Staphylococcus aureus biofilm induces immune dysfunction during craniotomy infection”  
Hosted by: Shaun Brinsmade

November 4, 2021
Dr. Martin Giurfa, CNRS – Paul Sabatier University
Argentinean-French neurobiologist and neuroethologist
“Cognition in a miniature Brain Performance and Mechanisms.”  
Hosted by: Isaac Cervantes Sandoval

November 11, 2021
Dr. Kausik Si, Stowers Institute
Associate Scientific Director and Investigator 
“Storing memory in Amyloid.”  
Hosted by: Isaac Cervantes Sandoval

Spring semester

January 20, 2022
Dr. Meng Meng Fu, NIH
Statdman Investigator
“Building the Oligodendrocyte: Mechanisms of Acentrosomal Microtubule Nucleation and mRNA Transport.  
Hosted by: Jeffrey Huang

February 3rd, 2022
Dr. Malcolm Winkler, Indiana University-Bloomington
Professor
“New Roles for Some Old Proteins in Cell Division and Peptidoglycan Cell Wall Synthesis of Streptococcus pneumoniae”  
Hosted by: Shaun Brinsmade

February 17, 2022
Dr. Katherine Wu, The Atlantic
A staff writer for The Atlantic, a Story Collider senior producer, and a senior editor at The Open Notebook
“Science & storytelling during the pandemic”  
Hosted by: Shweta Bansal

February 24, 2022
Dr. Elizabeth Hobson, University of Cincinnati
Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and an Associate Editor for the journal Ornithology
“Dominance hierarchies, fight decisions, & social support as windows into animal social cognition”  
Hosted by: Dr. Janet Mann and Post Doctoral Fellow Vivienne Foroughirad

March 3rd, 2022
Dr. Karen Zito, UC Davis
Professor
“Sculpting the nervous system: Cellular and molecular mechanisms of neural circuit refinement”  
Hosted by: Haiyan He

March 24, 2022
Dr. Jianhua Cang, UVA
Professor and Director of Undergrad
“Visual Processing in the Superior Colliculus”  
Hosted by: Dr. Haiyan He

April 7th, 2022
Dr. Bree Aldridge, Tufts University
Associate professor
“The long and the short of it: paths to engineering TB treatment”  
Hosted by: Dr. Shaun Brinsmade

April 21st, 2022
Dr. Luis Abdala-Roberts, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
Assistant Professor
“Effects of tropical tree diversity on birds: implications for top-down control and community stability.”  
Hosted by: Dr. Gina Wimp

Summer semester

During the summer semester, there are no Departmental Seminars; however, we will announce special seminars.