Graduate Research Opportunities

Faculty in the Department of Biology look for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to work with them.  Openings change year-by-year depending on current staffing and funding levels.  The faculty listed below have active research programs, and those who are recruiting new graduate students are noted.  

If the list of recruiting faculty has not been updated for the current application cycle, please reach out to faculty with whom you are interested in working to ask if they are accepting students per the How to Apply instructions.

Go to the Research page for a grouping of faculty by research area with descriptions of research and contact information, or select any faculty member to learn more about their research interests. 

  • Peter Armbruster: Evolutionary dynamics of range expansion, adaptation genomics, diapause.
  • Shweta Bansal: Network modeling of disease; quantitative disease ecology; epidemiology and public/animal health problems. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Shaun Brinsmade: Bacterial pathogenesis; nutrient sensing. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Thomas Coate: Developmental neuroscience; axon guidance; inner ear neurobiology.
  • Isaac Cervantes-Sandoval: Encoding memory; mechanisms of forgetting; neurobiology.(recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Heidi Elmendorf: Cell biology of Giardia; genome organization and structure.
  • Matthew Hamilton: Population genetics and mathematical biology. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Haiyan He: Neurobiology; plasticity; inhibitory neurons. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Jeff Huang: CNS neuron-glia interactions, myelin biogenesis, inflammation, and regeneration.(recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Sarah Johnson: Geobiology, astrobiology.
  • Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss: Neuroinflammation; misfolded protein disorders; neuron-glia communication; neurodegenerative diseases
  • Janet Mann: Behavior of dolphins; mother-calf interactions; social networks. Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project, Shark Bay Dolphin Project. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Pete Marra: Migratory birds; conservation
  • Leslie Ries: Butterfly community dynamics; biogeography, climate and land-use change, ecological and biodiversity informatics.
  • Ronda Rolfes: Regulation of gene expression; inositol pyrophosphate signaling; molecular genetics of yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans. 
  • Mark Rose: Cell biology in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae; cell and nuclear fusion, regulation of meiosis. 
  • Anne Rosenwald: Protein trafficking in Saccharomyces cerevisiae; cell wall biosynthesis in Candida glabrata; microbial genomics.
  • Elena Silva: Neurogenesis and the evolution of the CNS. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Steve Singer: Host-parasite interactions, Giardia immunology. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)
  • Martha Weiss: Evolutionary ecology; plant-animal interactions and butterfly learning, wasp learning and caterpillar behavior.
  • Gina Wimp: Community ecology; genetic and environmental factors that structure biodiversity. (recruiting students for fall of 2023)