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Last Updated: April 2021

Victoria L. Bautch

Department of Biology
Beverly Long Chapin Distinguished Professor

Christina Burch

Department of Biology
Professor

http://burch.web.unc.edu/

Dr. Burch’s research centers around experimental evolution using bacteria and their viruses.

Sabrina Burmeister

Department of Biology
Associate Professor

Jennifer Coble

Department of Biology
Teaching Associate Professor

Jean S. DeSaix

Department of Biology
Teaching Professor

https://bio.unc.edu/faculty-profile/desaix/

Dr. DeSaix is interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is semi-retired but still advises students through a number of organizations including the Carolina Covenant and the Undergraduate Rural Medicine Scholars program.


Jill Dowen

Department of Biology
Assistant Professor

Mara Evans

Department of Biology
Teaching Assistant Professor

Alaina Garland

Department of Biology
Teaching Assistant Professor

Patricia Gensel

Department of Biology
Professor
Dr. Gensel is a paleontologist, studying fossil plants or their propagules (pollen, spores); she is especially interested in early land plant evolution, acquisition of certain plant characters (such as roots, leaves, seeds), and relationships both between fossil plant types and between the plants around us today. She is also interested in paleoecology, where possible to interpret, namely reconstructing what a 400 million year old landscape would look like.

She has been studying fossils for decades and still finds it fascinating. Along with paleontology, Dr. Gensel likes to hike outdoors, canoe or kayak, read or enjoy music. She is widowed and has one daughter.


Amy Gladfelter

Department of Biology
Associate Professor of Biology, Associate Chair

https://gladfelterlab.web.unc.edu

Dr. Gladfelter is a cell biologist who loves to work across disciplines to collaborate with physicists, engineers, and mathematicians. She is fascinated by how cells are organized in time and space, and she combines microscopy, biophysics, and modeling to understand how biological molecules self-organize for cell growth and division.

Kacy Gordon

Department of Biology
Assistant Professor

https://www.kacygordon.com

Dr. Gordon studies the germ line stem cell niche in nematode worms.


Sarah Grant

Department of Biology
Research Professor

https://bio.unc.edu/faculty-profile/grant/

Dr. Grant uses comparative genomics and genetics to discover how diverse bacteria interact with plants. She studies virulence factors that enable bacteria to overcome the plant immune system and act as pathogens. She also studies how plant immune systems are modulated by environmental microbes to allow formation of stable plant-microbe communities.


Kelly A. Hogan

Department of Biology
Teaching Professor

Catherine Lohmann

Department of Biology
Teaching Assistant Professor

Amy Shaub Maddox

Department of Biology
Associate Professor

Ann G. Matthysse

Department of Biology
Professor
Former WOWS Scholar
Dr. Matthysse began her scientific career at a time when she was the first or one of the first women in a group of two or three in each position she held. When she applied to graduate school, the first question every interviewer asked was why they should admit her when they could admit an equally well-qualified man instead.

She currently has a research focus on the genetics, molecular, and cell biology of the interactions of bacteria with plant surfaces.


Laura Miller

Department of Biology
Professor

https://miller.web.unc.edu

Dr. Miller is a Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. from the Courant Institute of Mathematics at New York University in 2004, and her work focused on “The aerodynamics of tiny insect flight.” She joined the faculty in the UNC Department of Mathematics in January 2007 and later the Department of Biology in January of 2013.

Using her training in both mathematics and biology, she continues to apply mathematical modeling and computational fluid dynamics to better understand how organisms interact with their environments. Her current research interests include the feeding and swimming mechanics of jellyfish, the coupled electromechanical problem of tubular heart pumping, and the aerodynamics of flight in the smallest insects and spiders.


Punita Nagpal

Department of Biology
Research Assistant Professor

Laura Ott

Department of Biology
Teaching Assistant Professor

Karin Pfennig

Department of Biology & Environment, Ecology and Energy Program
Professor

https://karin-pfennig-lab.org/

Dr. Pfennig’s research examines the role of behavior in the origins of life’s diversity and why that diversity is distributed the way that it is.


Maria R. Servedio

Department of Biology
Professor
Former WOWS Scholar

Celia Shiau

Department of Biology
Assistant Professor

Barbara Stegenga

Department of Biology
Teaching Lab Supervisor

Blaire Steinwand

Department of Biology
Teaching Assistant Professor

Caroline Tucker

Department of Biology & Environment, Ecology and Energy Program
Assistant Professor

http://carolinemtucker.com

Dr. Tucker studies the causes and consequences of biodiversity, using everything from experiments with freshwater ecosystems to quantitative analyses of different kinds of biodiversity are distributed globally.


Elaine Yeh

Department of Biology
Research Associate Professor

Lillian Zwemer

Department of Biology
Teaching Assistant Professor
Dr. Zwemer was trained as a laboratory scientist in molecular genetics and genomics, but what she loved most was talking about genetics and the ways that it can help add depth to our understanding of life’s biggest questions (How are we a product of our evolution, and in what ways were we shaped by the history of earth? Who are we as individuals and how should we engage with one another in community? What is the future of our species?). She loved teaching so much that she gave up her research, but she continues to love exploring the ways that technological innovations unlock new avenues of exploration, and eventually profound knowledge.