Abbreviated list of areas of interest and possible Thesis topics by Joint Science faculty

More complete information can be obtained by calling individual faculty or consulting the Research Opportunities book in the Department Office. A more detailed PDF version is available here

Jennifer Armstrong

Genetics, Cell Biology, and Molecular Biology. Chromatin remodeling and gene regulation in Drosophila melanogaster.

Cheryl Baduini

Aspects of marine ecology, behavioral ecology, particularly foraging and reproductive biology of higher marine veterbrates (area of expertise: seabirds. Population genetics
Using DNA Analysis to define populations and determine gender of unidentified birds.
Influences of climate and weather on marine populations.
Nutritional condition and lipid utilization in seabirds.
Use of stable isotope and fatty acid analysis in foraging ecology.

Sidi Benzahra

High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics. Dissociation of mesons in quark gluon plasma.

Kersey Black

Molecular modeling as a way of understanding the mechanism of chemical processes ranging from thermally induced rearrangements of small hydrocarbons to the catalytic activity of certain anitbodies.

Newton Copp

Animal physiology, especially interaction between neural physiology and behavior in crayfish
Insect mating systems – ladybird beetle aggregations
Analysis of animal locomotion (computer aided motion analysis and electro physiology)

Vincent Mark Crisostomo

Synthesis of catalytically active nano-sized manganese oxides and oxyhydroxide. Continuous flow microwave synthesis of nano-sized metal oxides and oxyhydroxides.

Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert

Cell and molecular biology
Gene expression
Pre-mRNA splicing in yeast

Scot Gould

See research interests

Larry Grill

Viral Vectors for Vaccine Development

Daniel Guthrie

Sort and identify collection of bones from a Pleistocene pond in the Chino Area. Involves some work in Irvine sorting – then identification work in Claremont.
Winter bird use of the Bernard Field Station are birds using the field station, or the areas nearby – conduct spot counts at various localities - identify dependence on neighbors, lake, etc.
The corridor concept – value to wildlife in urban areas.
Analysis of kill rates on highways with and without wildlife underpasses.
evolution of island Peromyscus (deer mice) comparison of modern mice with a collection 7000 years old.
evolution of island Chendytes – change in bone structure in an extinct flightless goose over the period of its fossil record. Also any evidence of sexual dimorphism.
consideration of oaks as islands for insect and bird faunas.
compare field station oaks with campus – insect diversity – based on isolation and plot size and % of native plants available.
effects of introduced parasites on caterpillars (butterfly and moths)
specificity of color in mating attraction. how specific is color preference?

Mary Hatcher-Skeers

Synthesis of labeled nucleosides
NMR studies of nucleoside dynamics
FTIR studies of dynamics in methylated DNA
High Resolution NMR of DNA Binding Sites
Solid-state deuterium NMR of DNA
Effects of cobalt complexes on genetic transformations

Steuard Jensen

String theory and related areas of theoretical physics (see research interests).
Student projects may involve mathematical descriptions of objects in string theory as part of a broader research program.

Robin Justice

Topics in cell biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, and genetics, especially the molecular genetics of insect olfaction. Also topics in developmental biology of sea urchins and other marine invertebrates.

Adam Landsberg

Pattern formation and Chaos Theory
Applications of nonlinear methods to fluids, superconductors, avalanches, and economic theory

Donald McFarlane

**** See my faculty web-page for current opportunities *****
Studies in evolution of islands, cave biology
Late Quaternary paleontology of mammals; recent mammalian extinctions
Island biogeographic analyses
Late Quaternary climate and sea-level change.
Cave science, including microclimate modelling.

Emil Morhardt

Biology of Fisheries Science
Population/habitat management models for Southern California steelhead or Eastern Sierra brown trout (computer modeling)
Development of antenna configurations for reading Passive Integrated Transponders in streams ( practical electronics)
Use of bootstrap in Monte-Carlo techniques to establish confidence intervals on instream flow decision tools ( applies statistics and programming)
Habitat modeling from closely-spaced transects in streams ( field measurements, hydraulic modeling)
Economics and policy related to biology
The economic consequences of listing Southern California steelhead as endangered
A decision model for policies associated with listing Southern California Steelhead as endangered.
Environmental Management
Application of the ISO 14000 environmental management standard to a small manufacturer

Thomas Poon

Supramolecular Chemistry Within Zeolites
Reactions of Singlet Oxygen
Isolation of Shikimic Acid from Natural Sources

Kathleen Purvis-Roberts

Urban Air Pollution Chemistry of Fine Particulate Matter Health and Environmental Impacts of Nuclear Testing in Kazakhstan Environmental Policy

David Sadava

Cancer chemotherapy using conventional and less conventional approaches
Drug resistance in tumor cells

Zhaohua Irene Tang

Using a single-cell eukaryotic organism, fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as an in vivo model to investigate the functions of several protein kinases in the regulation of cell-division cycle and in the cellular response to the environmental stress factors and to the anticancer drug cisplatin.
The major areas:
SR Protein-specific Kinases and SR-like Proteins in Coordinating Eukaryotic Gene Expression with Cell Cycle Transitions in Fission Yeast
Genomic Analysis of Response Pathways to Environmental Factors Using Fission Yeast as a Biological Model System

Emily Wiley

Cellular localization of histone deacetylase enzymes through GFP-tagging;
Engineering gene knockout constructs of chromatin modification enzymes, generation of knockout cell lines, and phenotype characterization of mutant cells;
Identification of protein complexes that modify chromatin;
Mechanistic roles for histone deacetylase enzymes in the control of gene expression and other cellular processes

Andrew Zanella

Transition metal complexes: nitrile hydration, proton exchange on complexed nitriles, restricted rotation involving coordinated amides.
Environmental chemistry: heavy metal pollutants in urban areas