Faculty Research Interests
Discover our faculty’s cutting-edge research
The Department of Natural Sciences hosts research groups led by faculty in biology, chemistry, environmental science, neuroscience, and physics.
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Biology | Chemistry | Environmental Science | Neuroscience | Physics
Biology
Faculty Research Interests
Biology Research Labs
Jennifer Armstrong
Biology
My laboratory uses fruit flies as a model organism to understand how DNA is organized in the cell and how chromatin structure contributes to the regulation of gene expression.

Sarah Budischak
BIOLOGY AND DISEASE ECOLOGY
We use wildlife systems to study the causes and consequences of individual variation in infectious disease.
Currently I’m working on an NSF EEID funded project to study cross-scale heterogeneity in infection and interactions among nutrition and co-infection in bank voles. I collaborate with researchers at the University of Arkansas, University of Nebraska, University of Minnesota, University of Georgia, Princeton University, Leiden University Medical Center, and Stanford University for these projects.

Pete Chandrangsu
Biology
We are interested in how microbes shape and influence the world around us from the molecular (traditional medicines as antibiotics) to ecological scale (effects of anthropogenic activity on the ecological range of pathogens).

Ashley Heers
Biology
My research focuses on the development and evolution of bird locomotion. I examine how anatomical structures like wings and legs change during development and evolution and how these changes influence locomotor performance and behavior.

Elise Ferree
Biology
My research is in the field of behavioral ecology, primarily with birds as study organisms. My current focus is on the behavior of migratory birds on their wintering grounds, specifically the social and migratory behavior of white-crowned sparrows wintering in Southern California.
Skills you can learn:
- Bird trapping and handling
- Banding, measuring, and bleeding birds
- Automated field cameras and image processing
- Song identification and analysis
- DNA analysis (extraction, PCR, gels)
Email: eferree@natsci.claremont.edu

Patrick Ferree
Biology
My research focuses on mechanistically understanding extreme cases of conflict caused by selfish genetic elements. My current work uses a combination of genetic, genomic, molecular, and microscopic techniques to study how a selfish chromosome kills other chromosomes in the jewel wasp.

Findley Finseth
Evolutionary Genomics
We use genomics approaches to understand the origin and maintenance of biodiversity.
I study plant genomics, and the focus of my research is a plant that is native to the western U.S. In my lab, students do diverse projects including bioinformatics, greenhouse experiments, microscopy-based work, and some molecular work.

Sarah Gilman
Biology
My lab studies the organisms and communities of rocky intertidal shores, one of the most dynamic habitats on the planet. Intertidal shores alternate between terrestrial conditions, during low tide and marine conditions, when submerged at high tide. Each of these environments provides its own set of challenges to the organisms that inhabit it.

Jenna Monroy
Biology
I am interested in the interaction between the nervous and musculoskeletal systems to produce coordinated movement. Most recently, my work focuses on measuring properties of muscles that are not well explained by current models.

Aditi Vyas
Biology
Broadly our research uses cellular and genetic analysis to identify molecular players that affect cell division. Using fission yeast as the model organism, we are investigating the molecular targets of two protein kinases (Dsk1 and Kic1) and their effects on cell cycle.

Zach Wilson
Biology
In the Wilson lab we use budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to study mitochondrial stress response pathways. We are particularly interested in a dramatic membrane remodeling pathway, called mitochondrial-derived compartments, that robustly sequesters membrane and proteins into large, spherical compartments that are subsequently degraded.

Chemistry
Faculty Research Interests
Chemistry Research Labs
Chris Dettmar
Chemistry
Professor Dettmar is interested in fluorescence lifetime imaging and large data set signal processing.

Mary Hatcher-Skeers
Biophysical Chemistry & Inclusive STEM Pedagogy
We study DNA dynamics using NMR. We also study inclusive classroom practices.

Bethany Caulkins
Chemistry
My research uses NMR to study biomolecular structure and enzymatic catalysis. Students in my lab gain experience in the overexpression and purification of proteins and fundamental bio-NMR structural techniques.

Aaron Leconte
Chemistry & Biochemistry
We are interested in engineering protein-based tools for medicine and biotechnology.

Jia-Ahn Pan
Chemistry
My research focuses on the chemistry of nanosized crystals. Students in my lab will synthesize solutions of nanocrystals, discover new coatings for these nanocrystals, and study them using various analytical instruments.
Email: jpan@natsci.claremont.edu

Katie Purvis-Roberts
Environmental Analytical Chemistry
We use ion chromatography to study the formation of particulate matter air pollution from agricultural sources.
Email: kpurvis@natsci.claremont.edu

Aaron Sheng
Chemistry
I have a focus on synthesizing and studying a specific nanoparticle called carbon dots and how they interact with molecules. The larger goal would be to utilize them as potential drug transports, but the short term (and a big focus) will be to optimize synthetic parameters and study the surface interactions.

Ethan Van Arnam
Chemistry
The Van Arnam lab is a chemistry-focused team that studies the chemistry of specialized metabolites. We are interested in discovering new antibiotics and in understanding the biological functions of antibiotics, hormones, and other metabolites.
With a focus on insect-microbe symbioses, we aim to:
- Discover novel antibiotics and other bioactive compounds
- Understand the roles these molecules play in nature
- Understand how microbes evolve and disseminate new chemical structures

Anna Wenzel
Organic Chemistry
My research focuses on developing new methods for the construction of new C-N and C-P bonds for the sustainable preparation of pharmaceutical building blocks. An additional avenue of research in my program is combating drug falsification in developing nations.

Nancy Williams
Inorganic Chemistry
We study how ligands affect the ability of transition metals like platinum to make and break carbon-hydrogen bonds. We do both “wet” laboratory and computational work.

Sierra Williams
Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology
My lab focuses on understanding and improving potential protein therapeutics to kill harmful bugs. We use both chemical synthesis and molecular biology to tackle this problem. We currently focus on a protein that is effective against killing drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Environmental Science
Faculty Research Interests
Environmental Science Labs
Bob Brodman
Biology & Wildlife Ecology
Brodman’s research focuses mostly on conservation of amphibian and reptiles with questions ranging from ecology to animal behavior.

Donald A. McFarlane
Biology and Environmental Science
Areas: Ecology, biodiversity and palaeontology
Research Description: Tropical biodiversity, palaeontology, heavy metals elements in the environment, natural radioisotopes in the environment

Veronica Padilla Vriesman
Environmental Science
The ShArE Lab (Shells as Archives of the Environment) studies environmental changes through the lens of marine shells. Their shells record information about temperature, pH, nutrients, and other conditions over a range of spatial and temporal scales. I focus on edible bivalve species (mussels, clams, oysters) along the California Coast in particular.

Colin Robins
Environmental Science
I study the ways in which soils and landforms record and respond to environmental change, from the landscape scale down to the micrometer scale. I primarily work on the morphology, mineralogy, and geochemistry of extant desert soils, and on soil-plant relationships, but I also do work on paleosols and geologic hazards.
Email: crobins@natsci.claremont.edu

Diane Thomson
Conservation Ecology
I am a conservation scientist who applies tools from population and community ecology, statistics, and mathematical modeling to environmental problems ranging from non-native species introductions to climate change. My lab studies many different kinds of organisms, but especially plants and bees.

Neuroscience
Faculty Research Interests
Neuroscience Labs
Gautam Agarwal
Neuroscience
We use quantitative tools to appreciate the complexity of brain and behavior. One line of work looks at how patterns in brain waves carry information about the contents of mental experience. Another line of work observes how people solve hard problems using a video game that we have made.

Tessa Solomon-Lane
Neuroscience
My lab studies the causes (e.g., brain, hormone, social) and consequences of social behavior in a highly social fish model system.
Email: tsolomonlane@natsci.claremont.edu

Sandra Watson
Neuroscience
Our research explores the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in neuronal homeostasis and how disruptions in these pathways contribute to psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Specifically, we are focused on how the brain maintains appropriate levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter critical in motivated behaviors and linked to addiction, depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease. Using the fruit fly as a model system, we will employ genetic, imaging, biochemical, and behavioral techniques to investigate novel modulators of dopamine homeostasis and dopamine-dependent behaviors.

Physics
Faculty Research Interests
Physics Labs
Tiziana Di Luccio
Physics
Research Interests and Investigation Tools:
- Materials Science; materials preparation and characterization
- Polymer nanocomposites with special focus to biomedical applications
- Synchrotron X-ray scattering, polarized light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermal gravimetry analysis, gel permeation chromatography

Adam Landsberg
Physics
My research centers on computational modeling of complex systems spanning a wide range of fields (e.g., opinion-dynamics models which describe how ideas and opinions spread across a society; networks, including human brain networks and social networks; pattern formation; game theory; etc.).

Sarah Marzen
Physics
I study sensory prediction, which incorporates aspects of information theory, dynamical systems, biophysics, neuroscience, cognitive science, and machine learning!
Email: smarzen@natsci.claremont.edu

Kevin Setter
Physics
I work with students on mathematical and computational questions connected to the emergence of classical physics within quantum physics.

Janet Sheung
Physics
Areas: Experimental biophysics
Research Description: We study intracellular transport and the mechanics of cytoskeletal composites with custom-built optical imaging systems.
Email: jsheung@natsci.claremont.edu
