Seminar Series Archive

The following are Seminar Series from previous semesters.

Fall 2023

Fall 2023 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
December 7, 2023 Prying Into the Private Lives of Mussels and Oysters Dr. Luke Miller, San Diego State University
November 30, 2023 Armed from Tip to Tail: The Multifunctionality of Armor in Fishes Dr. Cassandra Donatelli, Chapman University
November 16, 2023 Exploring the Evolution of Fluid-Structure Interactions in Biology Dr. Lindsay Waldrop, Chapman University
November 9, 2023 IL-12-mediated T-bet-dependent Innate Immunity Against Toxoplasma gondii Dr. Americo López-Yglesias, Indiana University
November 2, 2023 Peeling Back the Layers: Anatomical and Molecular Characterization of the Zebrafish Meninges Dr. Marina Venero Galenternik, University of Utah
October 26, 2023 Multicellular Signaling Cascades and Mechanisms of Metastasis in Solid Tumors (pre-recorded) Dr. Jonathan Kelber, Baylor University
October 19, 2023 Zooming in: species diversity, parasites, and microbes in western chipmunks Dr. Kayce Bell, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
October 12, 2023 Inter-organ communication through plasma lipid signaling Dr. Judith Simcox, University of Wisconsin–Madison
October 5, 2023 Using high-tech tags to reveal new insights into pelagic fish ecology Dr. Ryan Logan, CSU Long Beach
September 28, 2023 From mucus-maker to virus-maker: how astrovirus hijacks goblet cells and disrupts gut homeostasis Dr. Valerie Cortez, UC Santa Cruz
September 21, 2023 Science for the Management of Environmental Contaminants in California Waters Dr. Leah Thornton Hampton, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project
September 14, 2023 Capturing the diversity of complex motions during fish feeding Dr. Chris Martinez, UC Irvine
September 7, 2023 What fruit flies can tell us about bisphenols as environmental risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders Dr. Kimberly Mulligan, CSU Sacramento
August 31, 2023 HMGB2 Regulates the Differentiation and Stemness of Exhausted CD8+ T Cells During Chronic Viral Infection and Cancer Dr. Roberto Tinoco, UC Irvine

Spring 2023

Spring 2023 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
April 13, 2023 Using Tags and Tech to Support Conservation and Management in a Dynamic Ocean Dr. Danielle Haulsee, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute
April 6, 2023 Faith, trust, and a little bit of neutrophil dust - examining the role of neutrophil-derived extracellular vesicles Dr. Mallary Greenlee-Wacker, Cal Poly SLO
March 23, 2023 Fish out of water: a marine scientist's journey through urban environmental planning Dr. Ian Kroll, Egis
March 16, 2023 Cooperation and Competition for Xanthan Gum in Gut Microbiomes Dr. Matthew Ostrowski, University of Michigan
March 9, 2023 Monitoring for management: An ecosystem function-based approach to estuarine assessment Dr. Jan Walker, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project
March 2, 2023 What’s in a Host? The Impacts of Environmental Stress and Pollution on Host-Microbe Systems Dr. Rachel Diner, UC San Diego
February 23, 2023 Functional Morphology of Fin Rays in (Weird) Fishes Dr. Natalia Taft, University of Wisconsin - Parkside
February 2, 2023 Here Today-Gone Tomorrow: A Global Perspective of Seasonal Wetlands Dr. Jamie Kneitel, CSU Sacramento

Fall 2022

Fall 2022 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
December 8, 2022 Deletion of Neurexin-2 in Excitatory Neurons Leads to Spontaneous Seizures and Autism-Like Phenotype Dr. Lulu Chen, UC Irvine
December 1, 2022 Heads Up: Increasing Concussion Awareness in Sports Dr. James Hicks, UC Irvine
November 17, 2022 Developing Ultrafast Movement: using ontogeny to understand biological spring-latch mechanisms Dr. Jacob Harrison, Georgia Institute of Technology
November 10, 2022 There’s a time, not a place, for controversy: low-frequency coding in the mammalian inner ear Dr. George Burwood, Oregon Health and Science University
November 3, 2022 Baleen whale ABCs: Anatomy, Biologging, and Conservation Dr. Shirel Kahane-Rapport, CSU Fullerton
October 27, 2022 Joint mobility as a bridge between form and function Dr. Armita Manafzadeh, Yale University
October 20, 2022 Evolutionary form and function across ecological gradients Jonathan Huie, Ph.D. candidate, The George Washington University
October 13, 2022 From social threat to maternal isolation: How stress steers mothers away from infants Dr. Danielle S. Stolzenberg, UC Davis
October 6, 2022 Variation in ventilation: A potential reservoir of resilience against environmental stressors Sarah Handy, Ph.D. candidate, Arizona State University West
September 29, 2022 Protease discovery and characterization in Drosera capensis Gemma Rose Takahashi, Ph.D. candidate, UC Irvine
September 22, 2022 Two birds with one rock: engineering multi-activity enzymes for improved carbohydrate deconstruction Dr. Renaud Berlemont, CSU Long Beach
September 15, 2022 From Butterfly Sperm to Inclusive STEM Spaces: How Experiences in STEM Shape our Conceptions of Science Dr. Desirée Forsythe, Chapman University
September 8, 2022 External reflectance and thermal tolerance as intraspecific thermoregulatory adaptations in Centris pallida bees Dr. Meghan Barrett, CSU Dominguez Hills

Spring 2022

Spring 2022 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
May 5, 2022 The Origin of Human Blood Cancers Dr. Nicholas Pannunzio, UC Irvine
April 28, 2022 (Topic: Plastic Pollution) Dr. Win Cowger, Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research
April 14, 2022 Recovery of white sharks off California, a conservation success story and what this means for coastal communities Dr. Chris Lowe, CSU Long Beach
April 7, 2022 Hormones and Hierarchies: sex differences in social status resolution in a sex changing fish, Lythrypnus dalli Dr. Devaleena Pradhan, Idaho State University
March 24, 2022 The Social Genome Dr. Jenny Tung, Duke University
March 17, 2022 AutoTuna: A Robo-fish That Tunes Its Own Stiffness Dr. Dan Quinn, University of Virginia
March 10, 2022 Ecological and evolutionary consequences of flexible foraging behavior Dr. Avery Russell, Missouri State University
March 3, 2022 Seabirds, Sentinels, and Sensory Ecology: an ecological model for understanding changing marine ecosystems Dr. Brian Hoover, Chapman University
February 24, 2022 Whether feast or famine, the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa relies on enhancer-binding proteins to coordinate its metabolism with the production of virulence factors in the host environment Dr. Benjamin Lundgren, The College of New Jersey
February 21, 2022 Fighting climate change with microbes, metals, and molecular genetics Dr. Joseph Groom, University of Washington
February 17, 2022 Antibiotic Resistance: Evolution in Action Dr. Portia Mira, UCLA
February 10, 2022 The Acoustic World of Bats: Jamming, Stealth and Silence Dr. Aaron Corcoran, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
February 3, 2022 Annotation and Characterization of Human Protein-Coding Small Open Reading Frames Dr. Thomas Martinez, UC Irvine

Fall 2021

Fall 2021 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
December 9, 2021 Watching it live: how neurons regenerate dendrites after injury in vivo Dr. Katherine Thompson-Peer, UC Irvine
December 2, 2021 Evolutionary genomics for conservation: assessing vulnerability, resilience, and response in a changing world Dr. Tanya M. Lama, SUNY Stony Brook
November 18, 2021 From the Mountains to the Sea: Comparative Genomics of Mechanisms Underlying the Physiological Response to Low Oxygen Dr. Allie Graham, University of Utah
November 4, 2021 Appealing the "Sweet Tooth:" A Role for Glucosensing in Sugar Taste Dr. Lindsey Schier, USC
October 28, 2021 If a Bacterium Fits, Does it Sit? Surface sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Dr. Lindsey Yoder, University of Washington
October 21, 2021 The Kids Are (Not) alright: Environmental effects on spermatogenesis Dr. Tegan Horan, Cornell University
October 14, 2021 The genetic and evolutionary origin of convergent color patterns in Phyllobates poison-dart frogs Dr. Roberto Marques Pizano, University of Michigan
October 7, 2021 Beyond Jaws: A Journey into the Bellies of Beasts Dr. Samantha Leigh, CSU Dominguez Hills
September 30, 2021 Why are Fish: Morphological Mechanisms & Bioinspiration Dr. Brooke Flammang, New Jersey Institute of Technology/Rutgers University - Newark
September 23, 2021 How fishes save energy: exploring biomechanical and physiological performance of locomotion Dr. Valentina Di Santo, Stockholm University
September 16, 2021 Abnormal Placentation after In Vitro Fertilization: Insights from a Mouse Model Dr. Lisa Vrooman, Oregon Health and Science University
September 9, 2021 Tracking Crabs with Drones: Seasonal Distribution of King Crabs in Bristol Bay Dr. Leah Zacher, Alaska Fisheries Science Center
September 2, 2021 Bugs on the brain: What studying arthropods can tell us about brain evolution Meghan Barrett, Ph.D. Candidate, Drexel University

Spring 2021

Spring 2021 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
April 29 Comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses of three different adaptive radiations of fishes in North America Dr. Joseph Heras, CSU San Bernardino
April 22 Control of Breathing and Airway Defense Dr. Bill Milsom, University of British Columbia, and Dr. Graham Scott, McMaster University
April 15 Interdisciplinary approaches to investigate plankton population dynamics Dr. Darcy Taniguchi, CSU San Marcos
April 8 Heart failure is characterized in part by the inability of the myocardium to relax effectively Alex Salomon, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Pennsylvania
March 25 Insects in the Saltmarsh: What they tell us about natural and technological disasters Dr. Linda Bui, Louisiana State University
March 18 Natural and unnatural controls on biodiversity distribution and ecosystem function in the Andes-Amazon Dr. Miles Silman, Wake Forest University
March 11 Sea urchin larvae provide a systems-level model for understanding innate immunity in the gut Dr. Kate Buckley, Auburn University
March 4 Cellular neuroscience goes wild: remembering how to breath after a winter's long apnea Dr. Joseph Santin, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
February 25 Along the Speciation Continuum from North to South Jessica (Jess) McLaughlin, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Oklahoma
February 18 (canceled) (canceled)
February 11 A Valentine's special: seeing butterflies and "Love Spots" Dr. Michael Perry, UC San Diego
February 4 Multiple stressors and time-lags complicate invasion dynamics in tidal marsh Dr. Rachel Wiggington, UC Davis
January 28 Why Not Help? Proximate Mechanisms Influencing Individual Variation in Cooperative Behavior Dr. Jessica A. Cusick, Indiana University
January 21 Becoming an Addiction Neuroscientist as a Low-Income First-Gen Daughter of Immigrants Angeline J. Dukes, Ph.D. Candidate, UC Irvine

Fall 2020

Fal 2020 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
December 10 In the beginning, there was an ecosystem: the origin of life as a chemical ecological problem Lena Vincent, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Wisconsin, Madison
December 3 Weird and Wonderful Extinct Animals Dr. Alexis Mychajliw, University of Oklahoma
November 19 The Evolution of Air Breathing from things that don't Breathe Dr. Michael B. Harris, CSU Long Beach
November 12 The role of sex chromosomes to cause sex differences in disease Dr. Xuqi Chen, UCLA
November 5 Evolution In a Flask: Stress & Transformation Dr. Phoebe Lostroh, Colorado College
October 29 Experimental Studies in Evolutionary Dynamics Dr. Michael Wiser, Michigan State University
October 22 Bats: Keystone Taxa for Forest Regeneration and Preventing the Next Pandemic Dr. Susan Tsang, American Museum of Natural History
October 15 Cut Once, Mature Twice – Exploring the Proteolytic Events of Neurodevelopment and Neurodegeneration Dr. Timothy J. Mosca, Thomas Jefferson University
October 8 Investigating the drivers of foraging behavior of a tropical seabird Jenny Howard, Ph.D. Candidate, Wake Forest University
October 1 Words For Nerds: How To Share Your Work With The Media (and other real people) Dawn Fallik, University of Delaware
September 24 The ecology and evolution of primate cognition Dr. Alexandra Rosati, University of Michigan
September 17 The Epithelial Unknown: novel mechanisms of rapidly adjusting epithelial ion transport Dr. Dennis Kolosov, CSU San Marcos (Jan. 2021)
September 10 Shining a light on glial contributions to sleep and sleep regulation Dr. Ashley M. Ingiosi, Washington State University
September 3 Managing and planning our academic workloads using the Everything Workload Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega, Flacso Mexico

Spring 2020

Spring 2020 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
May 7 Deconstructing visual signals in social butterflies Dr. Susan Finkbeiner, Pepperdine University
April 30 The silent forests of Guam: the historical and ongoing impacts of one of the world's most invasive predators on an insular avifauna Dr. Henry Pollock, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne
April 23 Counting fish from Alaska to the Falkland Islands: using marine biology to inform stock assessments Dr. Thomas Farrugia, Monterey Bay Aquarium
March 5 Sensitivity and exposure to climate change across life stages of marine invertebrates Dr. Lauren Pandori, UC Irvine
February 27 Quantification and ecosystem drivers of blue carbon in Pacific coast tidal wetlands Dr. Christopher Janousek, Oregon State University
February 20 Defining skin cancer heterogeneity and drug resistance Dr. Scott Atwood, UC Irvine
February 13 Causes and consequences of temporal changes in the vaginal microbial flora Dr. Jose Miguel Ponciano, University of Florida
February 6 The dual role of complement in atherosclerosis Dr. Deborah Fraser, CSU Long Beach
January 30 The past, present, and future of  America's forest birds Dr. Morgan Tingley, University of Connecticut

Fall 2019

Fall 2019 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
September 5, 2019 Negative regulation of age-related developmental leaf senescence by the IAOx pathway, PEN1 and PEN3 Dr. Judy Brusslan, CSU Long Beach
September 12, 2019 Bird paddling and ant bouldering: using robotics and high-throughput tracking to understand how animals move in natural environments Dr. Glenna Clifton, UC San Diego
September 19, 2019 Unraveling the drivers of coral diversity: from the deep sea to deep time Dr. Andrea Quatrinni, Harvey Mudd College
September 26, 2019 When I was your age there was only one estrogen receptor... Dr. Kevin Sinchak, CSU Long Beach
October 3, 2019 Brain dendritic cells critically modulate protective immune responses during WNV encephalitis Dr, Douglas Durrant, CalPoly Pomona
October 10, 2019 Leeches as models for integrating studies in evolution, development, cell fate specification, and behavior Dr. David Weisblat, UC Berkeley
October 17, 2019 On microbial safari in coastal waters Dr. Cameron Thrash, USC
October 24, 2019 Changes in the transition zone – early warning of climate driven ecosystems shifts Dr. Ryan Freedman, UC Santa Barbara
October 31, 2019 Sparks and shocks: What Frankenstein tells us about the nature of life Dr. Michael Harris, CSU Long Beach
November 14, 2019 Genetic and epigenetic regulation of cell death in nervous system development Dr. Kristin White, Harvard University
November 21, 2019 Estrogen-sensitive hypothalamic neurons that regulate body temperature in mice Dr. Stephanie Correa, UCLA
December 5, 2019 Detection and use of geo-magnetic fields in shark orientation and navigation behaviors Dr. James Anderson, CSU Long Beach

Spring 2019

Spring 2019 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
May 2, 2019 Role of the RB/E2F pathway on the control of epigenetic processes during cancer development Dr. Claudia Benavente, UC Irvine
April 25, 2019 Using Drosophila to study the immunity and biology of macrophages Dr. Catherine Brennan, CSU Fullerton
April 18, 2019 The Hippo pathway in growth control and cancer development Dr. Wenqui Wang, UC Irvine
April 11, 2019 APOE, diet, and hormone interactions in aging and Alzheimer's disease Dr. Amy Christensen, USC
March 28, 2019 Orosensory cues involved in calorie-dense diet intake Dr. Yada Treesukosol, CSU Long Beach
March 21, 2019 Physical insecticides-bioinspiration from the action of bean leaves on bed bugs Dr. Catherine Loudon, UC Irvine
March 14, 2019 TBA Dr. Ellis R. Levin, UC Irvine and Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center
March 7, 2019 The weird and wonderful world of hagfishes Dr. Douglas Fudge, Chapman University
February 28, 2019 Feed a cold but starve a fever? Evolutionary epidemiology illustrates why appetite during illness matters Dr. Jessica Hite, University of Nebraska
February 14, 2019 Quantifying ecological and demographic dynamics of Cayo Santiago rhesus macaques Dr. Raisa Hernandez Pacheco, University of Richmond
February 7, 2019 The ecological consequences of organismal responses to anthropogenically-altered aquatic environments Dr. Paul Bourdeau, Humboldt State University
January 31, 2019 Nitrogen deposition and rainfall effects on grassland plants and animals Dr. Joshua Grinath, Middle Tennessee State University

Fall 2018

Fall 2018 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
December 6, 2018 Physical insecticides-bioinspiration from the action of bean leaves on bed bugs Dr. Catherine Loudon, UC Irvine
November 29, 2018 Ecological responses to connectivity between sandy beach and kelp forest ecosystems Dr. Jenny Dugan, Marine Science Institute, UC Santa Barbara
November 8, 2018 Ocean food webs from phytoplankton to tuna: Invisible and unusual trophic links through the zooplankton Dr. Michael Landry, Scripps Institute Oceanography
November 1, 2018 The slipper snail, Crepidula, as a model for evolutionary developmental biology Dr. Deirdre Lyons, Scripps Institute Oceanography
October 25, 2018 Aging and locomotor systems Dr. Angela Horner, CSU Santa Barbara
October 18, 2018 Introducing "WormBeat": coding away the tedium to better understand neuromuscular patterning in C. elegans Drs. Michael Harris & Renaud Berlemont, CSU Long Beach
October 11, 2018 Responses of aquatic invasive plant species to climate warming Dr. Morgane Gillard, UC Davis
October 4, 2018 The effect of prey, predators, and sociality on cheetah hunting behavior Dr. Anne Hilborn, UC Riverside
September 27, 2018 Using coral cell cultures to understand calcification Dr. Jeana Drake, UCLA
September 20, 2018 'X' marks the spot: science and conservation in the largest and deepest world heritage site Dr. Randi Rotjan, Boston University
September 13, 2018 Draxin: a novel player in the molecular control of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in the embryonic neural crest Dr. Erica Hutchins, Cal Tech

Spring 2018

Spring 2018 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
May 3, 2018 Bioinformatics and Biology Dr. Renaud Berlemont, CSU Long Beach
April 19, 2018 Screening for risks associated with calcium signaling disruption Dr. Erika Holland, CSU Long Beach
April 12, 2018 Vaquita: The world's most endangered marine mammal Mr. David Bader, Aquarium of the Pacific
April 5, 2018 Collision of marine and anthropogenic halopyrroles on ryanodine receptor signaling Dr. Isaac Pessah, UC Davis, Depart Molecular Biosciences
March 22, 2018 Walking the dog(ma) in low oxygen: From DNA to RNA to protein synthesis in response to and recovery from hypoxia Dr. Travis Lee, Salk Institute
March 15, 2018 Temperature and scale in elastically powered movements Dr. Jeff Olberding, UC Irvine
March 8, 2018 Stem cell techniques for modeling and treating vision disorders Dr. Melissa Jones, UC San Diego
March 1, 2018 Eavesdropping influences the realized niche of neotropical mixed-species bird flocks Dr. Ari Martinez, Museum of Comparative Zoology, UC Berkeley
February 22, 2018 Identifying triggers of biodiversity loss: spanning borders by bridging concepts Dr. Shawn McCracken, Texas State University
February 15, 2018 Within-individual variation in behavior and physiology: integrating stress, signals, sex, and senescence Dr. Conor Taff, Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University
February 8, 2018 The story of the strike: feeding ecology and morphology of mantis shrimp and other interesting invertebrates Dr. Maya deVries, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
January 25, 2018 Understanding the causes and consequences of phenotypic variation in terrestrial vertebrates Dr. Loren Merrill, IL Natural History Survey, Urbana-Champaign

Fall 2017

Fall 2017 Seminars
Date Title Speaker and Affiliation
November 30, 2017 Opportunities and challenges from the sea: Exploring linkages between oceans and human health Dr. Amro Hamdoun, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
November 16, 2017 Sanctuary no more? How the massive Mud Creek slide in Big Sur impacts endangered black abalone Dr. Steve Lonhart, NOAA/Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
November 9, 2017 Using autonomous platforms to understand bio-physical interactions: from the Antarctic to the equator Dr. Megan Cimino, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
November 2, 2017 A day in the life of a cyanobacterium Dr. Susan Cohen, CSU Los Angeles
October 26, 2017 The evolution of offspring size: linking life-history theory and metabolic theory Ms. Amanda Pettersen, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
October 19, 2017 Ecological factors shaping collective behavior in spotted hyenas and ground squirrels Dr. Jennifer Smith, Mills College, Oakland
October 12, 2017 The role of microglia in brain rewiring by early-life stress Dr. Jessica Bolton, UC Irvine
October 5, 2017 The story of the strike: feeding ecology and morphology of mantis shrimp and other interesting invertebrates Dr. Maya deVries, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
September 28, 2017 Crop protection for algal-based food and fuel Dr. Ryan Simkovsky, UC San Diego
September 21, 2017 Restoring salt marshes in the XXI Century Dr. Jesús M. Castillo, Universidad de Sevilla
September 14, 2017 How did they do that?; Structures responsible for power amplification in animals Dr. Benjamin Perlman, UC Irvine
September 7, 2017 Linking microbial ecology to biotechnology using bioinformatics Dr. Renaud Berlemont, CSU Long Beach