New Faces in CNSM
Welcome to our new faculty members, Dr. Lamar Thomas, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, and Dr. Dan Kaplan, Assistant Professor of Mathematics.
Dr. Lamar Thomas
Dr. Lamar Thomas hails from the island of Jamaica, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in biology and biotechnology, respectively. After completing her Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology at Binghamton University, she pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSD, examining the innate immune response to vaginal bacterial infections.
Throughout her academic career, Dr. Thomas's research has focused on advancing the health of women and children through the study of host–pathogen interactions. Her work aims to understand the role of key bacterial proteins, known as virulence factors, during colonization of the reproductive system, particularly in pregnancy, and urinary tract infections in women. Her laboratory also investigates pediatric pathogens such as Streptococcus pyogenes, the bacterium responsible for strep throat in children.
In addition to her scientific work, Dr. Thomas enjoys exploring the outdoors and road trips, and is a certified yoga instructor, regularly teaches her own style of Vinyasa yoga, "ReggaeFlow."
Dr. Dan Kaplan
Dr. Kaplan, who has lived in Canada, England, and Belgium, completed his Ph.D. at Imperial College, London in 2020. His work explores the interplay between algebra and geometry. Classically, one studies a geometric shape using its commutative algebra of polynomial functions. A modern approach identifies a geometric space as the space of representations of a noncommutative algebra.
Dr. Kaplan has an extensive background of volunteer and math outreach work, working with elementary school children and writing a kid-friendly math problem-set book, designing a course in graph theory for the Prison Math Project, and creating two lecture series for intensive course in Kampala, Uganda.
He likes to play tennis, watch movies, and even has an identical twin!
