The Department of Biological Sciences hosts an active program of biological sciences seminars. Seminars are held in-person in CPISB 120 on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month at 2:00 pm. Our seminar series are free and open to the public.

Academic Year 2025-2026

• September 12th-Rob Knight, TBA
• October 24th-Dr. Kostas Konstantinidis, What is a (microbial) species and a strain? The data has shown us the answers!
• November 14th-David Scheel, Giant Pacific Octopuses: Unexpected discoveries from three decades of tide-pooling in Alaska
• December 12th-Dr. Rachael Hannah & Cindy Trussell, TBA
• January 23rd-Tyelyn Brigino, TBA
• February 13th-Jessica Buser-Young, TBA
• March 27th-Brijen Miyani, TBA
• April 10th-BIOL A692 Student Showcase

• AY 2024-2025 Presentations
  • Nov 8th-Dr. Joseph Eisagueirre " Ecological diffusion: From individual animal movement to informing management of wildlife"
  • Nov 22nd-Dr. Audrey Huff
  • Jan 24th-Sherri Hughes 
  • Feb 14th-Dr. Rachael Hannah
  •  Mar 28th-Dr. Erin Larson
  • April 11th-TBD
  • April 25th-Dr. Michael Carey
• AY 2023-2024 Presentations

  • September 22nd: Jason Burkhead (UAA Biological Sciences), “Sex, drugs and metal: intersections in health and disease”

  • October 13^th: Dr. Parisa Lotfi, “Peering into the brains of the second most intelligent creature on Earth”

  • October 27^th: Dr. Grace Leu Burke, UAA School of Allied Health, "Public health environmental exposure risk to multi-drug resistant bacteria isolated from urban wildlife: What is in your backyard?"

  • November 10^th: Multiple short presentations by Biological Sciences graduate students

  • November 24^th: No seminar, Fall break

  • December 8^th: TBD

  • February 9th: Orca Jimmy Peniston "More than just statistical noise: the eco-evolutionary consequences of environmental fluctuations"

  • February 23rd: Vanessa Von Biela, "Alaska's Pacific Salmon Under Climate Change"

  • March 1st: Robert Godfree, "Life in the Anthropocene : Impacts of Extreme Drought on Australian Ecosystems"

  • March 22nd: Valerie Copie, TBD

  • April 12th: Corina Newsome, TBD

  • April 26th: Damian Menning, TBD

• AY 2022-2023 Presentations
  • October 14^th: Dr. Veronica Padula, Plastic pollution and one health: Perspectives from the Bering Sea
  • October 28^th: Dr. Wendy Puryear, Seals, seabirds, and influenza: A tale of two coasts, shifting ecosystems, and viral spillover
  • November 11^th: TBD
  • December 9^th: Dr. Tanya Cheeke, Evolution and ecology of plant-fungal interactions
  • February 10^th: Dr. Brandon Briggs, Bi-Polar Microbiology: Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs on the Ice
  • Feb 24^th: Christian Lang, Virus spillover evidence in African wildlife - Seek, and ye shall find!
  • March 10^th: Gino Graziano, Control of invasive plants at high latitudes using persistent herbicides
  • March 24^th: Courtney Kurtz (title TBA)
  • April 14^th: Dr. Morag Clinton, Understanding compounding environmental stressors & infectious challenges in negative fish health outcomes
  • April 28^th: Mario Muscarella (title TBA)
• Spring 2022 Presentations
  • January 21: Dr. Garfield Kwan, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, "How Ocean Acidification Promotes Otolith Biomineralization in Teleost Fish"
  • February 4: Ariel Pezner, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, "Coral Reef Hypoxia: Projections Under Warming and Impacts on Coral Growth"
  • February 18: Dr. Carl Roland, National Park Service, "The intersection of chance and design – monitoring vegetation over space and time in central Alaska’s parklands"
  • March 4: Dr. Doug Causey, University of Alaska Anchorage, "The dynamics of waterfowl populations and subsistence hunting in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta"
  • March 18: Dr. Barbara Wortham, UC Berkley, "How is photorespiration recorded in trees? Lessons from the Los Angeles Basin, CA"
  • April 1: Dr. Kate Sheehan, Frostburg State University, "Parasites and plastics in pelagic food webs"
  • April 15: TBD
• Fall 2021 Presentations
  • September 3: Dr. Jason Burkhead, University of Alaska Anchorage "Copper deviciency and toxicity in human liver disease"
  • September 17: Dr. Mark Rains, University of South Florida "Groundwater Subsidies to Salmonid Streams: A Decade+ of Collaborative Science and Outcomes in Alaska"
  • October 15: Dr. Julie Maresca, University of Delaware "Hard Microbiology: Polyextremophilic microbes in concrete"
  • November 5: Dr. Mecky Pohlschroder, University of Pennsylvania "What bioinfomatics and big data have revealed about Archaea"
  • November 19: Dr. Dan Ruthruaff, USGS "TBA"
• Spring 2021 Presentations
  • March 25: Dr. Erin Larson, Alaska Pacific University "Danger in the Mountains: Disturbance Effects on Biodiversity in Tropical and Temperate Montane Streams"
  • March 5: Dr. Sarah Gerken, University of Alaska Anchorage "Antarctic Cumacea"
• Fall 2020 Presentations
  • October 30: Dr. Kathleen Scott, University of South Florida "Surprising diversity in dissolved inorganic carbon uptake by bacteria"
  • November 6: Dr. Eric Bortz, UAA Biological Sciences "Update on the pathogenesis and spread of COVID-19 in Alaska: from genomics to vaccines"
  • November 13: Dr. Cecilia Martinez Gomez, UC Berkley "Thriving with lanthanides: New life metals in methylotrophy"
  • November 20: Dr. Kirsten Grond, UAA Biological Sciences "The ins and outs of the avian gut microbiome: Why birds matter"
  • December 4: Meg Howard "Chasing Coronaviruses 2002-2020"