Biological Sciences Seminar Series

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 2023-2024

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

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

  • October 27th: 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 10th: Multiple short presentations by Biological Sciences graduate students

  • November 24th: No seminar, Fall break

  • December 8th: TBD

  • AY 2022-2023 Presentations
    • October 14th: Dr. Veronica Padula, Plastic pollution and one health: Perspectives from the Bering Sea
    • October 28th: Dr. Wendy Puryear, Seals, seabirds, and influenza: A tale of two coasts, shifting ecosystems, and viral spillover
    • November 11th: TBD
    • December 9th: Dr. Tanya Cheeke, Evolution and ecology of plant-fungal interactions
    • February 10th: Dr. Brandon Briggs, Bi-Polar Microbiology: Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs on the Ice
    • Feb 24th: Christian Lang, Virus spillover evidence in African wildlife - Seek, and ye shall find!
    • March 10th: Gino Graziano, Control of invasive plants at high latitudes using persistent herbicides
    • March 24th: Courtney Kurtz (title TBA)
    • April 14th: Dr. Morag Clinton, Understanding compounding environmental stressors & infectious challenges in negative fish health outcomes
    • April 28th: 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