School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 1-26 of 26 Results
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Virginia Walbot
Professor of Biology, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur current focus is on maize anther development to understand how cell fate is specified. We discovered that hypoxia triggers specification of the archesporial (pre-meiotic) cells, and that these cells secrete a small protein MAC1 that patterns the adjacent soma to differentiate as endothecial and secondary parietal cell types. We also discovered a novel class of small RNA: 21-nt and 24-nt phasiRNAs that are exceptionally abundant in anthers and exhibit strict spatiotemporal dynamics.
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Dr. Zhiyong Wang
Professor (By Courtesy), Biology
BioDr. Wang is the acting director of the Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science, and a professor by courtesy of the Department of Biology, Stanford University. He is currently an associate editor of Molecular Cellular Proteomics, and editorial board member of Molecular Plant. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and recipient of the Humboldt Research Prize.
Dr. Wang obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 from UCLA, where he cloned the plant circadian clock gene CCA1. He did his postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute, where he studied the brassinosteroid signaling mechanism mediated by the BRI1 receptor kinase. Since joining Carnegie in 2001, his research has illustrated the receptor kinase signaling pathway that links the BRI1 receptor kinase to the BZR1 transcription factor and brassinosteroid-responsive genes in the Arabidopsis genome. He further demonstrated how the steroid signaling pathway integrates at the molecular level with other hormonal pathways, light signaling pathways, nutrient-sensing pathways, immunity pathways, and the circadian clock, to coordinately regulate plant growth and development. His lab uses combinations of genomic and proteomic approaches to understand how cellular signals are transduced and integrated through posttranslational modifications (e.g. phosphorylation and O-Glycosylation) and protein-protein interactions. His studies are elucidating the molecular mechanisms that control plant growth and mediate responses to environmental changes. -
Dr. Victoria Watson-Zink
Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology
BioI am an evolutionary marine invertebrate biologist, and I use bioinformatics and high-throughput sequencing technologies (genomics and transcriptomics) to explore life-history evolution in terrestrial crabs.
I completed my B.S. in Biological Sciences (concentration in Ecology and Evolution) at Cornell University in 2013 with academic and research honors. While there, I studied climate science, marine biology, and coral reef biodiversity via several internships/fellowships at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center in Bali, Indonesia, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.
After graduating, I worked for two years as a lab manager and research technician at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA, which is where I discovered my passion for understanding life-history evolution in terrestrial crabs. I began my PhD in Population Biology at UC Davis in 2015, and as a Fellow of both the NSF GRFP and the NSF EAPSI programs, I have traveled extensively across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to observe and collect genetic samples from several land crab species.
As a disabled Black woman in evolution and ecology, I am also passionate about increasing, supporting, and retaining diversity of all kinds in STEM, and during my PhD, I served as the first Graduate Student Advisor to the Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the College of Biological Sciences at UC Davis. I graduated as the first Black PhD from my degree program, and was also awarded the Merton Love Award for Best Dissertation in Ecology and Evolution for my dissertation work.
I am now a postdoc at Stanford University as a joint Stanford Science Fellow/NSF PRFB Fellow and hope to one day launch my own research lab studying major evolutionary transitions. -
Ward Watt
Professor of Biology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEvolutionary adaptive mechanisms, molecules to ecosystems
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Yingtong "Amanda" WU
Lecturer
BioI am a plant ecologist, botanist, and naturalist. I am broadly interested in microbial ecology, canopy ecology, and their intersections with the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of Native Americans. I completed my Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics with the Ricklefs Lab at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. I am currently a postdoc researcher at the Fukami Lab, Stanford University, where I will be applying my analytical skills in microbial DNA sequencing to understand: (1) the community assembly of monkeyflower nectar microbes and (2) the effects of wildfires and prescribed burning on microbial communities associated with California oaks.
My previous and ongoing research projects include:​
FIRES AND TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
SPECIES RANGE SIZES AND SPECIES RARITY
SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES
SPECIES DELIMITATION AND GENE FLOW
CANOPY ECOLOGY
