The University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences is excited to announce an open faculty position at any rank in the Department of Biology. As part of our Biology of Behavior strategic initiative, the department continues to build an internationally recognized center of excellence in studying mechanisms of organismal behavior. We are searching for creative, collaborative thinkers to join us in taking an integrative and multifaceted approach to reveal the ultimate and proximate causes of behavior. The Department of Biology already has a strong focus on the study of animal behavior, including 16 complementary faculty research programs that investigate physiological, developmental, and evolutionary processes that underlie how animals behave.
We seek to enhance the collaborative momentum of this initiative by hiring a Geneticist who uses leading-edge molecular, genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and/or related methods to understand the specification, regulation, and/or evolution of organismal behavior. We invite individuals with creative, innovative, and dynamic research programs who would like to be part of a strong group of researchers to apply for this faculty position.
The anticipated start date for this position is August 2022. For additional details, please read more here and apply at https://apply.interfolio.com/94332
Throughout the Fall 2021 semester, the OU Department of Biology will take its popular department seminar series online via Zoom Meetings. The seminars are open the public and we invite you to join us! Please click on the link below to view the schedule of seminars for the semester. Click on the talk title beneath the flyer below to go to the Zoom meeting for this week's seminar.
Click here to join: Dr. Heather Ketchum “From Memorize-Regurgitate-Repeat Robots to Inspired Deep Learners; Transforming the Undergraduate Experience through Choreographed Chaos”
Passcode: 48485704
** Talk begins 9/29/21 at 4:30 p.m. CT **
We are pleased to announce that the following individuals have been selected as the most outstanding graduating seniors in the Department of Biology for the 2020-21 academic year.
These students were selected based on a recommendation from a faculty member, as well as their stellar performance in coursework and research while in our program.
While we cannot gather to celebrate with them in person, we wish to extend congratulations to them here offer our deepest appreciation to them for their continued excellence in the midst of such challenging circumstances.
2020-21 Honorees:
Abeyewardene, Shalini M. T.
Bondurant, Sophie N.
Bowen, Myah L.
Curb, Tara M.
Druten, Elliott J.
Griffith, Shauna C.
Guardiola, Rosa L.
Hanson-Regan, William
Hardin, Abigail J.
Henderson, Ania N.
Murray, Carly M.
Ring, Cayli D.
Runion, William R.
Russell, Caitlin H.
Schoepfer, Evelyn K.
Scribner, Angelica S.
Williams, Scott W. (Wesley)
Biology is the study of life and inherently recognizes the intrinsic value of diversity - all lives are unique, valuable, and contribute to the richness of our planet. The community that forms the Department of Biology at the University of Oklahoma (OU Biology) is repulsed by the 400-year legacy of social injustices, discrimination, and oppression and the present-day manifestations of racism that continue to profoundly impact our community every day. The recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and many other Black and brown people, often at the hands of law enforcement, have been a horrendous reminder of the cost of our complacency and how much work is necessary to have a society in which diversity is nurtured and flourishes. OU Biology condemns all discriminatory institutions, policies, practices, and behaviors that marginalize any member of our community. We stand in support of the Black Emergency Response Team at OU, Black Lives Matter, and Black Visions Collective in their battle against the oppression of Black and other marginalized populations. We not only stand with Black, indigenous, and people of color in the quest for inclusion and equity, but we are also resolute in our mission to provide leadership and promote a diverse and inclusive campus environment through action. We are currently working on a set of concrete actions to improve our department culture, accountability, and transparency, which will be approved and released prior to the fall semester 2020.
OU Biology appreciates, studies, and works to preserve the diversity of life and we will no longer be passive in the movement towards social equality. To make the Department of Biology at the University of Oklahoma a paragon of justice and inclusivity will require our community to work collectively and continuously. We urge those interested in taking action to please contact the department’s Diversity Inclusion and Equity Committee.
The OU Department of Biology is pleased to welcome Dr. Alexandra Bentz, who will join our faculty next fall.
Bentz will serve as an Assistant Professor of Biology in the area of Behavioral Physiology. Her research focuses on how social experiences are encoded into organismal function, leading to long-term changes in physiology and behavior both within and across generations. She uses experimental and observational approaches in the field and the lab that integrate tools from behavioral endocrinology and genomics across scales, from the molecular to the evolutionary. Bentz primarily works with free-living songbirds to explore how these processes function in dynamic social environments.
Find out more about Dr. Bentz’s research at https://abentz.wixsite.com/bentzlab
The OU Department of Biology is pleased to welcome Dr. Daniel Becker, who will join our faculty next fall.
Becker will serve as an Assistant Professor of Biology in the area of Population / Disease Ecology. His research explores the ecological and evolutionary factors that determine infectious disease dynamics in wildlife reservoir hosts and cross-species transmission. Daniel combines a range of approaches, including spatiotemporal field studies of wild bats and birds, phylogenetic comparative methods, theoretical models, and machine learning, to understand how pathogens spread within and between animal populations and species and how environmental changes will alter infectious disease risks.
Find out more about Dr. Becker’s current research at http://danieljbecker.weebly.com/
