RISE Team 

• Molecular genetics of programmed cell death (PCD) in plants
• Use of PCD in plant biotechnology
• PCD during sex determination in plants
• Transgenic plant development and plant biotechnology
• Biofuels and other metabolites

For more information contact: Dr. Alejandro Calderon-Urrea

• Cell biology
• Cancer biology
• Genetics
• Molecular biology
• Biomedical research

For more information contact: Dr. Jason Bush

• Neuroethology and neurobiology
• Adaptive behaviors and neural plasticity
• Insect cognition
• Behavior and neural mechanisms underlying spatial processing, learning and memory, and navigation

For more information contact: Dr. David Lent

• Mycology and evolutionary biology of mycorrhizal
• Systematics, taxonomy, ecology,, phylogeography, and evolution of fungi
• Phylogenomics/phylogenetics, metagenomics, comparative genomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics

For more information contact: Dr. Alija Mujic

• Research spans areas of evolutionary biology, from sexual selection to ecological immunology

For more information contact: Dr. Joel Slade

• Ecological and evolutionary physiology
• Thermal biology
• Global change biology
• Ecological developmental biology
• Herpetology

For more information contact: Dr. Rory Telemeco

• Phylogenetics and population genetics of plants
• Agricultural weed invasions and herbicide resistance evolution
• Native California plant taxonomy
• Natural history collections, especially the Fresno State Herbarium

For more information contact: Dr. Katherine Waselkov

• Development of macrolide-based microtubule stabilizing agents for the treatment of multi-drug resistant cancer
• Development of improved analogs of natural dietary products for the treatment of advanced metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

For more information contact: Dr. Qiao-Hong Chen

• Role of instructional technologies to support enhanced student ownership and understanding of scientific concepts
  • Simulations
  • Virtual laboratories
  • Online science learning environments
• Other research interests:Curriculum development and evaluation
  • Professional development of teachers
  • Power dynamics in science classrooms
• Check out Dr. Donnelly-Hermosillo's website for current research projects!

For more information contact: Dr. Dermot Donnelly-Hermosillo

• Computing the electronically excited states of atoms and molecules and their degradation mechanisms
  • Developing better approaches for modeling electronic excitations and critical points along the degradation pathways
  • Applying the currently available methods to systems ranging from a single molecule to nanoparticles

For more information contact: Dr. Kristi Closser

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Parkinsonism dementia complex (ALS-PDC): Proteomic, electrophysiological and behavioral approach
• Interaction of specific proteins involved in the abnormal proteolytic processing in Alzheimer's disease
• Oxidative stress and transition metal ion homeostasis investigations in fruit flies as a model of aging

For more information contact: Dr. Joy Goto

• Plasma modification 
• Naturally-derived polymers
• Surface analysis
• Biomedical devices
• Check out The Hawker Lab website to learn about current projects

For more information contact: Dr. Morgan Hawker

• Building peptidomimetic biomolecules (peptoids, peptomers) and investigating their potential to function as biomaterial, therapeutics and sensors.
• Design solid-phase bound catalysts for asymmetric allylic alkylation.
• A two-prong approach on remediation of waste water by growing algae and subsequently screening their oil content for biodiesel.

For more information contact: Dr. Kalyani Maitra

• Alzheimer’s disease drug discovery
  • Seeking to modulate three proteins including apolipoprotein E (apoE)
• Development of DEET pest repellent analogs

For more information contact: Dr. Santanu Maitra

• Develop new reactions and strategies for organic synthesis.
  • Free radical-mediated reactions
  • Processes at the intersections of chemistry with biology and material science

For more information contact: Dr. Hubert Muchalski

• Utilization of protein cages as platforms for making functional nanoparticles
• Construction of three-dimensional array materials self-assembled form protein building blocks

For more information contact: Dr. Masaki Uchida

• Judgement and decision making
• Risk communication and judgement
• Informal quantitative reasoning
• Social and health-related judgement

For more information contact: Dr. Paul Price

• Forgetting; Implicit inference (influences on forgetting that occur outside of awareness)
• Improving students' efficiency (applications of cognitive psychology psychology to note-taking procedures, test-taking strategies, and studying procedure)

For more information contact: Dr. Karl Oswald

• Perception of virtual reality
• Video gaming behavior
• Perception of spoken language
• Psycholinguistics

For more information contact: Dr. Lorin Lachs

• Impact of context (i.e. housing, community, neighborhood, and culture) on children's development.
• Implicit focus on immigrant children and families

For more information contact: Dr. Rosa Toro

• Neuropsychology
• Neurodegenerative disease
• Prediction of cognitive impairment
• Memory and executive abilities, everyday functioning
• Aging, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia

For more information contact: Dr. Ellen Woo