Fresno State RISE Program
RISE Team
RISE Program Director
Dr. Krish Krishnan (Chair)
- Office Location: Science Building Room 248
- Office Phone: 559.278.7944
- E-mail: krish@csufresno.edu
RISE Program Coordinator
Ms. Brandy White (Murray), MS
- Office: Science 1 Room 101
- Phone: 559.278.6679
- Email: brandymurray@csufresno.edu
RISE Program Manager
Ms. Lilia DeLaCerda, MPH
- Office: Science 1 Room 101
- Phone: 559.278.5748
- Email: liliad@csufresno.edu
RISE Program Co-Principle Investigators
- Dr. Joy Goto, Chemistry
- Dr. Jason Bush, Biology
- Dr. Qiao-Hong Chen, Chemistry
- Dr. Alejandro Calderon-Urrea, Biology
Current & Previous RISE Mentors
- 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
Don't see a faculty mentor you would like to work with in this list? Any faculty member that actively does research on-campus within the College of Science and Mathematics or the Lyles College of Engineering can be a potential RISE faculty mentor! If you have questions, please email the RISE program coordinator, Brandy White (Murray), at brandymurray@csufresno.edu for more information.