Dr. Jennifer Hellmann, Assistant Professor
Email: Hellmann.13@osu.edu
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
http://jehellmann45.wixsite.com/home

A major challenge in biology is to understand the causes and consequences of variation among individuals in their behavior, morphology, and physiology (i.e. their phenotype). It is becoming clear that past and current environmental influences (e.g., predation risk) can cause even genetically identical individuals to appear and behave in markedly different ways. I am an integrative biologist who uses fish as a model system to understand how plasticity, both within and across generations, drives phenotypic change in response to variation in the social and ecological environment. To answer these questions, I work at the intersection of behavior, evolution, and ecology using field and laboratory experiments, molecular tools, and physiological manipulations.

 

Dr. James Mouton, Assistant Professor
Email address: mouton.13@osu.edu
Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology
http://u.osu.edu/moutonlab/
I am an evolutionary ecologist with broad interests in life history evolution, behavioral ecology, and population dynamics. Research in my lab uses empirical and quantitative approaches to test and advance basic theory in these fields and understand individual, population, and species-level responses to changing environments in nature. My lab’s work also aims to address applied conservation problems which are critically important for making accurate predictions and informed management decisions in the context of global change. Our work mostly (but not exclusively) focuses on birds.

 

Dr. Marta Jarzyna, Associate Professor
Email address: jarzyna.1@osu.edu
Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology and a Core Faculty member of the Translational Data Analytics Institute at The Ohio State University.
http://www.jarzynalab.com/

Dr. Jarzyna is a macroecologist and biodiversity scientist whose research focuses on uncovering the mechanisms driving biodiversity dynamics across spatial and temporal scales. The overarching goal of her research program is to identify the processes, scales, and dimensions that provide the most insight for predicting biodiversity responses to global change. By doing so, Dr. Jarzyna’s work aims to enable long-term, generalizable, and robust forecasting of biodiversity change and its ecological implications.

 

Dr. Emily Dringenberg, Associate Professor
Email address: dringenberg.1@osu.edu
Department of Engineering Education
www.edringenberg.com

As people, our participation in social worlds communicates a variety of beliefs and values to us, both implicitly and explicitly. Our personal network of beliefs informs how we experience the world, what we pay attention to, and (to some degree) our behaviors. My current career purpose is to work with my research collaborators to reveal complex belief sets, with a focus on explicating beliefs that are foundational to us but remain implicit. Through our research on beliefs, we aim to embolden ourselves and others to reflect on our assumptions so that we can advance equity in unique ways. I am also currently working to make my work more critical and more participatory.

 

Dr. Zakee Sabree, Associate Professor
Email address: sabree.8@osu.edu
Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology / Faculty Director, OSU Office of Postdoctoral Affairs
http://u.osu.edu/sabreelab/

Our group is interested in the functional and trophic relationships that forge intimate host-microbe interactions and shape bacterial communities, and the evolutionary outcomes of these symbioses. We are interested in how are symbiotic microbes employed by their hosts to obtain essential nutrients and facilitate trophic niche expansions. Also we want to know what are the structural and functional impacts of ancient and obligate associations with eukaryotes on the genomes, genes and gene products of their bacterial partners. Insects are the focus of my research because they are ubiquitous, participate significantly in biomass turnover and maintain, often simultaneously, various types of symbioses with microbes. We employ legacy microbiological tools as well as current and emergent molecular and ‘omics techniques to address several specific aspects of these questions.

 

Dr. Asuman Turkmen, Professor
Email address: turkmen@stat.osu.edu
Department of Statistics
http://u.osu.edu/turkmen.2/

Dr. Turkmen’s research focuses on two main areas: (1) multivariate statistical methods, particularly robust estimation and outlier detection, to develop reliable statistical procedures for heterogeneous data, and (2) statistical genetics, where she investigates missing heritability in complex diseases through rare variant associations, structural variations, epigenetics, gene-environment interactions, and integrative data analysis. Recently, she has been working on integrative data analysis in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). High-throughput technologies enable generating multiple types of omics data (i.e., multi-omics data). However, a single layer of “omics” can only provide limited insights into the biological mechanisms of a disease. She is developing statistical methodologies to shed light onto such functional associations among omics data that can offer more biologically interpretable inference and drive new scientific insights.

 

Dr. Brianna Davis Johnson, Assistant Dean for Mentoring and Strategic Initiatives in the OSU Graduate School
Email address: johnson.9155@osu.edu
OSU Graduate School
Dr. Brianna Davis Johnson is the Assistant Dean for Mentoring and Strategic Initiatives in the Graduate School at The Ohio State University, where she leads efforts to improve mentorship, recruitment, and retention for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. She also oversees the Summer Research Opportunities Program at Ohio State that serves as a gateway to graduate education at Big Ten Academic Alliance universities. Her research focuses on the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within universities, as well as the impact of organizational policies andpractices on these efforts and she has published on hate speech incidents in higher education and student experiences in service-learning classrooms. Dr. Johnson’s TEDx talk, “3 Secrets to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership,” provides insights on creating inclusive environments and showcases her academic and personal journey.

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