Faculty Research and Opportunities

Dr. Dirk Bucher – STG Lab

As a neurobiologist,the main focus of Dr. Dirk Bucher's research is to understand how dynamics at different time scales, arising from ion channel and synaptic gating properties, neuromodulation, and long-term regulatory mechanisms give rise to stability and flexibility of neural activity patterns underlying behavior.
https://research.njit.edu/stglab/

Dr. Eric Fortune

Dr. Eric Fortune researches the interactions between sensory and motor systems that are used to generate and control animal behavior. His laboratory uses methodologies that cross levels of biological organization from the computational consequences of transmembrane molecules to the behavior of multi-species flocks. Dr. Fortune's research includes field studies of natural behavior in Amazon basin habitats and highly-controlled behavioral studies inside the laboratory, with a variety of neurophysiological approaches including intracellular recordings of CNS neurons in behaving animals, pharmachological studies, and mathematical modeling.
web.njit.edu/~efortune

Dr. Jorge Golowasch – STG Lab

The goal of Dr. Jorge Golowasch's research activities is to understand the mechanisms that allow the nervous system to be simultaneously plastic and responsive to environmental and internal changes, and also to be stable over long periods of time. His research work uses both experimental tools (electrophysiology and cellular biology) as well as theoretical tools (computer simulations, and a powerful hybrid computational-electrophysiological method). The research addresses the following main areas: (1) Regulation of neuronal excitability and network structure by neuromodulators over long timescales, (2) The circadian regulation of electrical properties in mouse visual cortex, and (3) Electrophysiology of glial cells.
https://sites.google.com/view/golowasch-lab/
https://research.njit.edu/stglab/

Dr. Julia Hyland Bruno — Animal Vocal Interactions & Development (AVID) Lab

https://sites.google.com/njit.edu/avid-lab

Dr. Farzan Nadim – STG Lab

The focus of Dr. Farzan Nadim's research is to understand how synaptic dynamics, such as short-term depression and facilitation contribute to the generation and control of oscillatory neuronal activity. He combines computational, analytical and experimental techniques towards understanding how properties of neurons and their synaptic dynamics shape the output of oscillatory neuronal networks. In particular, Dr. Nadim studies the generation of rhythmic motor patterns in the crustacean stomatogastric nervous system (STNS).
https://research.njit.edu/stglab/

Dr. Horacio Rotstein

The primary interest of Dr. Rotstein's group is the understanding of the mechanisms of generation of neuronal rhythmic oscillations in various areas of the brain (e.g., hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, prefrontal cortex, striatum, olfactory bulb) and how this results from the cooperative activity of the dynamic and biophysical properties of the participating neurons, the synaptic connectivity and the network topology. A primary focus of this research is the effects of single cell and network resonances (emergent properties resulting from the interaction between neurons/networks and oscillatory inputs) on the generation of network oscillations. They use and develop mathematical models, dynamical systems tools and numerical simulations.
https://web.njit.edu/~horacio/

Dr. Kristen Severi — Zebrafish Neural Circuits and Behavior Lab

Dr. Kristen Severi researches the neural circuits underlying locomotor behavior in the larval zebrafish. These tiny fish with transparent bodies are ideal for studying in real time how the brain and spinal cord work together to produce the everyday movements the fish needs to swim around its environment. The techniques we are interested in are multidisciplinary, including high-speed behavioral recordings and analysis, dynamic imaging of calcium activity within populations of neurons, and electrophysiology.
kristenseveri.wixsite.com/severilab

Dr. Daphne Soares – Neuroecology Lab

Dr. Daphne Soares studies neuroecology, the synthesis of neuroethological and ecological principles to understand the evolution of neural adaptation. The goal of her research is to determine the rules for neural adaptation to extreme environments, specifically in cavefishes, by incorporating ecological and neuroethological approaches.

RUTGERS FACULTY RESEARCH

Cell & Molecular Biology

Dr. Edward Bonder — Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

Intracellular organelle motility, cellular dynamics of actin and microtubule cytoskeleton, tissue and organelle development.

Dr. Jean Pierre Etchegaray — Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

DNA oxidations as epigenetic elements regulating cell fate identity. Transcriptional mechanisms triggering cancer initiation. Circadian rhythms and cancer-stem cells.

Dr. Wilma Friedman — Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

Cellular mechanisms of cytokine and neurotrophin actions on CNS neurons and glia.

Dr. Nan Gao — Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

Molecular events that control and/or disrupt mitotic cell division and epithelial polarity in mammalian development and disease.

Dr. Haesun Kim — Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

Cellular and molecular biology of myelinating glial cells: Mechanism of signal transduction involved in axon-Schwann cell interaction. Molecular mechanism of cell fate determination in the developing peripheral nervous system.

Dr. Tracy Tran — Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

Cellular and molecular mechanisms of axonal guidance, dendritic spine development and neural circuit formation.

Dr. Pabitra Sahoo— Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

Dr. Pabi Sahoo is originally from India. He received his Ph.D. from The National Center for Cell Science, University of Pune, India studying the connections between Wnt signaling and stress granules (SGs) with Dr. Jomon Joseph. In his graduate studies, he investigated SGs that formed under pharmacological stress conditions, which piqued his interest in identifying their role during physiological conditions. He then joined the lab of Dr. Jeff Twiss at the University of South Carolina where he used different types of neurons to answer this question. The highly polarized morphology of neurons provided him an elegant system to study these SGs. His work showed that axons do contain SGs under physiological conditions and those are used to store mRNAs.

Dr. Ching-On Wong — Rutgers University, Biological Sciences

Organellar biology, cell metabolism and bioenergetics in the contexts of nervous system function and neurodegenerative diseases. Major emphasis on how vesicular trafficking and inter-organellar signaling regulate and react to metabolic outputs and demands of neurons and glia.

Dr. Phillip Barden

Dr. Barden works to understand patterns of extinction and evolution in eusocial insects through a multidisciplinary approach combining paleontology, imaging, genomics, and systematics. Social insects such as ants are ecologically impactful, heavily studied, and possess a rich amber fossil record. For these reasons, Dr. Barden uses this system to test the methodological limits of extracting data from fossilized organisms, the combined utility of genetic and paleontological data, how best to quantify and assess morphological evolution, and comparative genomic approaches for understanding convergence.
bardenlab.org

Dr. Daniel Bunker

Dr. Daniel Bunker's research focuses on global change and species composition in the Northeastern US, species traits and ecoinformatics, tree species composition and ecosystem function in tropical forests. He researches the effects of land-use change on the neotropical dung beetle communities and multiple ecosystem services as well as biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and human wellbeing.

Dr. Allison Edgar — Life History Lab

Dr. Allison Edgar’s lab studies development, evolution, and ecology. The lab is interested in how these marine invertebrates respond to environmental inputs by modulating their life history strategies, that is, the strategies that animals use to develop, grow, mature, reproduce, and (sometimes) regenerate. To understand how the same animals differentially allocate resources to these different tasks, and how gene expression is regulated to produce these outcomes, the lab uses an emerging model system that represents the sister group of all other living animals, the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi. https://lifehistorylab.com

Dr. Brooke Flammang – Fluid Locomotion Lab

Dr. Brooke Flammang’s lab uses a multidisciplinary approach in integrating comparative anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and biologically inspired robotic devices to investigate the ways in which organisms interact with their environment and drive the evolutionary selection of morphology and function. By combining these different specialties she directly tests the effective relationship between an organism and its environment.
https://bflammang.wixsite.com/fluidlocolab

Dr. Eric Fortune

Dr. Eric Fortune researches the interactions between sensory and motor systems that are used to generate and control animal behavior. His laboratory uses methodologies that cross levels of biological organization from the computational consequences of transmembrane molecules to the behavior of multi-species flocks. Dr. Fortune's research includes field studies of natural behavior in Amazon basin habitats and highly-controlled behavioral studies inside the laboratory, with a variety of neurophysiological approaches including intracellular recordings of CNS neurons in behaving animals, pharmachological studies, and mathematical modeling.
web.njit.edu/~efortune

Dr. Simon Garnier – Swarm Lab

The research of Dr. Simon Garnier is related to various research fields, including ethology, experimental psychology, cognitive and social sciences and swarm intelligence. His main research interest is the emergence of intelligent collective behaviors in groups of social animals. Dr. Garnier examines how information is exchanged and transformed during interactions between the members of a group, and how this can lead to the emergence of "intelligent" group behaviors.
www.theswarmlab.com

Dr. Nathaniel Himmel –  Laboratory for Sensory Neuroscience & Evolution

The Himmel Lab combines experimental and computational approaches to study the senses (pain, touch, taste, etc.), from genes to behavior. We seek to understand how sensory systems function, how they evolve(d), and when their molecular toolkits originated (perhaps as far back as the Last Universal Common Ancestor).
https://himmellab.org

Dr. Julia Hyland Bruno — Animal Vocal Interactions & Development (AVID) Lab

Dr. Gareth Russell — Structural Ecology Lab and Urban Ecology Lab (UEL)

"Structural Ecology" describes how individual organisms respond to the physical (spatial) structure of their surroundings. I am interested in how this response influences population dynamics, and ultimately the abiility of a species to survive, especially in landscapes whose structure has been altered by human activity. Specific projects include looking at how to interpret behavioral and ecological relationships from movement patterns, whether more realistic movement assumptions affect the predictions of metapopulation models, and how successional processes play out across ecological boundaries. A secondary lab interest is in the deployment of technology for automated monitoring, such as tracking tags, camera traps and automated ID systems. Most work in the lab involves the analysis of large datasets such as remote sensing images and animal tracks, or simulation, and so is computational in nature. Undergraduate research opportunities: There are opportunities for undergraduates with programming skills and interests (or the aptitude and willingness to pick them up). Students from other disciplines (like computer science) are also encouraged to get in touch.
www.structuralecology.net.
research.njit.edu/uel

Dr. Daphne Soares – Neuroecology Lab

Dr. Daphne Soares studies neuroecology, the synthesis of neuroethological and ecological principles to understand the evolution of neural adaptation. The goal of her research is to determine the rules for neural adaptation to extreme environments, specifically in cavefishes, by incorporating ecological and neuroethological approaches.

Dr. Xiaonan Tai — Ecohydrology Lab

Dr. Tai is an ecohydrologist with broad interests in Earth System Science. Her lab combines organism-level plant physiology with landscape-scale hydrological processes to understand the two-way interactions between vegetation and hydrology and how they might influence ecosystem function and resource supply in the context of novel environmental conditions. Dr. Tai's research program uses process-based modeling and empirical approaches to combine in situ and remote sensing observations in order to answer questions related to 1) What are the mechanisms underlying ecosystem response to anticipated warming and drought? 2) How do biotic diversity and abiotic heterogeneity influence ecosystem resilience and resource sustainability to changing climate? 3) How to increase ecosystem resilience through effective management strategies?
https://xiaonan20.github.io/EcohydrologyLab/team.html

Urban Ecology Lab — Drs. Russell, Bunker, Stanko, DeVan and Nelson

The mission of the UEL is to train the next generation of leaders in conservation biology, environmental science, management and justice, and to ensure that such leadership reflects the communities they will serve. The UEL is first and foremost an undergraduate research lab, run by a group of Faculty. Students propose, design and carry out projects in small groups. They often apply for funding for their projects, and present at regional and national meetings. Most students are pursuing careers in conservation biology, ecology or some other environmental field (although that is not a strict requirement), and we encourage students to apply early in their time at NJIT so that they can learn from the more senior members and mentor others when the time comes.
research.njit.edu/uel

RUTGERS FACULTY RESEARCH

Dr. Claus Holzapfel — Rutgers University, Earth & Environmental Sciences

Ecological consequences and evolutionary trajectories of interactions between plants; the mechanisms by which plants adapt to varying environments.

Dr. Lily Khadempour — Rutgers University, Earth & Environmental Sciences

I am a microbial evolutionary ecologist with focus on insect-microbial symbiosis and eco-evolutionary dynamics. I endeavor to understand how insects have evolved with microbial symbionts as an interface between them and their environments, and how microorganisms can be used to test and further develop eco-evolutionary theory. Research in my lab is aimed at understanding why we observe the relationships that we do in nature, and so we use fieldwork, bench work (both culture work and molecular biology), and the synthesis of large ‘omics datasets in a variety of systems, to get at the answers.

Dr. Karina V. R. Shäfer — Rutgers University, Earth & Environmental Sciences

Ecosystem ecology, global change and its effect on biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems.

Dr. Marcelo Gehara —  Rutgers University, Earth & Environmental Sciences

How speciation mechanisms work across the tree of life is a central part of my research program. To do that, i study non-model organisms, in the field and lab, integrating population genetics, molecular ecology and historical biogeography with the use of genomics and bioinformatics tools.

Dr. Angelo Soto-Centeno — Soto Lab of Bat Biology — Rutgers University, Earth & Environmental Sciences

I’m interested in population level processes and combine phylogeography, species distribution modeling, and fossils to solve evolutionary & demographic questions. I study recent mammal extinctions in the Caribbean, primarily in bats. I use genetic, fossil, and distribution model data to examine how recent climate change (i.e. from Pleistocene to Holocene) and anthropogenic habitat change affected populations of island bats. The combined use of these data is powerful and help us evaluate hypotheses about the evolutionary processes that shaped island bats and how they reacted to climate change and habitat change from past to present. By using this framework, I hope to improve our understanding of what happens to these bats today and better predict what may happen to them in the future. This program is question-driven and I have also applied these tools to other systems (e.g. rodents, cervids, and amphibians) in island and mainland environments. Other areas of research in my lab include questions on demography, population connectivity, community composition, and natural history of mammals of New Jersey.