Seminar Series

Spring 2026

January 23, 2026

Speaker: Stacey Hanlon, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology / Genetics and Genomics, University of Connecticut

Host: Jack Bateman

Title: B chromosome dynamics during female meiosis in D. melanogaster.

February 6, 2026

Speaker: Donald Katz, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Brandeis University

Host: Dan Powell

Title: The way that the taste system works.

February 13, 2026

Speaker: Matt McHenry, Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Charle Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, U.C. Irvine

Host: Amy Johnson

Title: Distributed control and swimming in schools of fish

February 20, 2026

Speaker: Sheila Patek, Professor of Biology, Duke University

Host: Amy Johnson

Title: Tiny and potent: Evolutionary biomechanics of ultrafast, spring-propelled systems

April 3, 2026

Speaker: Ifrah Shahi, Assistant Professor of Biology, Bates College

Host: Anne McBride

Title: Type IV Pili Dynamics in the Bacterial Pathogen Kingella kingae

April 17, 2026

Speaker: Max Heiman, Associate Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

Host: Hadley Horch

Title: A specialized matrix around sensory cilia

Fall 2025

September 19, 2025

Speaker: Rebecca Nowak, PhD, Associate Professor, Divisiion of Epidemiology and Prevention, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Host: Amy Johnson

Title: Beyond the Lab: An Epidemiologist’s Journey to Prevent Anal Cancer in Nigeria

October 10, 2025

Speaker: Jennifer Garcia, Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of New England

Host: Anne McBride

Title: RNA degradation and cell stress survival

October 17, 2025

Speaker: Justin Hulbert, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Bates College

Host: Erika Nyhus

Title: The Neuroscience of Memory Control: From Intrusions to Resilience

February 7, 2025

Speaker: Sam Brill-Weil, PhD Candidate in the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, Bowdoin Alumni

Host: Dan Powell

February 21, 2025 Cancelled due to illness

Speaker: Professor Barry Logan, Bowdoin College

Title: An Art-Inspired Deeper Look at Wildland Ecology and Stewardship

March 28, 2025

Speakers:

Chris Cashman, MD, PhD, Physician Scientist in Neurology at MGB, Bowdoin Alumni

Title: Famine in a time of feasting: Mechanisms of length-dependent axon degeneration in diabetic neuropathy.

Jackie Brosnan Cashman, PhD, Senior Scientific Writer at PathAI, Bowdoin Alumni

Title: Writing a Path Toward AI

Host: Hadley Horch

April 11, 2025

Speaker: Allison Barner, Clare Booth Luce Assistant Professor of Biology, Colby College

Host: Patty Jones

April 18, 2025

Speaker: Suegene Noh, Associate Professor of Biology, Colby College

Host: Anne McBride

April 25, 2025

Speaker: Allie Igwe, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech

Host: Anne McBride

Title: Locally-Adapted Microbes Support Plant Growth in “Extreme” Environments.

September 20, 2024

Mike Lawrence, Asst. Director for Exhibitions, Smithsonian (Host: Barry Logan)

Title: Museum Exhibition as Venues for Science Communications

October 3, 2024

Poet: Alison Deming & Artist: Stefan Paterak (Host: Patty Jones)

October 11, 2024

Arthur Middleton, Associate Professor of Wildlife Management and Policy, UC Berkeley on Wildlife (Host: Barry Logan)

October 11, 2024

Sarah Wong,  (Host: Patty Jones)

Title: TBD Topic: Guillemot work in Nunatsiavut

October 24, 2024

Lisa Munoz, SciComm Services (Host: Erika Nyhus)

Title: Women in Science

February 16, 2024

Anna Forsman, Assistant Professor, colby College (Host: Mary Rogalski)

Title: Fecal Forensics: piecing together DNA-based clues to understand avian physiology, behavior and ecology.

March 29, 2024

Doug Rausher, Senior Scientist, Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Sciences (Host: Dave Carlon)

April 19, 2024

Kristen Hultgren, Associate Professor, Seattle university (Host: Dave Carlon)

April 26, 2024

Shivon Robinson, Assistant Professor, Williams College (Host: Dan Powell)

Title: Neurobehavioral effects of early life opioid exposure in a mouse model.

September 8, 2023

Bailey Schultz, Ph. D. Candidate, Harvard Medical School (Host: Jake Muscato)

Title: How bacteria perform across-the-membrane chemistry to protect themselves from our immune system

September 22, 2023

Grace McKenzie-Smith, Postdoc at the Center for the Physics of Biological Function and the Lewis Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University (Host: Jack Bateman)

Title: Time and isolation: quantifying the behavior of continually surveilled fruit flies and lonely bumblebees 

October 20, 2023

Manuel Lerdau, Professor of Environmental Sciences and Biology, University of Virginia (Host: Barry Logan)

Title: Biogenic Volatile Organic Carbon, Communities, and Ecosystems

November 10, 2023

Youssef Ezzyat, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior, Integrative Sciences, Wesleyan University (Host: Erika Nyhus)

Title: Neural basis of memory

November 17, 2023

Chris Moore, Assistant Professor, Colby College (Host: Patty Jones)

Title: The population ecology of mutualism

December 8, 2023

Gina Lonati, PhD Candidate, University of New Brunswick Saint John (Host: Amy Johnson)

Title: From Sea and Sky: New perspectives on studying whales & their prey

January 27, 2023

Mark Haussmann, Russell-Childers Professor in the Laboratory Sciences and Professor of Biology, Bucknell University (Host: Patty Jones)

Title: Bird's Eye View of Stress and Aging

February 3, 2023

Stephen Van Hooser, Associate Professor of Biology, Brandeis University (Host: Dan Powell)

Title: Early Experience and Development of the Visual System

February 10, 2023

Julia Nepper, Postdoctoral Associate, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery/Microbiome Hub (Host: Anne McBride)

Title: Increased Discovery Rate of Bacterial Antibiosis by Using Physiologically Stressful Screening Conditions

February 17, 2023

Hannes Baumann, Associate Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut (Host: Dave Carlon)

Title: The Unusual Ecology and Climate Sensitivity of Sand Lance, a Key Forage Fish on the Northwest-Atlantic Shelf

March 3, 2023

Grace Burgin, Hopkins Lab, Harvard University (Hosts: Olivia Bronzo-Munich & Dave Carlon)

Title: Evolution of Pollen-Pistol Incompatibilities in a Texas Wildflower

March 30, 2023 (note: this is a Thursday evening talk)

Valerie Trouet, Professor, College of Science, University of Arizona (Host: Barry Logan)

Title: Tree Story: What We Can Learn About Climate History from the Rings in Trees

April 7, 2023

Katie Dubois, Doherty Marine Biology Postdoctoral Scholar, Bowdoin College (Host: Dave Carlon)

Title: Species Interactions and Ecological Resilience to Ocean Warming: Investigations in Coastal Maine

April 14, 2023 (remote lecture)

Jennifer Ruesink, Professor of Biology, University of Washington (Hosts: Katie Dubois & Patty Jones)

Title: Molecular and Genetic Control of Flowering and its Importance for Resilience of a Marine Plant (Eelgrass)

April 28, 2023

Jacob Blum, Postdoctoral Scholar, Genetics, Stanford University (Host: Jack Bateman)

Title: Motor Neuron Heterogeneity and Vulnerability in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

September 23, 2022

Caroline Smith, (Incoming) Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College (Host:Daniel Powell)

Title: Microglia and microbiota as sculptors of the social brain

September 30, 2022
Manuel Diaz-Rios, Professor, Biology & Neuroscience, Director of Neuroscience Program, Bowdoin College (Host: Bruce Kohorn)

Title:  The Effects of Environmental Stressors on Central Nervous System Function

October 14, 2022
Amy Spens, Postdoctoral Researcher, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Hosts: Jack Bateman & Vlad Douhovnikoff)

Title: DUXC-family transcription factors inhibit the transcriptional response to Interferon gamma

November 11, 2022
Jess Floro, Boston University (Host: Anne McBride)

Title: Exploring the RNA-Regulatory Functions of the Essential Gene Silencing Defective 2 (SDE2)

November 18, 2022
Ta Herrera, Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College (Host:Barry Logan)

Title:  Bioeconomics

December 2, 2022
Derek Huffman, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Colby College  (Host: Erika Nyhus)

Title:  Human spatial memory

September 24, 2021
Dr. Nicole Martinez, Yale University/Stanford University (Host: Anne McBride)
Uncovering new functions of RNA modifications in mRNA processing

October 15, 2021
Martin Kruse, Bates College  (Host: Patsy Dickinson)
Regulation of neuronal activity by phosphoinositide metabolism - Can one phospholipid family really control our brain?

October 29, 2021
Kyle Martin, Bowdoin College
When flowers play dead: microbes as architects of a deceptive floral phenotype

November 5, 2021
Jacquelyn Gill, University of Maine, Orono  (Host:  Mary Rogalski)
Putting the dead to work: leveraging ice age extinctions for biodiversity in a warming world

November 12, 2021
Christine Isabella, Bowdoin College  (Host: Bruce Kohorn)
Lectin-sequencing for analyzing microbial communities

November 19, 2021
Conor Taff, Cornell Lab of Ornithology  (Host: Patricia Jones)
Ecophysiology and behavior of birds

December 3, 2021
Luigi Bundone, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy  (Host: Barry Logan)
Mediterranean monk seal conservation and ecology

February 23, 2021 - Jointly sponsored by Earth and Oceanographic Science and Biology
Merritt Turetsky, University of Colorado (Host: Barry Logan and Anneka Williams)
Thawing permafrost, peat fires and loss of ecological legacies in northern ecosystems

March 3, 2021 - 7:50am EST
*To accommodate international time zone of speaker, please note special time of seminar at 7:50am EST on Wednesday, March 3*
Pawat Seritrakul, Silpakorn University (Host: Barry Logan)
Bridging animal genomes to phenotypes: An epigenetic journey from Maine to Thailand

March 16, 2021
Olivia Rhoades, Florida International University (Host: Katie DuBois)
Northeastern Pacific kelp forests to Western Atlantic seagrass beds: predation and herbivory across anthropogenic and environmental gradients 

March 30, 2021
Laramie D. Lemon, Emory University (Host: Anne McBride)
A "tail" of histones: using budding yeast to investigate mutations found in cancer

April 13, 2021
Katharina Quinlan, University of Rhode Island (Host: Manuel Díaz-Ríos)
Is excitability altered in ALS?

April 20, 2021
Brielle Ferguson, Stanford University (Host: Hadley Horch)
Exploring Attention Impairments Across Disease States

May 4, 2021
Alex Moore, American Museum of Natural History (Host: Mary Rogalski)
Holistic Conservation: Incorporating Science and Culture into Conservation

January 31, 2020
P.J. Lariviere, Northeastern University (Host: Anne McBride) 
Division with a twist: Linking the bacterial cytoskeleton to cell wall synthesis

February 7, 2020
Muneer Hasham, Jackson Labs (Host: Jack Bateman and Dani Calles)
From basic biological concept to a clinical trial

February 14, 2020
Rytas Vilgalys, Duke University (Host: Bruce Kohorn) 
Communication and coevolution between forest trees and their sympbiotic fungi 

February 21, 2020
Daniel Powell, Brandeis University (Host: Patsy Dickinson)
Is coupling between fast and slow oscillator circuits in Cancer borealis temperature compensated?

February 28, 2020
Christopher Bennett, Harvard University (Host: Erika Nyhus)
Investigating functional vision in cerebral visual impairment using virtual reality and neuroimaging

March 6, 2020
David Schulz, University of Missouri (Host: Patsy Dickinson) 
Variability, plasticity and identity of neurons in “simple” circuits

September 12, 2019
Jason Aloisio, Wildlife Conservation Society
Green roof ecosystems and their role in establishing resilient cities

September 19, 2019
Jarod Rollins, MDIBL
Dietary restriction promotes longevity though post-transcriptional regulation

October 3, 2019
Tim Divoll, Indiana State University
Foraging niche overlap in two forest-dependent bats (Myotis)

October 24, 2019
Tom Wessels, Antioch University
Self-organization, Co-evolution, Resiliency and Stability

October 31, 2019
Gerald Downes, UMass Amherst
From swimming to seizures: Zebrafish behavioral mutants as models for human epilepsies

November 14, 2019
Gary Langham, Chief Scientist for Audubon
Climate Change and the Power of Everyday Actions

November 21, 2019
Rachel Hovel, University of Maine
Community-based research reveals diverse fish migrations in the changing Arctic

February 7, 2019
Michelle Green, Bates College (Host: Erika Nyhus)
From photons to categories: representational transformations enabling high-level vision

February 14, 2019
Tom Daniel, University of Washington (Host: Amy Johnson)
A swell idea: molecular views of radial motions during muscle contraction

February 28, 2019
David Conover, Compass Light Productions (Host: Brittany Jellison)
Behold the Earth: A Cinematic Reply to Edward O. Wilson’s Appeal

March 7, 2019
Julie Wells, Jackson Labs (Host: Stephanie Richards)
Using Mouse Models to Understand Cancer Biology

March 28, 2019
Brian Cheng, UMass Amherst (Host: Brittany Jellison)
A cross-scale approach to exploring global change in the ocean

April 4, 2019
Sara Wasserman, Wellesley College (Host: Patsy Dickinson)
State-dependent decision making in flying Drosophila

April 11, 2019
Kristy Townsend, University of Maine (Host: Rick Thompson)
Remodeling in the Adult Brain: Impacts on Appetite and Calorie Burning

April 18, 2019
Gerry Carter, Ohio State University (Host: Patty Jones) 
Cooperative relationships in vampire bats

April 25, 2019
Derrick Morton, Emory University (Host: Anne McBride) 
Using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Genome Editing to Model Human Neurological Disease in Drosophila

May 2, 2019
Carol Lee, University of Wisconsin (Host: Mike Palopoli)
Rapid Genomic Evolution during Habitat Invasions

September 13, 2018
Richard Mooi, California Academy of Sciences (Host: Amy Johnson)
Deep time and deep seas: Enigmatic urchins and starfish and what bizarre animals can tell us about life on Earth

September 24, 2018
Tom Fleischner, Natural History Institute (Host: Nat Wheelwright)
Natural History: Reciprocal Healing and the Path of Delight

September 27, 2018
Barbara Mellone, University of Connecticut (Host: Jack Bateman) — Honors Talk
Centromeres: Getting a Grip of Chromosomes

October 4, 2018
Andrew Reinmann, Environ. Sci. Initiative CUNY & Hunter College (Host: Barry Logan)
The Forgotten Season: Winter Climate as an Important Mediator of Forest Response to Climate Change

October 25, 2018
Erik Peterson, University of Alabama (Host: Crystal Hall, DCSI)
Finding the Organism in Computational History of Biology

November 1, 2018
Carlos Prada, University of Rhode Island (Host: Dave Carlon)
Reconstructing the Past to Predict the Future of Caribbean Corals Under Climate Change

November 8, 2018
Terence Capellini, Harvard (Host: Mike Palopoli) 
When Evolution Hurts: The Regulatory Control of Knee Development and Osteoarthritis Risk

November 15, 2018
Peter Buston, Boston University (Host: Dave Carlon)
Behaviors of coral reef fishes provide strong support for some major new ideas about the evolution of cooperation.

November 29, 2018
Amy Newman, University of Guelph (Host: Patty Jones) — Honors Talk
Stress and Sex in the Wild: How the Early-life Environment Influences Adult Stress Physiology

December 6, 2018
Ruth Jacobson Franklin, Yale University (Host: Anne McBride)
The Immune System Beyond Host Defense

February 1, 2018
Sarah Kingston (Bowdoin College)
Omic-scale inference in a changing ocean:  from genotype and phenotype to adaptation and speciation

February 8, 2018
Alix Purdy (Amherst College)
Bacterial regulatory networks controlling both host and microbial metabolism: a tale in two Vibrios

February 15, 2018
Brian Beliveau (Wyss Institute)
Oligo-based technologies for visualizing genome organization in individual cells

February 22, 2018
Gary Mawe (University of Vermont)
Serotonin as a dynamic and therapeutically relevant signaling molecule: Lessons from the little brain in the gut

March 1, 2018
Eve Marder (Brandeis University)
Individual Variability and Robustness to Environmental Perturbations in a Rhythmic Motor System

March 8, 2018
Barbara Mellone (University of Connecticut)
Centromeres: Getting a Grip of Chromosomes

March 29, 2018
Yui Suzuki (Wellesley College)
Growing back a leg: lessons learned from beetle limb regeneration

April 12, 2018
Hellen Hou (Columbia University)
The Brainstem Hub: Central Neural Control of Brain-Body Coordination”

April 26, 2018
Lee Goldstein (Boston University)

May 3, 2018
Joe Thompson ‘91 (Franklin and Marshall)
The consequences of shape: Non-uniform muscle dynamics in hollow, cylindrical muscular organs

September 7, 2017
Mike Webster, Cornell University
Exploring the Sexual Phenotype

September 21, 2017
Leah Wilson, Bowdoin College
Staying close for comfort; investigating the neural mechanisms that promote grouping behavior

September 28, 2017
Paula Schlax, Bates College
RNA decay in Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease

October 5, 2017
Benjamin Harrison, University of New England
Structural Dynamics of Adult Peripheral Neurons

October 12, 2017
Brett Huggett, Bates College
Structure and Function of Whole-tree 3D Xylem Networks in Response to Past, Present and Future Drought 

October 19, 2017
Eric Joyce, University of Pennsylvania
Unraveling the molecular basis of chromosome interactions

November 2, 2017
Sean Mullen, Boston University
Disentangling population history and mimetic wing pattern evolution among hybridizing butterfly lineages

November 16, 2017
Nichole Price, Colby College & Bigelow Laboratory
Can local mitigation strategies buffer coastal acidification?

February 9, 2017
Dr. James Olson, Wright State (Hadley Horch host)
The Good and the Bad of Brain Cell Volume Regulation

February 16, 2017
Shannon Elf, Harvard (Anne McBride host)
Dissecting the molecular mechanism of mutant calreticulin in bone marrow cancers

February 23, 2017
Ruth McCole, Harvard (Jack Bateman host)
Ultraconserved elements: a 300 million year old mystery

March 2, 2017
Bradley Woodworth, University of Geulph (Nat Wheelwright host)
Full annual cycle population ecology of a migratory songbird

March 30, 2017
Robert Cluss, Middlebury College (Barry Logan host)
The Acetylproteome of the Lyme Disease Pathogen: Implications for Host Adaptation and Pathogenesis

April 6, 2017
David Rand, Brown University (Mike Palopoli host)
Genes and Environment in Evolution and Disease: Common features from our different genomes

April 13, 2017
Robert Johnston, Johns Hopkins University (Jack Bateman host)
Stochastic patterning of photoreceptor in fly and human retinas

April 20, 2017
Hannah ter Hofstede, Dartmouth (Hadley Horch host)
Sensory Ecology: the acoustic world of bats and insects

May 4, 2017
Andrew Mountcastle, Bates College (Amy Johnson host)
Bumper Bees: How flying insects cope with a lifetime of wing collisions

September 15, 2016
Manuel E. Diaz Rios (Patsy Dickinson host)
Identification and characterization of trunk-controlling neural networks in mammals 

September 22, 2016
David Van Vactor, Harvard University (Jack Bateman host)
Regulation of Synapse Development in Drosophila 

September 29, 2016
Jonathan Losos, Harvard University (Mike Palopoli host)
Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Evolution of Anoles

October 6, 2016
Robert Ross, University of New Hampshire (Erika Nyhus host)
Genetic variation and individual differences in recognition memory

October 13, 2016
Kevin Bonham, Harvard University (Jack Bateman host)
Extensive Horizontal Gene Transfer in Cheese-Associated Bacteria

October 20, 2016
Becca Selden, Rutgers (Amy Johnson host)
Climate, fishing, and marine food webs: predator-prey interactions in a changing ocean

October 27, 2016
Dan Cristol, William & Mary College (Nat Wheelwright host)
Oh Shenandoah: Mercury and songbirds in a changing world

November 3, 2016
Sandra Rieger, MDI Biological Laboratory (Bill Jackman host)
Jekyll & Hyde functions of hydrogen peroxide: At the crossroads of sensory axon de- and regeneration

November 17, 2016
Hernan Garcia, U.C. Berkeley (Jack Bateman host)
In the Shadow of the Fly: Molecular Mechanisms of Shadow Enhancers in Development

December 1, 2016
Thew Suskiewicz, University of Laval (Dave Carlon host)
Dynamic times for the coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine: how can we predict future when what we see now isn’t the way it used to be?

December 8, 2016
Carolyn Tepolt, Smithsonian Institution (Dave Carlon host)
Adaptation in the sea: insights from marine invaders

March 3, 2016
Daniel Mennill, University of Windsor, Ontario  (Nat Wheelwright)
Love Songs and Battle Cries:  Cooperative and Competitive Acoustic Signals in Birds

March 10, 2016
Sharon Swartz, Brown University (Amy Johnson)
Bats Aren’t Birds or Bugs: Skin, Stretching, Sensing, Spindles and Spinning in Evolution’s Youngest Flapping Flyers

March 31, 2016
Melissa Pespeni, University of Vermont (Mike Palopoli)
Evolutionary Genomics in a Diverse and Changing World: Studies in Sea Urchins and horned beetles

April 7, 2016
Geoffrey Ganter, University of New England (Hadley Horch)
How Fruit Flies Might Help Treat Chronic Pain

April 14, 2016
Clare Bates Congdon, Bowdoin College
Computational Inference of Regulatory Elements for Genes Important in Kidney Development

April 21, 2016
Robert Jackman, Boston University (William Jackman)
Finding the Tumor-Secreted Factors that Cause Whole-Body Muscle Loss in Cancer

May 5, 2016
Melissa Maginnis, University of Maine, Orono (Anne McBride)
Cellular Determinants of Viral Infection: Proper ID Required