Student Opportunities
Motivated and curious students are always welcome to come by and talk about senior undergraduate and graduate studies. Preference is given to students with a first class grade point average, but students that have otherwise demonstrate aptitude and interest in research are welcome to contact me for opportunities. Volunteering opportunities may also be available. Please read through the research section of the website to find out more about what we do, and if it interests you.
You may also check the Centre for Biofouling Research for opportunities.
I am currently on Sabbatical from July 1, 2016 to July 1 2017. Following are the courses that I usually teach.
BIOL 111 Introductory Cell Biology:
This course provides a basic introduction to cells as the building blocks of all life and some of the techniques used to study them. The course focuses on the chemistry of life, the structure and function of cellular components, and cellular processes such as membrane transport, cellular respiration, photosynthesis, cell division, meiosis, mendelian genetics, and transcription and translation. Required for all continuing students in Biology. Three credits and lab.
BIOL 335 Developmental Biology:
Embryos are amazing objects wherein the organism itself begins to take form from a set of instructions contained in a single cell, the fertilized egg. This course is an introduction to animal development, placed in experimental, genetic, cellular, molecular, ecological and biomedical contexts. Similarities and differences in major patterns of animal development will be emphasized. Three credits. Lecture and lab.
BIOL 411 Evolution and Development:
Development is the process that builds the organism (phenotype) whereas Evolution is the process by which the instructions for making the organism (genotype) becomes modified over time. How do these fundamental biological processes interact? Studies in Development have resulted in the modification and revision of contemporary evolutionary theory. In this topics-based course, we explore mechanisms of evolutionary change, the shared genetic bases of development among organisms having very different kinds of bodies, the origin of embryonic development itself, the origin of novelties, life history evolution, regressive evolution, phylogenetic analyses of change and how the environment and development interact to produce evolutionary change. Three credits. Lecture and Seminar.
BIOL 452 Bioinformatics:
Bioinformatics is the field of science that uses computers and computer programs to store, organize, analyze and retrieve biological information. The sheer amount of biological (mainly nucleotide and protein) data that has arisen in recent years is astonishing, with many thousands of genomes from viruses to humans now sequenced and annotated and many more to come. Many new discoveries are being made in fields ranging from anthropology, to protein evolution, to individualized medicine. In short, Bioinformatics is one of the major new frontiers in biology. The rate-limiting step to using all this information is simply human expertise. This course provides an introduction to Bioinformatics, with an emphasis on the biology side of things. The course focuses how the data are generated, how to access and manage these data, how to retrieve particular types of data, and what some of the end uses of these data are, or could be. No formal computing background is necessary (as I don’t have one!) and no mathematic skills are required, although a basic working knowledge of the Internet and file storage and manipulation will be necessary. Exercises will entail specific examples to increase your familiarity with databases and how to use them to generate meaningful data. Lectures are taught in the computer lab, so there is a lot of hands-on instruction. Prerequisite is molecular biology (Biol 317), or a first class average (>80) in Genetics (BIOL 204).
Courses I Previously Taught
BIOL 312 Marine Biology:
A course that considers life in all marine zones. While focused on animal life, we consider the history of the ocean, its physical nature, a survey of its inhabitants, their adaptiations to life in the sea and biodiversity. Life histories and reproduction of animals will be discussed, including selected symbioses. The physiology and development of organisms are considered with respect to human impacts on marine systems. Three credits and lab. Prerequisites: BIOL 201, 203, 204; Aquatics Resources students exempt.