UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Assistant Professor of Biology
Aimee Jaramillo-Lambert, Assistant Professor of Biology, has received a $2 million R35 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study chromosome shape and distribution in meiosis of sperm and eggs. The formation of sperm and eggs with the wrong number of chromosomes, or with misshapen chromosomes, are key contributing factors to infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects in humans.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Biology
Alenka Hlousek-Radojcic, Associate Professor of Biology, is the winner of the 2021 Excellence in Honors Teaching Award. Her efforts to nurture the sense of learning community through the implementation of hands-on residential lab activities supported COVID-19 mandated online instruction during the 2020-21 academic year.
Alenka Hlousek-Radojcic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. She holds a MSc from the University of Zagreb in Croatia, and a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Dr. Hlousek-Radojcic, known to her students as Prof. Alenka, is a science educator whose passion for and excellence in education have been recognized with an Outstanding Teaching Award from the 2015 College of Arts and Sciences, and the 2021 Excellence in Honors Teaching award. She was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer who taught at Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Soon after she became a Blue Hen, Prof. Alenka joined the team of preceptors, faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and laboratory coordinators to develop and deliver Introductory Biology curricula integrated with General Chemistry for Life Sciences. The integrated format of the Introductory Biology I and 2 curricula is result of many years of collaborations with chemistry faculty. In particular, the rich and rewarding partnership with Prof. Jacqueline Fajardo, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, resulted in a unique Honors Integrated Introductory Biology and Chemistry course sequence that enables students to develop an understanding of the power of natural laws in shaping living systems. Prof. Alenka also teaches the upper-level Introduction to Microbiology course, and co-teaches the graduate level science communication course, Making Science Make Sense, with Dr. Lydia Timmins, Associate Professor of Communication.
Job Titles:
- Computer Support Specialist II / Information Technology - Systems Operations, Management and Support
Dr. Cooper is very active as the Health Disparity and Community Outreach Coordinator for Helen H. Graham Center for Translational Cancer Research; he is a consultant or collaborator on NIH grant proposals, co-mentors undergraduate research students (Yasmin Mann received a Goldwater Scholarship last year), and is a sought-after speaker and organizer for many community engagement initiatives, including at the UD Partnership for Healthy Communities with Del State, and as Chair of the Body and Soul Wellness Ministry which leads numerous health-oriented community educational and screening events.
Job Titles:
- Academic Program Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Dr. Nike Olabisi is an assistant professor of Biological Sciences and this year's recipient of the Louis L. Redding Award from UD's Office of the Vice Provost of Diversity. Dr. Olabisi has been a longtime advocate for the success of underrepresented and first-generation students in the sciences. She adopts inclusive practices in her classroom and has promoted this approach to faculty on campus as a way to foster equitable opportunities in the sciences. Dr. Olabisi has a passion for connecting at-risk, first generation and underrepresented students to resources and strategies for successfully navigating their academic experience towards attaining their career aspirations. She serves as an advisor and mentor to countless students. As part of her interest in diversity initiatives on campus, Dr. Olabisi also serves as the co-PI and Academic Director for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Civic Leadership Institute funded by the US Department of State and administered by UD Institute for Global Studies(IGS). The program supports 25 young African Fellows for a summer leadership institute hosted by several institutions including UD. This institute promotes global awareness at UD, and it also engages with the broader local community and statewide.
Job Titles:
- Academic Program Coordinator
Equipment fabrication for research and teaching labs. Equipment maintenance and repair.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Assistant Professor
Justin Parreno, Assistant Professor of Biology, leads a multidisciplinary group that investigates biomechanical signaling pathways in Musculoskeletal and Ocular Disease Processes. He has received a $2.4 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with Dawn Elliott in Biomedical Engineering, to study how mechanical overloading of tendons leads to chronic tissue degeneration and clinical disorders including tendinopathy or tendon rupture, conditions affecting nearly a third of physically active individuals.
Job Titles:
- Business Administrator II
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor of Biology
Lisha Shao, Assistant Professor of Biology, leads a group investigating the genetic and neural mechanisms of reward. She has received a $1.98 million R35 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the mechanisms that underpin sexual reward in the brain of female Drosophila, which will advance our understanding of the rewarding aspect of mating behavior and provide novel insights into fundamental principles for the encoding and regulation of natural reward.
Job Titles:
- Academic Support Coordinator II
Dr. Neunuebel provides hands-on research experience to local high school students
Job Titles:
- a.I. DuPont Hospital for Children
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Associate Director
- Chairman of Biological Sciences Is Associate Director of the New Delaware Center of Musculoskeletal Research ( DCMR )
- Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences
Velia M. Fowler, Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences is Associate Director of the new Delaware Center of Musculoskeletal Research (DCMR)
Read more about Velia Fowler
Velia M. Fowler, Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences, is pleased to be the Associate Director of the Delaware Center for Musculoskeletal Research (DCMR) - an NIH-designated Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) established in February 2021. Her research background in multi-scale investigations of cell and tissue structure and function aligns well with the scientific goals and approaches of the DCMR. Fowler will assist in the management and scientific direction of the DCMR, serving on the Executive Committee with Dawn Elliott (PI), Millie Sullivan and Liyun Wang (Research Core leaders) from the College of Engineering. Fowler will also help organize the scientific mentoring efforts, via bi-monthly DCMR Science Meetings of faculty and their lab teams, facilitate informal "Walk and Talk" peer-mentoring conversations, and "On-Site Proposal Feedback" of grant writing during proposal development. Faculty in the DCMR will also participate in the Junior Investigative Network of the DE-CTR and DE-INBRE, and the UD-supported NIH Proposal Academy, for which Fowler is a faculty co-Advisor. Project leaders will be provided funds to visit one senior researcher outside of UD each year to improve their research breadth and collaborative interactions, and DCMR faculty will participate in mentoring programs of UD ADVANCE and the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD). The combination of an engineer (Elliott) and a biologist (Fowler) as leaders of the Center will enable a strong interdisciplinary approach to the administration and scientific direction of the DCMR.
Velia M. Fowler is Associate Director of new Delaware Center for Musculoskeletal Research