The long-term interest of my research program is to understand the biology of disease vectors to identify novel strategies for vector control and pathogen transmission. My lab focuses on two arthropod vectors of human diseases: mosquitoes and ticks. Our research spans multiple disciplines, including ecology, biochemistry and physiology, genetics, genomics, and computational biology, to investigate questions related to arthropod biology. We employ techniques that encompass molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of studies. Since setting up my lab at UNR in 2016, the most significant research contributions of my program have been 1) pioneering an embryo injection protocol for ticks, 2) the first successful use of CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing in ticks, 3) producing the first chromosome-level genome assembly for a tick species, and 4) adapting and optimizing a RADseq protocol (Rapture) for genome-wide markers to understand population genetic structure of mosquitoes and ticks. In addition, we have recently initiated a project for the identification of biomarkers for early diagnostics of Lyme disease.
Kevin Shoemaker
Broadly, I’m interested in coupling ecological data (e.g., census records, mark-recapture data, remote sensing) with simulation models, statistics and machine learning to support evidence-based conservation and wildlife management.
Pradeep Menezes
Dr. Menezes is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. Before joining the University, he worked as an adjunct assistant professor in the Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and post-doctoral research associate in the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh.
Tin-Yau Tam
Professor Tin-Yau Tam received his B.Sc. in 1982 and Ph.D. (Mathematics) in 1986, both from the University of Hong Kong in 1986. He currently serves as the Department Mathematics and Statistics Chair & Professor, and Seneca C. and Mary B. Weeks Chair of Mathematics at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He was selected as Lloyd and Sandra Nix Endowed Professor (2012-2015) at Auburn University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics Chair (2012-2018), Director of Assessment and Planning (2000-2012) for the College of Sciences and Mathematics (2020-2012) before he joined UNR. Tam’s areas of specialization are Matrix Theory, Multilinear Algebra, Numerical Ranges, Differential Geometry, Lie Theory, and their applications. To date, Tam has authored or coauthored about 115 research papers (35 are single-authored papers) and a research monograph Matrix Inequalities and their Extensions to Lie Groups, CRC/Taylor & Francis Group, 2018. He serves on the editorial boards of three peer-reviewed math journals: Linear and Multilinear Algebra, Electronic Linear Algebra, and Special Matrices. He has delivered more than 250 talks and a few of them were keynote lectures and plenary talks. He has organized many international math workshops and conferences. Tam has graduated 10 Ph.D. students. He served on the Board of Director (2009-2013) and the Advisory Committee (2020-2022) of the International Linear Algebra Society. He currently serves on the Scientific Committee of the International Research Center on Tensor and Matrix Theory at Shanghai University (since 2016) and the Board of Governors of Pacific Journal of Mathematics (since 2021).
Scott Morrison
Scott has served as WNC’s Accreditation Liaison Officer with NWCCU since 2017 and as an NWCCU evaluator since 2015. Scott’s recent accomplishments include partnering with colleagues and communities on dual credit to build WNC’s Jump Start College Program, expanding cohorts to support underserved populations, revising WNC’s learning outcomes and assessment practices to align with institutional goals, and helping to lead a full revision of the Western’s strategic plan.
M. Rashed Khan
Khan Lab@UNR aims to study, design, and develop soft materials, unconventional processes, and reconfigurable micro/nanodevices that can be harnessed and optimized further for advanced biochemical, biomedical, and physicochemical applications. The lab is also keen to establish a multidisciplinary smart-manufacturing research group, including researchers from various backgrounds. Through short and long-term active collaboration, Khan Lab@UNR would like to address fundamental challenges associated with soft micro-device fabrication, 3D/4D (bio)printing, and patterning, advanced hybrid sensor manufacturing, biomedical device development – which are still unnoticed and under-explored, and need further investigation.
Additionally, our group also focuses on computational neuroscience and neurobioengineering. Under this research direction, we study human brain, brain functions, brain structure so that the established knowledge can be broadly applicable to general biomecical science and knowledge of the brain and brain-diseases.
Jenny Ouyang
How do some individuals in the same population raise ten offspring while others only have one? How do some individuals survive cold winters and breed again while others do not live past their first winter? Our lab is interested in the ecology and evolution of physiological systems. To answer the questions above, we empirically test, in natural and laboratory populations, how, and at what rate, physiologically-regulated traits can evolve and enable organismal adaptation to changing environmental conditions.
El Hachemi Bouali
I am an applied geologist by training and an opportunistic scientist in practice, meaning I love geology but am interested in many areas of the natural sciences. I can abbreviate my research focus with the acronym GASP: geophysical and surface processes.
Geophysical Processes. I use geophysical and remote sensing instruments to study changes on the Earth’s surface and within the shallow subsurface. I will be starting a research project (early 2023) on utilizing passive seismic methods to map bedrock depth (or sediment thickness) as an indirect approach to identify buried faults and to study extensional tectonics of the Las Vegas valley.
Surface Processes. I use an interdisciplinary approach to study our dynamic Earth. A major research project I am currently working on (2021-future) is titled Analyses of spring water chemistry and microbiology in the Spring Mountains, Nevada. I use field and laboratory methods across multiple disciplines (geology, biology, and chemistry) to quantify physical properties of high-elevation springs and analyze microbial communities found in these springs.
I teach courses that are required or electives for the BS in Environmental & Resource Science and BS in Biology. I teach the following courses at Nevada State:
–GEOL 101A/L Exploring Planet Earth Lecture and Lab
–GEOL 333 Principles of Geomorphology
–GEOL 405 Geology of the National Parks
–NRES 322 Soils
–NRES 467 Regional and Global Issues in Environmental Science
–BIOL/ENV 494 Biology and Environmental Science Colloquium
I received a Ph.D. in Geology from Michigan Technological University, an MS in Geosciences and BS in Geophysics from Western Michigan University, and an AS from Kalamazoo Valley Community College. I was the Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Science at Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow while earning my Ph.D. I have also worked as a Geological Mapping Technician for two summers at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I assisted with the creation of ten surficial geology quadrangle maps by acquiring near-surface geophysical data and auger samples.
Douglas Sims
Douglas Sims is Dean, School of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics at the College of Southern Nevada. He leads a school of more than 280 staff (FT and PT) serving 18000+ students. His focus is in sediments, geochemistry, environmental chemistry, and paleohydrology in the Southern Great Basin and Mojave Desert. Current projects are paleohydrology of desert playas, trace metals scavenging by rock varnish, surface water quality, and sediment migration and transport of trace metals in agricultural soils.
Andrew Zuza
I am a field-based structural geologist that studies how the Earth’s continental crust deforms. My research primarily involves detailed field mapping coupled with quantitative analyses, such as mineral/rock dating, examination of rocks in microscopes, and geochemical analyses.