Philippe Vidon

Executive Director for the Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences

Philippe obtained his PhD in Geography from York University, ON, Canada in 2004, and subsequently occupied professor positions at Indiana University – Purdue University in Indianapolis (IUPUI) and at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry a.k.a. ESF, in Syracuse, NY. There he served as Director of the Hydrological Systems Science Council, among other leadership appointments. His most recent research has focused on a broad range of topics including (but not limited to): watershed management, water quality, soil biogeochemistry (e.g., N, P, C, Hg cycling and soil N2O, CO2, and CH4 emissions), bioenergy, and the impact of beaver dam analogues on floodplain hydrogeomorphology and landscape resiliency.

Jennifer Nash

Dr. Jennifer Nash is a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy (NCS), a Credentialed Balance and Falls Professional, and a Certified Exercise Expert in Aging Adults (CEEAA). Dr. Nash is an Assistant Professor in the School of Physical Therapy at University of Nevada, Las Vegas teaching neurologic rehabilitation, balance and vestibular rehabilitation, as well as acute care and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. She teaches nationally and internationally on vestibular rehabilitation and is the current Chair-Elect of the Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy Balance and Falls Special Interest Group. She is the co-developer of APTA Geriatrics Credentialed Balance and Fall Professional courses. Dr. Nash has clinical experience working with older adults in the acute care, inpatient rehab, and outpatient settings including managing the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health Outpatient Neuro Rehab Program in Las Vegas, Nevada until 2019. She currently works PRN in Dignity Health System in Henderson and focuses her research on implementation of evidence-based fall prevention programs for older adults. She is a Stepping On Master Trainer, Tai Ji Quan: Moving for Better Balance leader, and certified in Otago Exercise Program. She has been a multiple sclerosis certified specialist, PWR! Trained, Rocky Steady Boxing Trainer, and Certified Dementia Professional. She serves her community as a member of the Nevada Physical Therapy Board and the Nevada Goes Falls Free Coalition Chair and she is a Nevada State Co-Advocate for APTA Geriatrics.

Brian Schilling

Professor Brian K. Schilling joined the Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences department in 2016, and teaches courses in research methods, scientific writing & communication, and military/first responder human performance.

He directs the Physically Demanding Professions Research Laboratory, which focuses on the physical demands among military, law enforcement, fire, and rescue personnel, and also how to best train to meet these demands. He has an extensive publication record, with over 150 papers and grant proposals in the field of human performance. Dr. Schilling also focuses on Exercise Physiology as a STEM discipline, to maximize workforce development in human performance. He frequently gives guest lectures that focus on evidence-led practice in human performance, specifically for both scientists and practitioners.

Schilling earned his master’s in exercise science from Appalachian State University in 1999, and his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Memphis in 2004. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.

Ping Wang

Ping Wang is a mathematics instructor at Great Basin College (GBC). She was the former director of Academic Success and Testing Center (ASC) at GBC. Ping Wang has worked in higher education for 12 years, and has always been passionate and dedicated to promoting students’ success, both academically and professionally. Currently, Ping Wang is working on her Ph.D. degree in Education at the University of Nevada, Reno, with the emphasis of educational information and technology.

Tom Kozubowski

Following a graduate study of applied mathematics at the University of Warsaw, Poland, Dr. Tomasz J. Kozubowski received MS in Statistics from the University of Texas, El Paso, and Ph.D. in Statistics and Applied Probability from University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Dr. Kozubowski works in the general area of stochastic modeling of natural phenomena in variety of fields, including climate research, geosciences, finance, and economics. His research interests include distribution theory, Laplace distribution and its generalizations, limit theory for random sums, heavy tailed distributions, extremes, mathematical statistics, financial and insurance mathematics, stochastic models for hydro-climatic phenomena, and fractal scaling processes. He has co-authored 120 research publications in probability and statistics, including two monographs.

Dr. Kozubowski is currently an editorial board member of several academic journals and an active reviewer, having refereed for over 100 different academic journals. With the 2016 Sentinel of Science Reward, he was recognized by Publons as one of the top researchers contributing to the peer review in the field of mathematics.

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.

Prakash Phalke

Teaching Faculty as CSN so I do not recent research projects/experience.

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.

Edwin Oh

We are a research group that thrives on collaboration. Through our interactions with collaborators, public health labs, and patients we have developed a research program that interrogates the following themes:

1) Wastewater genomics and COVID-19

Wastewater testing has been used for years to investigate viral infections, to study illicit drug use, and to understand the socioeconomic status of a community based on its food consumption. While tools are in place in many states to evaluate the presence of specific viral strains, the community has not needed previously to collaborate on a global scale to standardize procedures to detect and manage COVID-19 transmission. In response to this challenge, our laboratories in Arizona, Nevada, and Washington have developed collection techniques and genomic and bioinformatic approaches to harmonize and visualize the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection and viral mutation rates in communities populated by local citizens and international tourists. Our findings will contribute to the development of best practices in sampling and processing of wastewater samples and genomic techniques to sequence viral strains, an area required for environmental surveillance of infectious diseases, and has the strong potential to improve the clinically predictive impact of the viral genotype on patient care and vaccine utility.

2) Rare neurological conditions

An association between the 16p13.2 copy number variation deletion and seizures has suggested that a) systematic suppression of each of genes in the loci might yield similar neurological phenotypes seen in the 16p13.2 deletion; and b) such genes might be strong candidates for harboring rare pathogenic point mutations. Through these studies, we discovered USP7 as a message capable of inducing abnormal neurological activity in brain organoids, cultured neurons, and loss-of-function mouse models. Together with collaborators at the Foundation for USP7-Related Diseases (www.usp7.org), our studies are centered on the mechanism by which USP7 gene dosage and rare variants can induce pathology. In addition, we have also identified other gene loci that mimic USP7-related disorders in human and animal models.

3) Ciliary biology and neurodevelopmental conditions

Large-scale studies have begun to map the genetic architecture of Schizophrenia. We now know that the genetic contribution to this condition arises from a variety of lesions that include a) rare copy number variants (CNVs) of strong effect; b) common non-coding alleles of mild effect; and c) rare coding alleles that cluster in biological modules. The challenge that has emerged from these studies is the requirement for large sample sizes to detect significant genetic signals. These findings intimate that SZ is genetically heterogeneous and manifesting potentially as a clinically heterogeneous group of phenotypes with discrete physiological drivers. To address this challenge and to complement the ongoing sequencing effort of cross-sectional SZ, we propose to sample individuals with extreme phenotypes (i.e., resistant to treatment: TRS) to potentially discover an enrichment of causal rare variants which would have otherwise not been observed or been difficult to detect in a large, random sampling of SZ. In addition, we will focus on the role of a specific biological module, the pericentriolar material (including the centrosome, basal body, and primary cilium) and how it relates to the development of the brain and behavior through the genomic and functional dissection of PCM1.

Donald Price

A major theme in my research is to understand how species adapt to diverse environmental and biological factors and diverge into new species. The evolutionary changes that permit species to survive and reproduce across a wide range of environments has resulted in a remarkable range of biological complexity.

My research group studies the interplay of behavior, ecology, genetics, and physiology to determine how species adapt to environmental changes and how diversification of populations leads eventually to the formation of new species. One focus of my group is the amazing Hawaiian Drosophila, which boasts up to 1,000 species in several taxonomic groups. Using genome sequencing and gene expression analyses coupled with detailed behavioral and physiological measurements we have identified genes that are involved in temperature adaptation between two species and between two populations within one species along an environmental gradient. We have also identified genes and epicuticular hydrocarbons that are involved in behavioral reproductive isolation and hybrid sterility between species. Initial studies have begun on the interaction with microbes, (bacteria and yeasts) that are important for food, internal parasites/symbionts, and possibly host-plant associations. In collaboration with others, we are also investigating the genetics of Hawaiian bats and birds, Drosophila melanogaster, the invasive Drosophila suzukii, and Hawaiian Metrosideros trees.