Marjorie Matocq

Projects in her lab focus on studying patterns of geographic population genetic structure and the processes underlying such patterns. Because the current geographic distribution of genetic diversity is determined by a complex interplay of ecology, demography, and population history, the studies are performed at various spatial and temporal scales. To study the processes underlying patterns of genetic diversity and subdivision, we combine modern molecular genetic techniques with morphological and field studies.

Dr. Matocq’s research program is focused on a number of ecological and evolutionary questions at the interface of intra- and interspecific processes. Her research program is heavily collections-based and integrates traditional field and morphological data with molecular and genomic methods to elucidate pattern and process at several spatial and temporal scales. The majority of her work continues to focus on members of the Neotoma fuscipes species complex.

Mark Walker

Dr. Walker’s research supports exposure assessment as a part of risk assessment associated with human health protection. I have conducted studies of exposure and potential for exposure to: Arsenic in private water supplies; E. coli, as an indicator of fecal contamination in water; Leptospira, as a result of changes in land use in Hawaii; and Cryptosporidium. His extension work provides technical support and information through: Water supply operators throughout Nevada; using an innovative partnership and distance learning technologies; Web sites that help interpret water quality and have served as models for at least two national efforts; Peer-reviewed fact sheets and special publications and newsletters; and small grants programs for Extension Educators.

Matt Forister

The Forister lab works in the areas of specialization, diversification, and plant-insect ecology. Specific questions and topics include the evolution of diet breadth, evolutionary interactions across trophic levels, phenology and population regulation. We are also interested in the conservation and management of insect diversity. In the field, our research includes the Great Basin, the Sierra Nevada, and much of the western hemisphere including tropical sites. In the lab, we combine physiological and behavioral experiments with genomic sequencing of novel-model organisms.

Vaidyanathan (Ravi) Subramanian

Ravi Subramanian is currently an associate professor of chemical engineering. He is on the graduate faculty of the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Department and an adjunct in the Chemistry Department. He is also the solar energy thrust area coordinator in the Renewable Energy Center at the University. His area of research focus is on nanostructured materials for solar energy utilization. He has expertise in the synthesis, characterization and application of photoactive materials in photovoltaics, clean fuel production and environmental remediation. In his 12 years of research he has developed inorganic materials including semiconductor-semiconductor and semiconductor-metal nanocomposites for applications related to solar energy utilization and fuel cells.

Materials discovery and devices development to harvest solar energy continues to be a challenge. Eco-friendly and earth abundant elements have a great potential to harvest solar energy. With solar energy: your future is bright!

Robert Sheridan

Our research revolves around highly reactive organic molecules. These unstable and elusive intermediates, such as carbenes, nitrenes, and biradicals, are especially important in photochemistry, but their chemistry and properties are poorly understood. Moreover, these molecules are related to searches for organic conducting and magnetic materials. Much of the organic synthesis that we carry out involves making previously unknown compounds, and we spend a considerable amount of our time developing new synthetic methods to tackle these challenging molecules. A specialized technique that we use to study reaction intermediates involves matrix isolation photochemistry. In this method, organic molecules are frozen into glasses of inert gas at extremely low temperatures (10 Kelvin). The samples are then irradiated with UV light to generate highly reactive intermediates. The low temperatures and high dilution in inert surroundings protect these otherwise unstable species from reaction. IR and UV spectra of the samples, acquired at low temperature, tell us a great deal about the bonding and structures of the products. Finally, we carry out a variety of ab initio and DFT electronic structure calculations to model the structures, spectra, and electronics of these novel molecules.

Sergiu Dascalu

Dascalu is an associate professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He received a master’s degree in automated control and computers from the Polytechnic of Bucharest, Romania and his doctorate in computer science from Dalhousie University, Canada. Dascalu is the director of the Software Engineering Laboratory (SOELA) at UNR and has served as PI or co-PI on various projects funded by federal agencies such as NSF, NASA, and ONR, as well as by industry organizations. Dascalu has more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and has been involved in the organization of many international conferences and workshops, from which he received numerous recognitions. Dascalu’s main research interests are in software engineering and human-computer interaction, particularly in software specification and design, software tools for scientific research, simulation environments and user interface design.

Sushil Louis

Dr. Louis works in Genetic Algorithms, Evolutionary Computing and their applications to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Optimization. His current work investigates adaptive AI for RTS-games, interaction design for controlling large numbers of heterogeneous, semi-autonomous entities, and generating real-time micro for game and real-world agents. The Evolutionary Computing Systems Lab (ECSL), which I direct, has investigated new techniques for machine learning using Case-Injected Genetic AlgoRithms (CIGAR), new techniques for playing to learn to play computer games, and new techniques for evolving Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game micro and macro.