Mentor Search
Mr. Donald Price
( University of Nevada, Las Vegas )
- Institution:University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Departments: School of Life Sciences
- Research Fields: Ecology, Genome, Behavior
- Disciplines: Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Biology, General, Biometry/Biometrics, Biostatistics, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Ecology, Evolution, Systematics, and Population Biology, Entomology, Environmental Biology, Genetics
- Location:Clark County
- Funding:EPSCoR - Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, GEAR UP - Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, INBRE - IdeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence, NSF - National Science Foundation, STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Mentoring
MENTORING OF STUDENTS AND POST-DOCTORAL ASSOCIATES: My research program offers numerous opportunities for students at different knowledge and skill levels to participate and engage in research. I organize my laboratory with multi-level mentoring with myself as the overall leader and post-doctoral associates as leads on specific projects (Stoffer 2015). I mentor post-doctoral associates to develop their mentorship abilities to assist in mentoring graduate and undergraduate students. As graduate students and highly motivated undergraduates progress in the lab, they become leaders for specific projects related to their dissertations, thesis or senior projects. I have lab group meetings to discuss projects and relevant scientific literature. The overall goal is to provide a comprehensive research experience tailored to the stage of each person’s career. This multi-level mentoring program promotes success of students from underrepresented groups as they have near-peer mentors that also come from diverse backgrounds (Kendricks et. al. 2013. Hund et. al. 2017).
To date, I have mentored 97 post-doctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students involved in my research program of which 58 are women (indicated by *) and 46 are from ethnic groups underrepresented in science (indicated by +).
…POST-DOCTORAL ASSOCIATES (10): C. Alex Buerkle (1999-2000), Chris Grill (1999), C. Cambell Muir (2001-2004), Karl Magnacca (2010-2012), Curtis Ewing (2013-2016), Renee Bellinger* (2015-present), Jonathan Koch+(2016-18), Alexis Billings* (2017-2019), Matthew Medeiros+(2018-present), Svetlana Avramovic* (2019-present)…
GRADUATE STUDENTS (26): Doyce Dees (94-95), Jeff Wilkinson (94-95), Roland Frayne+(04-07), Anne Viellet* (04-07), Steven Souder+(05-08), Evann Souza+*(05-07), Jon Eldon (07-10), Cary Deringer* (07-10), Karen Uy+*(09-11), Andrea Moss* (09-11), Tani Wright+*(10-12), Peltin Pelep+ (10-13), Stacy Bierwagen* (10-13), T. Fezza (12-14), Eva Brill+*(12-15), Mathew Mueller (12-15), Kylle Roy+* (13-15), Chris Yakym+(13-15), Devon Di Loria* (14 ), Ellie Armstrong* (14-16), Corinna Pinzari* (12 – 19), Renee Corpuz+*(15 – 19), Keena Newton* (15-17), Chris Kluzak (16 – present), Elizabeth Jones* (17 – present), Katherine Schultz* (18 – present)…
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS (51): Tracy Arey* (95), Robin Wray* (95), Martha Bush* (95), Taina Burke+* (96), Oliver Manlik (96), Laura Inman+* (97), Dawn Ratay* (97-99), Kristi Haleakala+* (98-99), Hilary Lang* (98-01), Elizabeth Laloulu+* (99), Dena Cutler* (99-00), Joel Viernes+ (99-00), Lisa Canale* (00-01), Robert Churney+* (01), Angela Riza+* (00-02), Ted Dawson (01), Loney Salis+(01-02), Rachel Trimble+* (01-02), Daniel Franke+ (01-02), John Vasey+(03), Marites Calibuso+* (03-04), Cloydred Lite+ (04), Steven Souder+(04-05), Jared Barnard (05-06), Tatiane Varys+* (04-08), Sierra Salazar+* (08-10), Allison Janson* (09-11), Amanda Raver* (10-11), Chris Yakym+ (10-13), Lowel Achetta+(11-12) Rebecca Carvalho+* (11-12), Heather Stever* (14), Renee Corpuz+* (12-15), Duk Kim (14-16), Chris Kluzak (15-16), Cassandra Dasmarinas+* (17-18), Katherine Schultz* (17-18), Eddy Hernandez+(17-18), Katrina Pinili+* (17-present), Krysthal Morales+* (18-present ), ZhengJian (David) Li (2018-present ), Renee Olney* (2018-present), Robin Kee+* (18-present), Laura Seo* (2018-present), Aziel Macia (2018-present), Amanda Rivera+* (2019–present), Leilani Duldulao+* (2019-present), Wilson Andrade+(2019-present), Carly Quintana+* (2019-present ), Zin Min Htet (2019-present), Isabella Davis* (2019-present)…
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS (10): 1998: Emily Lido*, Kristi Yasuda+* 1999: Tanya DeCambra+*, Vic Miyahira+ 2000: Carla Gorsich*, Satomi Seki+*, 2013: Makana Waikiki+*, Sara Tollestrup*, 2018: John Beckerle, 2019: Irene Kang*.
Biography
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.