Biology Faculty

Chair
Josh Sandquist
Associate Professor

Department chair of General Science

Research Approach As a Center for Xenopus Research (a fabricated distinction, but it sounds cool), the Sandquist lab uses a combination of molecular, biochemical, and cell biological approaches to study various aspects of cell division in the frog embryo. Not just any frog, mind you. We use that...
David
Professor

Henry R. Luce Professor of Nations and the Global Environment

Tropical Ecology My research is in the ecology and species composition of tropical and subtropical forests in both the Paleotropics and Neotropics. In the Brazilian Amazon, I have eight permanent study sites - embracing a total of over 22,000 trees which are regularly monitored - from the foothills...
Associate Professor
Professor Cooper is interested in the evolution and ecology of phenotypic variation, particularly the selection pressures that lead to variation between sexes and between species. To study this, she investigates color and behavior of species in two damselfly genera, Megalagrion (an endemic Hawaiian...
ben
Associate Professor
Plant Molecular Biology My research focuses on the response of plants to environmental stress at the molecular, biochemical, and physiological levels, utilizing both crop and model plant species. Most of my research centers on non-biological stresses such as exposure to foreign compounds, or...
Vince
Professor

Waldo S. Walker Chair in Biology

My students and I try to determine: (1) how natural selection shapes plant reproduction, life history, and physiology; and (2) why plant species occur where they do, rather than somewhere else. A westerner transplanted to Iowa, I seem to be reasonably well adapted to this novel habitat. I attended...
Leslie Gregg-Jolly
Professor Senior Faculty

Douglas Johnson ’77 Professor of Biology

2019 Distinguished Faculty Member Award, Iowa Chapter of the AAUW for work for educational equity for women and underrepresented groups in higher education
Shannon
Professor
Shannon Hinsa-Leasure is a microbiologist and a professor of biology at Grinnell College in Iowa. Her research interests include microbial diversity, antibiotic resistance and genetic exchange, and strategies for bacterial survival. Most recently she began a collaboration with Dr. Lillian...
Peter
Professor
I am an ecosystem ecologist teaching at Grinnell College, a four-year liberal arts undergraduate institution in Iowa. All faculty in the Biology Department teach the introductory course (Introduction to Biological Inquiry) on subject matter of our choice, as the goal of the course is to expose...
Kathryn Jacobson
Professor
I am a fungal biologist and I teach in the Biology Department at Grinnell College. Faculty members teach BIO 150 - Introduction to Biological Inquiry on subject matter of our choosing, because our course goals are to expose students to learning by doing experimental science. My BIO 150 section is...
Pascal Lafontant
Professor
The Lafontant lab studies heart repair and regeneration in zebrafish and the giant danio with undergraduate students. In humans and adult mammals, cardiac injuries (heart attacks) result in permanent scarring of the heart muscle. This response to injury may lead to subsequent heart failure. However...
Clark Lindgren
Professor

Patricia A. Johnson Professor of Neuroscience

In my laboratory we study the chemical synapse, a specialized junction where neurons communicate with adjacent cells, such as sensory receptors, muscle cells, or other neurons. We are trying to understand how the presynaptic cell at a chemical synapse controls the release of its messenger molecule...
Vida
Professor
Developmental Genetics and Cell Biology Directed changes in the shape of epithelial sheets are required to create many of the major tissues in animals, including the intestinal system, kidneys, lungs, and skin. Although our understanding of epithelial sheet morphogenesis has advanced in recent years...
Lecturer
Comparative physiology and functional morphology; exercise physiology & psychology I was originally trained as a comparative physiologist and functional morphologist, but since coming to Iowa, I have become increasingly focused on human exercise. I am interested in how people feel when they exercise...
Dianne
Associate Professor Emeritus
Plants, like animals, begin life as a single cell, the fertilized egg or zygote. This single cell undergoes growth, cell division and differentiation to produce an embryo, or immature plant. This developmental process is called embryogenesis. Since all cells of the embryo are produced through...
Sullivan
Professor Emeritus
Cell Biology / Developmental Biology I am interested in the formation of sensory structures during neural development in vertebrate embryos. Most of my work with students at Grinnell has focused on lens formation in chicken embryos (a lens from a four day old embryo is shown in Figure 1). We have...

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