Department of Biology

Lester Newman Seminar Series

Welcome to the PSU Biology Department Lester Newman Seminar Series. Seminars are Mondays 4-5pm in SRTC Room 247.

Please see this spreadsheet for past and future seminar topics.

SPRING

DateSpeakerInstitutionTitleHost
3/31/2025Anne ThompsonPSUThe invisible forest: Life and death of the Earth’s most numerous photosynthetic cellsThompson
4/7/2025Kate LyonsUniversity of Nebraska—LincolnThe Evolution of Ecosystem and Earth System EngineeringRuedas
4/14/2025Isabel FerreraSpanish Institute of Oceanography, Málaga, SpainEcology of marine photoheterotrophic bacteriaReysenbach/Thompson
4/21/2025Marek BorowiecColorado State UniversityUsing deep learning to study biodiversityKautz
4/28/2025Andrew AndersonReed CollegeCross-sexual transfer and the ancestral modulation hypothesisCourcelle
5/5/2025David CortezVanderbilt UniversityMechanisms that maintain genome stability during cell divisionCourcelle
5/12/2025Richard PrumYale UniversityPerformance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual DifferenceCruzan/BIO Club
5/19/2025Rachel PepperUniversity of Puget SoundHydrodynamic interactions of microscopic sessile suspension feeders with their environmentThompson
5/26/2025Memorial DayClosedClosed 
6/2/2025Blake UshijimaUniversity of North Carolina WilmingtonThe Coral Microbiome: Pathogens & ProbioticsThompson

WINTER

 

DateSpeakerInstitutionTitleHost
1/6/2025Nathan AhlgrenClark UniversityPhage-host dynamics in the ocean: untangling a complex hairball of interactionsThompson
1/13/2025Adam SummersUniversity of WashingtonBio-inspired design from the sea and scanning ALL the fishesRuedas
1/20/2025MARTIN LUTHER KING DAYUNIVERSITY CLOSED  
1/27/2025Madeline KreigerOHSUThe Oral Microbiome: Gateway to health and diseaseCourcelle
2/3/2025Mark SuttonUniversity of BuffaloBacterial stress and antibiotic resistanceCourcelle
2/10/2025Link OlsonUniversity of AlaskaWhat we (still) don't know about climate resilience in North America's most broadly distributed "alpine" mammalRuedas
2/17/2025Joshua StoneUniversity of South CarolinaGiants of the Bermuda Triangle: Rhizaria Ecology of the Sargasso SeaThompson
2/24/2025Kishana TaylorTowsen UniversityStrain Dependent Influenza Virus ReassortmentStedman
3/3/2025OPEN   
3/10/2025Sarah HuTexas A&M UniversityThe interconnected microbial eukaryomeThompson

FALL

DateSpeakerInstitutionTitleHost
9/30/2024Andrew Niesley BlackPurdue & Oregon StateLeveraging genomics in conservation: A cocktail of animal case studiesRuedas
10/7/2024Brittany BarkerOregon State UniversityMonitoring pests, their crop hosts, and their natural enemiesCruzan
10/14/2024Tyler CoaleUC Santa CruzBeyond Symbiosis: Reframing Of The UCYN-A Marine N2-fixing PartnershipThompson
10/21/2024Scott GardnerUniversity of NebraskaParasite Biodiversity: the inside storyRuedas
10/28/2024Mitchell CruzanPortland State UniversityHow to make a weedCruzan
11/4/2024Anderson FeijoField MuseumThe build-up of Asian mammal faunasRuedas
11/11/2024VETERAN'S DAYUNIVERSITY CLOSED  
11/18/2024Todd Gillis University of GuelphCardiac remodeling in fish: strategies to maintain heart function during temperature changeBuckley
11/25/2024Scott GilbertStreeling University at Swarthmore CollegeWe never were individuals:
Symbiosis and holobiont development		Podrabsky
12/2/2024Brian KraatzWestern University of Health SciencesEvolutionary morphology of the rabbit skullRuedas