BIOL 225: Biodiversity & Climate Change: February - Black History Month

Tyrone B. Hayes is an American biologist and professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his research in frogs, concluding that the herbicide atrazine is an endocrine disruptor that demasculinizes male frogs, causing them to display female characteristics, through a process known as feminization. Hayes is an advocate for the critical review and regulation of pesticides as well as other chemicals that may cause adverse health effects. He has presented hundreds of papers, discussions, and seminars on his research's conclusion that environmental contaminants have played a major role in the global amphibian decline as well as being linked to the many health disparities that occur in minority and low income populations.

Erich Jarvis is an American professor at Rockefeller University. He leads a team of researchers who study the neurobiology of vocal learning, a critical behavioral substrate for spoken language. The animal models he studies include songbirds, parrots, and hummingbirds. Like humans, these bird groups have the ability to learn new sounds and pass on their vocal repertoires culturally, from one generation to the next. Jarvis focuses on the molecular pathways involved in the perception and production of learned vocalizations, and the development of brain circuits for vocal learning.

Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Shanta Corbett is an American viral immunologist. She is an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shutzer Assistant Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute since June 2021.

Emmett W. Chappelle was an American scientist who made valuable contributions in the fields of medicine, philanthropy, food science, and astrochemistry. His achievements led to his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on bioluminescence, in 2007. Being honored as one of the 100 most distinguished African American scientists of the 20th Century, he was also one of the members of the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society of Photobiology, the American Society of Microbiology, and the American Society...

Scott Vernon Edwards is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Curator of Ornithology at Harvard's associated museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Camellia Moses Okpodu has dedicated her life to educating others on Climate Change and the impact it has to the Diaspora. She is a college professor and dean, having received both her undergraduate and postgraduate education from North Carolina State University, and earning a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry.

Jewel Plummer Cobb was an American biologist, cancer researcher, professor, dean, and academic administrator. She contributed to the field of cancer research by studying the cure for melanoma. Cobb was an advocate for increasing the representation of women and students of color in universities, and she created programs to support students interested in pursuing graduate school.

Paul E. Turner is an American evolutionary biologist and virologist, the Rachel Carson Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, and a faculty member in microbiology at the Yale School of Medicine. His research focuses on the evolutionary genetics of viruses, particularly bacteriophages and RNA viruses transmitted by mosquitoes.

Margaret James Strickland Collins was an African-American child prodigy, entomologist specializing in the study of termites, and a civil rights advocate. Collins was nicknamed the “Termite Lady” because of her extensive research on termites. Together with David Nickle, Collins identified a new species of termite called Neotermes luykxi. When Collins earned her PhD., she became the first African American female entomologist and the third African American female zoologist.

Dr. Eric W. Riddick is a Research Entomologist at the National Biological Control Laboratory, ARS-USDA. He is broadly interested in environmental health, protection of animal and plant biodiversity, sustainable pest management, conservation of natural resources, and urban agriculture. He now works primarily on the propagation, release, and conservation of natural enemies, especially ladybird beetles.