Department of Life Sciences in the College of Science & Engineering

Department of Life Sciences

Cherie McCollough, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair

Office: TH 135
Phone: (361) 825-3166
Email: cherie.mccollough@tamucc.edu
Website: https://DrCherieMc.com/

Science education; student retention; multicultural education; teacher mentoring and training; avian ecology and population biology

Gregory Buck, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Assistant to Chair

Office: TH 236
Phone: (361) 825-3717
Email: gregory.buck@tamucc.edu

Molecular biology of prokaryotes; medical microbiology; virology; science education

Ken Brown

Senior Administrative Assistant

Office: TH 309E
Phone: (361) 825-3907
Email: kenneth.brown@tamucc.edu

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Faculty in the Department of Life Sciences

Keisha Bahr, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: TH 242
Phone: (361) 825-3707
Email: keisha.bahr@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.bahrlab.com

Loretta Battaglia, Ph.D.

Professor & Director of CCS

Email: loretta.battaglia@tamucc.edu

Coastal ecosystems; invasive species; wetland plant communities; multivariate statistics

Chris Bird, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Biology

Office: TH 234
Phone: (361) 825-6024
Email: chris.bird@tamucc.edu
Website: https://birdlab.tamucc.edu

Molecular Ecology, Evolution, Population Genetics, Marine Biology, Community Ecology, Fisheries Management, Invertebrate Zoology, Biotechnology

Kirk Cammarata, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Biology and Assistant to LSCI Chair

Office: TH 338
Phone: (361) 825-2468
Email: kirk.cammarata@tamucc.edu
Website: https://faculty.tamucc.edu/cammarat

Physiology/biochemistry/molecular biology of seagrass stress responses to anthropogenic impacts; epiphyte dynamics and interactions with seagrasses

Barnabas Daru, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: TH 141
Phone: (361) 825-3489
Email: barnabas.daru@tamucc.edu
Website: https://barnabasdaru.com

Evolutionary biogeography, herbarium records, phylogeny, phyloregions, vascular plants

Sharon Derrick D-ABFA, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Forensics Coordinator

Office: TH 239
Phone: (361) 825-3637
Email: sharon.derrick@tamucc.edu

Forensic personal identification from the skeleton and bone trauma analysis.

Stella Doyungan, Ph.D.

Professional Associate Professor

Office: TH 232
Phone: (361) 825-3686
Email: stella.doyungan@tamucc.edu

Microbiology

Dale Gawlik

HRI Endowed Chair

Office: HRI 314A
Phone: (361) 825-2045
Email: dale.gawlik@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/conservation-biodiversity

Research interests: waterbird ecology and conservation, wetland and intertidal ecosystems, restoration ecology, and the use of birds in aquatic ecosystem management.

Simon Geist, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Office: TH 337
Phone: (361) 825-4164
Email: simon.geist@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.geistlarvallab.com

Early life history traits of fisheries resources: ecophysiology, ecology, recruitment-environment interactions

Chris Hollenbeck, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Fisheries and Mariculture

Office: TH 140
Phone: (361) 825-6022
Email: christopher.hollenbeck@tamucc.edu

Ivy Jones, Ph.D.

Professional Assistant Professor

Office: TH 133
Phone: (361) 825-3259
Email: ivy.jones@tamucc.edu

Qianqian Liu, Ph.D.

Professional Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences

Office: TH 241
Phone: (361) 825-2891
Email: qianqian.liu@tamucc.edu

Candice Lumibao, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: TH 333
Phone: (361) 825-3477
Email: candace.lumibao@tamucc.edu
Website: https://candicelumibaolab.com/

Plant-microbe interactions in coastal marshes, rhizosphere and endosphere microbial ecology, genomics, plant phenotypic and genetic trait variations, effects of climatic and anthropogenic changes, ancient plant DNA

Shawn McCracken, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: TH 142
Phone: (361) 825-3303
Email: shawn.mccracken@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.mccrackenlab.com

Dr. McCrackens interests lie in the ecological and evolutionary responses

Judy Metcalf, Ph.D.

Professional Assistant Professor

Office: TH 134
Phone: (361) 825-3959
Email: judy.metcalf@tamucc.edu

Riccardo Mozzachiodi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neuroscience

Office: TH 335
Phone: (361) 825-3634
Email: riccardo.mozzachiodi@tamucc.edu

Neurobiology; biological basis of learning and memory; behavior

Felix Omoruyi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Clinical Laboratory Science

Office: TH 238
Phone: (361) 825-2473
Email: felix.omoruyi@tamucc.edu

Currently, research in my laboratory is centered on the biochemical changes in the red blood cell membrane and serum in fairly and poorly controlled diabetic patients relative to healthy control.

Dara Orbach, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: TH 231
Phone: (361) 825-3217
Email: dara.orbach@tamucc.edu

Frank Pezold, Ph.D.

Life Sciences Professor

Office: TH 340
Phone: (361) 825-6377
Email: frank.pezold@tamucc.edu
Website: https://fishlab.tamucc.edu

Fish diversity, systematics, ecology and conservation

Jennifer Pollack, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Biology and HRI Chair for Coastal Conservation & Restoration

Office: HRI 210A
Phone: (361) 825-2041
Email: jennifer.pollack@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/coastal-conservation-restoration

Field research experience in temperate salt marsh creeks, semi-arid estuaries, and polar regions

David Portnoy, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Biology

Office: TH 138
Phone: (361) 825-2859
Email: david.portnoy@tamucc.edu
Website: https://marinegenomicslab.tamucc.edu

Conservation genetics of exploited marine fishes, historical patterns of zoogeography, systematics and evolution of bony fishes and elasmobranchs, patterns of sexual selection, conflict and speciation.

Ed Proffitt, Ph.D.

Professor

Office: TH 139
Phone: (361) 825-2358
Email: ed.proffitt@tamucc.edu
Website: https://edproffitt.wixsite.com/coastal-ecology

Ecology of estuarine and marine plants and invertebrates; ecological genetics; experimental design and biometry; applying multivariate statistics to address large-scale problems

Frauke Seemann, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Marine Biomedical Science

Office: TH 332
Phone: (361) 825-2683
Email: frauke.seemann@tamucc.edu

Jean Sparks, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Director of Clinical Laboratory Science

Office: TH 237
Phone: (361) 825-2359
Email: jean.sparks@tamucc.edu

Clinical laboratory science; hematology; botany

Greg Stunz, Ph.D.

Professor of Marine Biology and Endowed Chair for Fisheries and Ocean Health

Office: HRI 311C
Phone: (361) 825-3254
Email: greg.stunz@tamucc.edu

Marine biology, marine ecology, marine fisheries ecology, fisheries, estuarine ecology, environmental biology

M-Emad Tahtamouni, Ph.D.

Professional Assistant Professor

Office: TH 132
Phone: (361) 825-5819
Email: m-emad.tahtamouni@tamucc.edu

Jeffrey Turner, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Biology

Office: TH 240
Phone: (361) 825-6206
Email: jeffrey.turner@tamucc.edu
Website: https://turnerlab.tamucc.edu

Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Population Genetics, Evolution, Genomics, Metagenomics, connections between oceans and human health

Benjamin Walther, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Office: TH 336
Phone: (361) 825-4168
Email: benjamin.walther@tamucc.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/waltherfishlab/

Fish migration ecology; population connectivity; habitat use; food web dynamics; carbonate chemistry

Michael Wetz, Ph.D.

Professor of Marine Biology

Office: HRI 210B
Phone: (361) 825-2132
Email: michael.wetz@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/coastal-ecosystem-processes

Phytoplankton ecology, estuarine and coastal food webs and biogeochemical cycles, effects of climatic and anthropogenic change

Kim Withers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Office: NRC 3205
Phone: (361) 825-5907
Email: kim.withers@tamucc.edu

Tidal flat ecology; invertebrates & nekton of tidal flats & marshes; shorebird habitat use on tidal flats in Laguna Madre & Corpus Christi Bay; mangrove-associated faunas; seagrass ecology & invertebrate communities; impacts of succession on juvenile fish communities; fisheries resources in Texas & Mexico

Wei Xu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Marine Biomedical Science

Office: TH 331
Phone: (361) 825-2676
Email: wei.xu@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.tamucc.edu/science/research/leh/wei-xu.php

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Staff in the Department of Life Sciences

Sue Burgess

Administrative Assistant

Office: TH 309G
Phone: (361) 825-2005
Email: sue.vickers@tamucc.edu

Jessica Han

Laboratory Coordinator

Office: TH 210C
Phone: (361) 825-3628
Email: jessica.han@tamucc.edu

Philip Jose

Laboratory Coordinator

Office: TH 143
Phone: (361) 825-5757
Email: philip.jose@tamucc.edu

Pedro Ramon

Laboratory Coordinator

Office: TH 210A
Phone: (361) 825-4073
Email: pedro.ramon@tamucc.edu

Sarah Wood

Administrative Assistant

Office: TH 309F
Phone: (361) 825-2754
Email: sarah.wood@tamucc.edu

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Department of Life Sciences Directory