Faculty Research in the Neuroscience Department

Students who are interested in conducting research with a faculty member in the Neuroscience department should use the information below to learn more about each faculty member's research to determine who they might like to work with. Please note that not all professors will be accepting research assistants at any given time. Professors that are currently accepting research students will be listed as such.

Siddharth Ramakrishnan

Siddharth Ramakrishnan, PhD., a Neuroscientist, is an Assistant Professor of Biology and the Jennie M. Caruthers Chair in Neuroscience at the University of Puget Sound. His research interests span the field of developmental biology, neuroendocrinology and sensory-motor integration.

Professor Ramakrishnan IS CURRENTLY ACCEPTING RESEARCH STUDENTS FOR SUMMER 2023. His current research is on the effects of plastics on the development and reproductive behavior in the pond snail model system. Using a mixture of immunohistochemistry, fluorescence microscopy and behavioral observations, he studies the effects of chronic exposure to plastics on i) how plastics disrupt neural development and embryo physiology and ii) how this reflects on adult snail reproduction, physiology and neural innervation.

 

Susannah Hannaford

Susannah Hannaford’s research interests include nerve cells, the circuits into which these cells are organized, and the behaviors they mediate. A neurobiologist, her area of specialization is sensory physiology, which focuses on how animals detect changes in their environment, process this information in their brains, and sort through this complexity to detect the important features—potential mates, predators, and food. For more than a decade she has studied insect behaviors, ranging from how flies "taste" their environment with their feet and wings, to how male moths find conspecific mates and avoid females of other closely-related genera. 

Jung Kim

Jung Kim is an associate professor and the chair of the Exercise Science department. Her research interests are focused on elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in regulating skeletal muscle phenotype under varying loads using rodents. 

Sam Liao

Sam Liao is an associate professor at University of Puget Sound in the philosophy department, and also affiliated with the Asian studies, bioethics, gender & queer studies, and neuroscience interdisciplinary programs. Liao’s current book project is about objects and spaces where cognition meets oppression, such as medical devices, colonialist statues, and photographic technologies. Liao also does research on imagination, experimental philosophy, aesthetics, and language.

Professor Liao's current book project is about objects and spaces where cognition meets oppression, such as medical devices, colonialist statues, and photographic technologies.

Melvin Rouse

Melvin Rouse’s research looks at how hormones, the brain, and reproductive behavior interact. His lab uses songbirds as a model system. This model is unique in that it allows for the ability to study how gonadal hormones act to modulate patterns of learning and behavior, as well as how hormones affect the perception of behavior. These studies demonstrate the influence of the endocrine system on brain plasticity, learning, and social behavior. 

Professor Rouse IS CURRENTLY ACCEPTING RESEARCH STUDENTS FOR SUMMER 2023. He is open to research students in the Neuroscience department that are interested in researching for literature reviews, biopsychology, and analyzing song from songbirds.

Gary McCall

Gary McCall’s research work explores the mechanisms involved in regulating neuromuscular and metabolic function, through physical activity. He has a special interest in the effects of exercise and inactivity on skeletal muscle and metabolic functions related to chronic diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. 

Justin Tiehen

Justin Tiehen’s research focuses on the philosophy of mind and metaphysics, with a special focus of mental causation, physicalism, and the normativity of the mental.