Welcome to the Department!

The Biological Sciences is pleased to welcome several new people to the Department.

New Faculty:

Blaise Dondji is our new tenure-track assistant professor. He comes from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut where he was a faculty in the Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Dondji is a parasitologist/immunologist who studies leishmaniasis, a vector-borne parasitic disease found in 88 countries worldwide, including Southern Europe, Central and North Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America. In USA and more particularly in the State of Washington, this disease is reported mostly in dogs and other Canids. Also, he works on hookworm, an intestinal parasite causing anemia in more than 700 million people around the world. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and M.Phil. from the University of Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon, and his Ph.D. from the University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria. Dr. Dondji did postdoctoral research at the Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel and Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. He will be teaching human physiology, microbiology, parasitology and immunology at CWU. For more information please visit Dr. Dondji's web page.

Gabriella Jackson, our new full-time lecturer, is a marine biologist who has been working on the ecology of epiphytes in salt marshes and more recently on chemical ecology of seaweeds and zooxanthellae (endosymbiotic microalgae to corals). She is interested in the effects of environmental and biological stresses on the production of the sulfur compound dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and its breakdown products by zooxanthellae of Caribbean corals. These biogenic sulfur compounds are important components of the biogeochemical cycling of sulfur and may affect local climate. Dr. Jackson received her B.S. and M.S. in Ecology from the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina. Her postdoctoral research in Chemical Ecology was developed at the Brazilian Navy Sea Research Institute (IEAPM) and Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil. She comes from the Department of Geology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she held a Research Assistant Professor position. She will be teaching General Biology at CWU. For more information please visit Dr. Jackson's web page.

New Graduate Students:

Susan Brady - B.S. Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA. Graduate advisor, Dr. J. Johnson.

Miao Gao - B.S. Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, Master of Education, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. Graduate advisor, Dr. Quitadamo.

Jamie Lamperth - B.S. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. Graduate advisor, Dr. James.

Jack Lester - B.S. Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA. Graduate advisor, Dr. Wagner.

Michelle Lester - B.S. Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA. Graduate advisor, Dr. Wagner.

Evan Neumann - B.S. Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA. Graduate advisor, Dr. Stryker.

Elizabeth Pirner - B.S. Carroll College, Wisconsin. Graduate advisor, Dr. Sun.

Dongpo Xia - B.S. Huaibei Coal Teacher College, M.S. Anhui University, China. Graduate advisor, Dr. Wagner.

Please see the Biology Graduate Students photo.