Faculty Research Interest Areas

Below you will find a listing of the research interests of the faculty in each of the MNAS areas. Many students may get involved in ground breaking research alongside the faculty during their time in the program.

Agriculture

Agriculture business, agriculture communications, agriculture education, animal science, forage utilization in livestock, reproductive physiology in livestock and zoo animal species, small ruminant production zoo animal physiology.

Biology

  • Microbiology, cell biology and genetics: host-pathogen interactions and immune responses, cellular mechanisms of pain, molecular mechanisms of endocytosis and grapevine genetics.
  • Conservation and wildlife biology: endangered species (examples: mussels, bats, salamanders, fishes), effects of introduced species on native populations, ecosystem effects of environmental pollutants and water resources.
  • Ecology and evolution: physiological ecology (plants and animals), spatial ecology (animal movements), habitat use, animal behavior, aquatic ecology, plant population genetics and evolutionary theory.
  • Biology Education: environmental education and student learning in the classroom.

Chemistry

Analytical chemistry, biochemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, biophysical chemistry, chemical education, coordination chemistry, crystal engineering, electrochemistry of materials, environmental chemistry, inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, polymer chemistry and sustainability and women in science.

Computer science

Algorithm designs and analysis, bioinformatics, computational analysis of music, computer games, computer vision, data mining, digital image processing and analysis, education, formal concept analysis, graphics, machine learning, pattern recognition, programming languages, theory of computation, speech recognition and sports data analysis.

Geology, geography and planning

  • Geology faculty research interests: cave systems, earth science education, engineering, environmental management, geochemistry, geohydrology, geophysics hydrogeology, glacial and sequence stratigraphy, impact geology, igneous and metamorphic petrology, karst hydrology and systems, and optical and X-ray mineralogy.
  • Geography research interests: advanced statistics, atmospheric flow patterns, atmospheric oscillations, climate change, climatology, digital cartography and geostatistics, drought, environmental hazards, environmental fluvial and soil geomorphology, geochemistry, geospatial information systems (GIS), land use and environment, macroinvertebrates, Missouri plant taxa distributions, natural climatic variability, Ozarks region, photogrammetry, remote sensing techniques and applications, water quality, watershed hydrology and weather and human behavior.
  • Planning faculty research interests: communication techniques resource planning and management (CRPM), disaster mitigation, environmental perception, housing and homelessness, international parks, open space and recreation, planning principles, region, research methods, site planning and design, small towns, land use, sense of place theory, tourism and the travel industry, urban design.

Mathematics

Algebraic geometry, applied mathematics classical analysis and topology, applied statistics, commutative algebra, combinatorics, estimation theory, fourier analysis, dynamical systems, field programmable gate array (FPGA), genome-wide association studies, graph theory and discrete mathematics, image analysis and bioinformatics, K-theory, machine learning, microarray data analysis, monte carlo methods, numerical analysis, number theory, partially, probability theory, ordered sets, pattern recognition, random fields, regression estimation with correlated errors, spatial statistics, statistical inference for stochastic processes and statistical learning theory.

Physics, astronomy and materials science

  • Physics: alternative energy, biomedical diagnosis and therapy, characterizations of nanoscale materials and their applications in electronics, education, High pressure-temperature studies, materials in supercritical fluids, mineral physics and synthesis and structural X-ray studies of condensed matter.
  • Astronomy: analysis of techniques for teaching direct-current circuits, attraction (chaos), erosion of stable basins of galactic redshifts, planetary nebulae, protostars, ring galaxies, stellar models, whole earth telescope (WET) and yellow supergiant stars.
  • Materials science: biophysics, cellular basis of biological timing, electron spin resonance, heat capacity of conducting polymers, magnetic susceptibility, mathematical modeling of electrical currents, metal complexes, nanomaterials, organic light emitting devices, photoluminescence, physics education, scanning tunneling microscope, spintronics and studies on fluids.