Find a faculty mentor

Faculty mentor directory

Below is a list of faculty who would like to mentor and work with undergrad students. Faculty are listed by college and department.

• College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources

  Department of Agriculture, Nutrition & Veterinary Sciences faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Felipe Barrios Masias	fbarrios@cabnr.unr.edu	Horticulture, abiotic stress, ecophysiology
  Bradley Ferguson	bferguson@unr.edu	Heart failure, food bio actives, cardiovascular disease
  Andrew Nuss	nuss@cabnr.unr.edu	Insect, Physiology, molecular biology
  Stanley Omaye	omaye@unr.edu	-
  Silvia Stan	sstan@unr.edu	-
  Tamzen Stringham	tstringham@cabnr.unr.edu	Rangeland management and restoration, arid land fire rehabilitation

  Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology faculty mentors

  Faculty Mentor	Email	Research Areas
  Won-Gyu Choi	wgchoi@unr.edu	Calcium and ROS signal transduction, Space Plant Biology
  John Cushman	jcushman@unr.edu	Abiotic stress, Plant molecular genetics, Water-use efficiency
  Patricia Ferreira Dos Santos	pferreiradossantos@unr.edu	Plant Defense responses, Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions, Plant Diseases
  Monika Gulia-Nuss	mgulianuss@unr.edu	Ticks, Tick-borne diseases, Lyme disease, genomics, genetics, mosquito, yellow fever, insulin
  Jeffrey Harper	jfharper@unr.edu	Plant reproduction, heat stress, calcium signaling
  Christie Howard	cjhoward@unr.edu	-
  Dylan Kosma	dkosma@unr.edu	-
  Claudia Rueckert	crueckert@unr.edu	Virus, disease, mosquito, molecular biology.
  Ian Wallace	iwallace@unr.edu	Cellulose biosynthesis, post-translational modifications, chemical biology
  Won Yim	wyim@unr.edu	Bioinformatics, genomics and plant genetics

  Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science faculty mentors

  Faculty Mentor	Email	Research Areas
  Adrian Harpold	adrian.harpold@gmail.com	Water, hydrology, mountains
  Beth Newingham	bnewingham@unr.edu	Plant ecology, soil ecology, fire ecology
  Paul Verburg	pverburg@cabnr.unr.edu	-
  Peter Weisberg	pweisberg@unr.edu	Ecology, Fire, Disturbance, Conservation, Forest, GIS, Remote Sensing, Environment
• College of Business

  Department of Economics faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Mark Pingle	pingle@unr.edu	Economics, macroeconomics, behavioral economics
  Mehmet Tosun	tosun@unr.edu	-

  Department of Managerial Sciences faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Jinyu Hu	jinyuh@unr.edu	Personality, social cognition, leadership
  James Leonhardt	jleonhardt@unr.edu	Social Media, Consumer Behavior
  John Nolan	johnnolan@unr.edu	Employment law, discrimination, securities, antitrust, retirement planning, and real estate law

  Department of Marketing faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Jean Jeon	hjeon@unr.edu	Marketing/Business strategy, Tourism, and Consumerism
  Jae-Eun Namkoong	jnamkoong@unr.edu	Consumer Psychology, surveys and experiments
• College of Education

  Department of Teacher Education & Human Development faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Margaret Ferrara	ferrara@unr.edu	Charter schools, family involvement and relationships, school-university partnerships
  Jennifer Mahon	jmahon@unr.edu	-

  Nevada Teach

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Mandi Collins	mmcollins@unr.edu
  Glenn Waddell	gwaddell@unr.edu	Mathematics education, STEM education, social media & networking
• College of Engineering

  Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Sage Hiibel	shiibel@unr.edu	Water treatment, Membranes, Food-Energy-Water Nexus
  Leslie Mushongera	lmushongera@unr.edu	Materials modeling, microstructural evolution, fatigue
  Siddhartha Pathak	spathak@unr.edu	Materials modeling, microstructural evolution, fatigue
  Vaidyanathan (Ravi) Subramanian	ravisv@unr.edu	-
  Victor Vasquez	victor.vasquez@unr.edu	Computational Modeling, Sustainability, Life-Cycle Analysis, Process Systems

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Sherif Elfass	elfass@unr.edu	-
  David Hanigan	dhanigan@unr.edu	Water Quality, Water Reuse, Environmental Chemistry
  Ramin Motamed	motamed@unr.edu	Earthquake Engineering, Foundations, Shake Table Tests
  Mohamed Moustafa	mmoustafa@unr.edu	-
  Raj Siddharthan	siddhart@unr.edu	-
  Yu Yang	yuy@unr.edu	-

  Department of Computer Science and Engineering faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Konstantinos Alexis	kalexis@unr.edu	-
  Engin Arslan	earslan@unr.edu	Computer Networks, Cloud Computing, Big Data
  Sergiu Dascalu	dascalus@cse.unr.edu	Software engineering, human-computer interaction, data science
  David Feil-Seifer	dave@cse.unr.edu	Robotics, human-robot interaction, socially assistive robotics
  Emily Hand	emhand@unr.edu	Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence; Computer Vision
  Fred Harris, Jr.	fred.harris@cse.unr.edu	Virtual Reality, Parallel Computing, Software Engineering, Scientific Simulation
  Hung (Jim) La	hla@unr.edu	Robotics, mobile sensor networks, control systems
  Sushil Louis	sushil@cse.unr.edu	AI in games, design, and optimization
  Christos Papachristos	papachric@gmail.com	Robotics, Perception, Manipulation
  Shamik Sengupta	ssengupta@unr.edu	Cybersecurity; Wireless Networking; Game Theory
  Alireza Tavakkoli	tavakkol@unr.edu	Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Robotics, Gaming and Simulation
  Lei Yang	leiy@unr.edu	Big Data Analytics, Edge Computing, Smart Cities

  Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Mohammed Ben-Idris	mbenidris@unr.edu	Smart Grids, Cyber-physically Energy Systems, Power System Resilience and Reliability
  Yantao Shen	ytshen@unr.edu	Bio-robotics, Bioinstrumentation, Sensors and Actuators
  Hao Xu	haoxu@unr.edu	Artificial Intelligence with application to Robotics, Next generation of wireless communication system (5G/6G), Autonomous Systems
  Xiaoshan Zhu	xzhu@unr.edu	-

  Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Matteo Aureli	maureli@unr.edu	Fluid-structure interaction, Vibration and dynamics, Smart materials and systems
  Feifei Fan	ffan@unr.edu	Mechanics, mechanical behavior of materials
  Mustafa Hadj-Nacer	mhadjnacer@unr.edu	Used Nuclear Fuel, Heat-Transfer, CFD Simulations
  Yanyao Jiang	yjiang@unr.edu	Metal fatigue, Plastic deformation
  Pradeep Menezes	pmenezes@unr.edu	Adaptive Manufacturing, Soft Robotics, Biomimetics, and Composites and Surface Engineering
  Ryan Tung	rtung@unr.edu	Vibrations, Dynamics, Fluid-Structure Interaction, Atomic Force Microscopy
  Jun Zhang	jun@unr.edu	Robotics, Control Systems, and Artificial Muscles
• College of Liberal Arts

  Center for Basque Studies faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Xabier Irujo	irujo@unr.edu	Basque Studies, Terror Bombing, Genocide

  Department of Anthropology faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Deborah Boehm	dboehm@unr.edu	Immigration, Detention & Deportation, transnational families, U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
  Marin Pilloud	mpilloud@unr.edu	Forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, dental anthropology
  Mikaela Rogozen-Soltar	mikaelars@unr.edu	Migration, Religion, Gender, Europe
  Richard Scott	grscott@unr.edu	-

  Department of Art faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Tyler Brownlow-Calkin	tbcalkin@unr.edu	Virtual reality, Game design, Performance
  Inge Bruggeman	ibruggeman@unr.edu	Art, Book & Publication Arts, Artist’s Books
  Peter Goin	pgoin@unr.edu	-
  Scott Hinton	shinton@unr.edu	Photography, Landscape, Environmentalism
  Eukang Koh	ekoh@unr.edu	Art in community, Printmaking, Studio art
  Monica Maccaux	mmaccaux@unr.edu	Type design, apparel design, branding
  Tamara Scronce	tamaras@unr.edu	-
  Brett Van Hoesen	bvanhoesen@unr.edu	-

  Department of Communication Studies faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Lydia Huerta Moreno	lhuertam@unr.edu	-

  Department of Criminal Justice faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Emmanuel Barthe	epbarthe@unr.edu	-
  Emily Berthelot	eberthelot@unr.edu	-
  Matthew Leone	mleone@unr.edu	Corrections, Prisons and Jails, Correctional Worker Stress, Juvenile Justice, Community Based Corrections, Diversion Programs

  Department of English faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Jennifer Hill	jmhill@unr.edu	19th c British literature, critical theory, social justice, gender and sexuality studies, GRI
  James Mardock	jmardock@unr.edu	Renaissance Literature, Drama, Shakespeare
  Elisabeth Miller	elisabethmiller@unr.edu	-
  Ignacio Montoya	ignaciomontoya@unr.edu	-
  Daniel Morse	dmorse@unr.edu	Modernist literature, media studies, postcolonial studies
  Tamara Valentine	tvalenti@unr.edu	Sociolinguistics, World Englishes, South Asia, gender

  Department of History faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Christopher Church	christopherchurch@unr.edu	Digital history, French history, environmental history
  Linda Curcio	lindacurcio@unr.edu	-
  Emily Hobson	ehobson@unr.edu	LGBTQ history, radical social movements, HIV/AIDS

  Department of Medieval & Renaissance Studies faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Jaime Leaños	jleanos@unr.edu	Medieval Iberia, History and Literature, Christians and Muslims
  Edward Schoolman	eschoolman@unr.edu	Medieval civilization, premodern environmental history

  Department of Political Science faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Elizabeth Koebele	ekoebele@unr.edu	Environmental policy, governance, water policy
  Robert Ostergard	orobert@unr.edu	-
  Richard Siegel	siegel@unr.edu	International Human Rights; civil liberties
  Steven Wilson	stevenwilson@unr.edu	Internet & politics, cybersecurity, Russia

  Department of Sociology faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Marta Elliott	melliott@unr.edu	Social determinants of health
  Clayton Peoples	peoplesc@unr.edu	Politics, social movements, legal systems, social networks

  Department of World Languages and Literatures faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Wilfredo de Rafols	fdrafols@unr.edu	-
  Michelle Wilson	mmwilson@unr.edu	-
• College of Science

  Department of Biology faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Jeffrey Baguley	baguley@unr.edu	-
  Sudeep Chandra	sudeep@unr.edu	-
  Chris Feldman	ophis@unr.edu	Evolution, Ecology, Organismal Biology
  Matthew Forister	forister@gmail.com	Plant-insect ecology, specialization, global change
  Suzanne Kelson	suzanne.kelson@gmail.com	Rivers, ecology, conservation
  Tom Kidd	tkidd@unr.edu	-
  Elizabeth Leger	ealeger@gmail.com	Ecology, Plants, Restoration, Conservation
  Anne Leonard	anneleonard@unr.edu	-
  Dennis Mathew	dennismathew@unr.edu	-
  Pedro Miura	pmiura@unr.edu	Gene regulation, RNA, Neurobiology
  Jenny Ouyang	jouyang@unr.edu	Birds, hormones, ecology, behavior, pollution, stress
  Mary Peacock	mpeacock@unr.edu	Population genetics, conservation genetics, conservation biology
  Simon Pieraut	spieraut@unr.edu	Developmental neurobiology, synapse plasticity, and animal behavior
  Elizabeth Pringle	epringle@unr.edu	Ecology, plant-insect interactions, mutualism
  Angela Smilanich	asmilanich@unr.edu	Butterfly disease ecology, caterpillar immunity
  Jamie Voyles-Ensor	jamie.voyles@gmail.com	Disease ecology, eco-immunology, microbiology
  Yong Zhang	yongzhang@unr.edu	Drosophila, sleep, circadian rhythms

  Department of Chemistry faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Mario Alpuche Aviles	malpuche@unr.edu	Analytical chemistry, Electrochemistry, Solar energy
  Christopher Barile	cbarile@unr.edu	Renewable energy, Electrochemistry, Smart windows
  Nicholas Borotto	nborotto@unr.edu	Biochemistry, analytical chemistry, mass spectrometry
  Sean Casey	scasey@unr.edu	Semiconductor surface chemistry, physical chemistry, chemical physics
  Wesley Chalifoux	wchalifoux@unr.edu	Organic synthesis, organic materials
  Ana de Bettencourt Dias	abd@unr.edu	Light-emitting compounds, Compounds with cell toxicity, Lanthanide ions, Singlet oxygen generation
  Brian Frost	frost@unr.edu	-
  Laina Geary	lgeary@unr.edu	Organic synthesis, catalysis, spectroscopy
  Christopher Jeffrey	cjeffrey@unr.edu	-
  Robert Sheridan	rss@unr.edu	-
  Yftah Tal Gan	ytalgan@unr.edu	-
  Matthew Tucker	mtucker@unr.edu	-

  Department of Geography faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Scott Kelley	scottkelley@unr.edu	-
  Stephanie McAffee	smcafee@unr.edu	Climate, climate change, Alaska
  Kenneth Nussear	Knussear@unr.edu	-
  Kate Berry	kberry@unr.edu	Water policy & governance, Indigenous studies, ethnic geography

  Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  John McCormack	mccormac@mines.unr.edu	General Geology, Mineralogy, Ore deposits and earth resources
  Paula Noble	noblepj@unr.edu	-
  Wendy Calvin	wcalvin@unr.edu	Remote sensing of the Earth and other planets in the solar system.
  Scott McCoy	scottmccoy@unr.edu	Natural hazards, geomorphology, geological engineering

  Department of Mathematics and Statistics faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Mihye Ahn	mahn@unr.edu	Statistics, biostatistics, longitudinal data analysis, and neuroimaging data analysis
  Christopher Herald	herald@unr.edu	Geometry, topology and algebraic topology.
  Paul Hurtado	phurtado@unr.edu	Applied Mathematics, Mathematical Biology
  Tom Kozubowski	tkozubow@unr.edu	Probability and statistics, stochastic models, actuarial science, climate research
  Anna Panorska	ania@unr.edu	Statistics, probability, extreme events, power tail and heavy tail distributions.
  Deena Schmidt	drschmidt@unr.edu	Mathematical biology, applied probability, networks, applications in neuroscience

  Department of Physics faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Patrick Arnott	patarnott@physics.unr.edu	Perhaps aerosol, energy, instrument development.
  Andrei Derevianko	andrei@unr.edu	Theoretical physics, data analysis
  Heather Holmes	hholmes@unr.edu	-

  Department of Psychology faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Marian Berryhill	mberryhill@unr.edu	Cognitive neuroscience, concussion, traumatic brain injury, working memory, executive function
  Gideon Caplovitz	gcaplovitz@unr.edu	Visual Perception, Human Neuroscience, Electroencephalography (EEG)
  Jeff Hutsler	jhutsler@unr.edu	Autism, Neuroanatomy, Brain Connections
  Fang Jiang	fangj@unr.edu	-
  Jacqueline Snow	jacqueline.c.snow@gmail.com	Cognitive neuroscience, object perception, neuropsychology
  Lars Strother	lars@unr.edu	Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Vision Science, Face, object and word recognition, dyslexia
  Michael Webster	mwebster@unr.edu	Neuroscience, visual perception
  Yueran Yang	yuerany@unr.edu	Psychology and Law, eyewitness identification, police interrogation and confession, legal decision making
  Lorraine Benuto	dr.benuto@gmail.com	Trauma, latinx, mental health
  Cynthia Lancaster	cynthialancaster@unr.edu	Anxiety disorders, exposure/behavioral therapy, posttraumatic stress disorder
  Markus Kemmelmeier	markusk@unr.edu	Social psychology; culture; political psychology; intergroup relations
  Amy Lansing	alansing@unr.edu	Adolescent Health; Biobehavioral and Family Systems

  Nevada Seismology Laboratory faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  John Louie	johnnlouie@gmail.com	Earthquake shaking, earthquake modeling, exploration geophysics
• Reynolds School of Journalism

  Reynolds School of Journalism faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Laura Crosswell	lcrosswell@unr.edu	Health, advertising, media effects, Eye tracking
  Ran Duan	rduan@unr.edu	Visual communication of environmental issues, environmental journalism, and visual perceptions
  Todd Felts	mfelts@unr.edu	-
  Donica Mensing	dmensing@unr.edu	Journalism, media, democracy, political communication
• Sanford Center for Aging

  Sanford Center for Aging faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Susan Harris	sharris@unr.edu	-
• School of Medicine

  Department of Microbiology and Immunology faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Mary Burtnick	mburtnick@med.unr.edu	Microbiology and infectious diseases, Bacterial pathogenesis, Host-pathogen interactions, Bacterial genetics
  Paul Sumby	psumby@med.unr.edu	Microbiology, Genetics, Genomics
  David Aucoin	daucoin@med.unr.edu	Antibodies, diagnostics, therapeutics
  Paul Brett	pbrett@med.unr.edu	Tropical Infectious Diseases, Bacterial Pathogenesis, Vaccines, Diagnostics
  Subhash Verma	scverma@med.unr.edu	Human Herpesvirus, Molecular Virology, Zika Virus, Cancer, Infectious Diseases

  Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Cell Biology faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Josh Baker	jebaker@unr.edu	Biophysics, muscle, microscopy
  Dean Burkin	dburkin@med.unr.edu	Integrins, Extracellular Matrix, Muscular Dystrophy
  Heather Burkin	hburkin@med.unr.edu	-
  Ruben Dagda	rdagda@med.unr.edu	Mitochondria, Neurodegeneration, Parkinson’s disease
  Cherie Singer	csinger@med.unr.edu	-
  Yumei Feng	yumeifeng@med.unr.edu	Neuroscience, hypertension, cardiovascular metabolic diseases
  Qi Chen	cqi@med.unr.edu	-
  Bernard Drumm	bdrumm@med.unr.edu	Smooth muscle, calcium signaling, gastrointestinal motility
  Seungil Ro	sro@med.unr.edu	Gastrointestinal disease, diabetes, obesity
  Wei Yan	wyan@med.unr.edu	-

  Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Abbie Olszewski	aolszewski@med.unr.edu	Language Disorders, Literacy, Transgender
• School of Public Health

  School of Public Health faculty mentors

  Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
  Karla Wagner	karlawagner@unr.edu	Opioids, HIV, Harm reduction, Qualitative research methods, Quantitative research methods