Find a Faculty Mentor

Here are some steps to help you get started:

These portals help set up a first conversation with a prospective faculty mentor. This is a great professional development opportunity. You will talk about your experiences, interests and discuss potential fit.
Do not be concerned if you don't have lots of research experience yet. The reason you are at the University is to get this experience.
Review the mentor's research through the facility profile page and/or the department mentor portals. You don't have to be an expert at their work, but you should know why you want to talk to them.
Come prepared with some idea of the amount of time you can commit during a semester. Discuss if this is a good fit with the mentor's needs.

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.

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

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

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

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

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	-

Please view the Biology department mentor portal for opportunities.

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

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 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	-

Sanford Center for Aging faculty mentors
Faculty mentor	Email	Research areas
Susan Harris	sharris@unr.edu	-

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

Office Contact Information

Location: Applied Research Facility

Room Number: 302

Mailstop: 0526

Mailing Address: 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89557

Email: undergradresearch@unr.edu

Phone: (775) 682-8403

Directory: Office directory

Here are some steps to help you get started:

Faculty mentor directory

College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources

College of Business

College of Education

College of Engineering

College of Liberal Arts

College of Science

Reynolds School of Journalism

Sanford Center for Aging

School of Medicine

School of Public Health