Take 5

Veronica Padilla Vriesman

Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Veronica Padilla Vriesman is a marine scientist and paleobiologist. She has research interests in climate change and biomineralization, which is the process by which living organisms produce minerals. Vriesman studies connections between marine shells and ocean changes through time. She is especially interested in environmental impacts on bivalve biomineralization. Her research uses the shells of marine mollusks to gauge their responses to changing climates through time to contextualize modern changes. 

While working on her PhD at the Ocean Climate Lab at UC Davis, Vriesman studied the California mussel shell to evaluate its utility as a paleoceanographic archive. She received support from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Vriesman is a Latina scientist committed to anti-racism and diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM and academia. She has a PhD in Earth and planetary sciences from UC Davis and a BS in geology and Spanish from Colgate University. 

Jia-Ahn Pan

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jia-Ahn Pan is a materials scientist studying the relationship between microscopic elements of a material and the material's structures and properties. He has worked on developing novel ligands (a term referring to ions or molecules) for colloidal upconverting nanoparticles, which can convert near-infrared light into visible light. Their unique optical properties can be used in microscopy, sensing, and photonics. Pan has also studied and developed stimuli-sensitive ligands for patterning of colloidal nanocrystals as a graduate researcher at the University of Chicago.  

Pan’s work has recently appeared in Nanoscale Horizons, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Accounts of Chemical Research, and Nano Letters. He has a PhD in materials chemistry from the University of Chicago and a BS in chemistry and mathematics from Bates College. For more on Pan’s research, see Faculty Distinctions. 

Ashley Heers

Assistant Professor of Biology Ashley Heers explores the origins of flight using birds and their dinosaur ancestors as a focal group. What is the advantage of the rudimentary locomotor structures in developing or evolving animals, such as the early wings—known as proto-wings—of young birds or extinct dinosaurs? Heers considers questions like these to be crucial to understanding vertebrate biology. Her research combines biological, paleontological, and engineering disciplines. She uses experimental, 3D visualization, and biomechanical modeling tools and applies her findings to extinct dinosaurs through musculoskeletal modeling. 

Heers has a PhD in organismal biology and ecology from the University of Montana and a BS in biology and geology from the University of California, Davis. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Veterinary College and Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History. She is a recipient of the NSF’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and Faculty Early Career Development grant programs. See more on Faculty Distinctions.  

Zachary Wilson

Assistant Professor of Biology Zachary Wilson is a cell and molecular biologist with more than 14 years of research experience. Wilson investigates how eukaryotic cells respond to stress and how organelles inside cells remove damaged components to restore cell health. His experience in cell biology includes parasitology, membrane trafficking, mitochondrial biology, and cell aging. Wilson has also taught and mentored in both the lab and classroom with students ranging from high school to medical school. 

Wilson was a postdoctoral research fellow and faculty mentor in the Biochemistry Department of the University of Utah, where he studied mitochondrial stress response pathways in budding yeast. His research has been supported by the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. Wilson has a PhD in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado Boulder and a BS in biochemistry and molecular biology from Lewis & Clark College. 

Shriya Nagpal

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Shriya Nagpal’s research uses tools from network theory and dynamical systems to study synchronization in networks of coupled phase-oscillators. She has applied these mathematical concepts to real-world challenges in energy and electricity. Her recent publications include “Designing for Robustness in Electric Grids via a General Effective Resistance Measure” in IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems and “A continuous refinement technique for wind farm layout optimization” in Renewable Energy.  

Nagpal has research interests in complex networks, optimization and control, and graphon theory. She is also passionate about teaching and has received graduate teaching awards from the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. She has a PhD and MS in applied mathematics from Cornell University and a BS in mathematics from Trinity College.