Faculty regularly receive support for undergraduate research through internally and externally funded grants, and publish numerous articles, most of which include NKU undergraduate students as co-authors.
Explore resources below to learn about faculty research interests, funding opportunities, and additional resources to help your research run smoothly.
Interest: Studying underwater ecosystems to preserve biodiversity and manage marine resources
Dr. Acosta studies community ecology and populations of key species in aquatic ecosystems. His students have focused their research on applications to conservation science and resource sustainability. Dr. Acosta is currently studying invasive dynamics of crayfish, modeling fishing impacts on Caribbean lobsters, and documenting biodiversity patterns on coral reefs.
Interest: Improving how students learn genetics and succeed in STEM fields
Dr. Bowling's research interests focus on effective practices in genetics education, student misconceptions in genetics, and the incorporation of bioinformatics into genetics curricula. Some of her recent work has broadened into student success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs and initiatives to increase retention, such as peer mentors and early undergraduate research opportunities.
Interest: Exploring how invasive plants disrupt - and sometimes help - our natural ecosystems
A main area of Dr. Boyce's research centers around the effects of invasive woody plants, especially Amur honeysuckle. He's been examining how native plant communities recover after honeysuckle has been removed. He is also looking at how honeysuckle is responding to outbreaks of a native pathogen, honeysuckle leaf blight. Recently, Dr. Boyce extended his work to a recent invader, Callery (Bradford) pears, which have moved from yards to the wild. Another area of research centers around photosynthesis and water use by eastern red cedar, our only native evergreen tree. Measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence and sap flow show that carbon uptake is substantial outside of the growing season, which may explain why it can thrive in our region.
Interest: Uncovering the hidden diversity of algae and microbes in our waterways
Dr. Cooper's research interests are centered around understanding the diversity, evolution, and physiological ecology of eukaryotic algae and their neighboring microbes in freshwater ecosystems. Additional projects include documenting and describing the diatom diversity of our local and regional watersheds. Dr. Cooper is in the process of curating and describing species from Ecuador housed in the NKU Diatom Herbarium collection.
Interest: Studying how environmental toxins and genetics impact brain development and behavior
Dr. Curran's research is in understanding how environmental toxicants affect the brain, leading to deficits in learning and memory and altered behavior. Understanding how genetic differences (polymorphisms) affect susceptibility or resistance to environmental toxicants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Interest: Identifying flies to aid criminal investigations and track ecological patterns
Dr. Dahlem's research involves the discovery of new structural features of flesh flies to allow species-level identifications of New World flesh flies and blow flies (Sarcophagidae & Calliphoridae) by morphological features. He has been exploring the use of stacked digital photography and 3-D scanning to render high-quality photos or (potentially) 3-D models of key morphological features to help non-specialists accurately identify specimens of these flies. He provides identifications for researchers in other disciplines. For example, he is currently working to identify a group of flies reared as predators of turtle egg clutches in Wisconsin. Dr. Dahlem also provides identifications and information on flesh flies reared from human corpses at crime scenes for crime labs around the United States. He writes a column on new and interesting entomological research for the magazine American Entomologist, and has given numerous forensic entomology demonstrations for school groups, libraries, and museums.
Interest: Researching how wildlife responds to climate change and habitat shifts
Understanding how ectotherms (fish, amphibians, and reptiles) respond (physiologically) to varying ecological conditions, both biotic (invasive species) and abiotic (climate change), are drivers of the research questions addressed in Dr. Durtsche's lab. All of his research activities involve undergraduate collaborators. Current research topics include: 1) testing potential climate change impacts on the metabolism of Kentucky stream fishes; 2) monitoring the effects of invasive plant control on native amphibian and reptile populations; and 3) developing digital imaging tools to determine the nutritional quality of macroinvertebrates for use in ecological models of drift foraging by fish.
Interest: Using aquatic organisms to detect and clean up human-made environmental stress
Dr. Ghosh Roy’s research interest is in understanding the impacts of human-induced stresses on aquatic ecosystems using bioindicators. Some of the stress factors she has investigated are nutrients from agricultural pollutants, metals from industrial contaminations, or antibiotics from human consumption. Currently, Dr. Ghosh Roy is working on a research project aimed at identifying potential bioindicators or bioremediators (specifically for metals and antibiotics) in a wastewater treatment plant in Kentucky.
Interest: Working with partners to make environments more sustainable and livable for everyone
Dr. Hopfensperger began her career focused on using science to better understand our ecosystems and manage our environment for multiple stakeholders. This work focused on investigating feedback between plant communities and ecosystem processes, such as nutrient cycling, and how these dynamics change with human influences. Her current work also includes invasive species and terrestrial habitats. Her research hinges on working with many partners and disciplines to make our region more sustainable, equitable, and healthy for all. For her, the icing on the cake is getting to share all of this with NKU students - to get them in the trenches working on real environmental issues with real organizations in the space we all live, work, and play.
Interest: Using numbers and models to craft smarter and fairer environmental policies worldwide
Dr. Oluoch's research interests pivot around applying quantitative methods such as stated preferences, revealed preferences, econometrics, and modelling to answer key environmental concerns spanning both urban and rural societies, in both developing and developed world contexts. His research focus strives to integrate practical environmental science and management approaches to key research questions on energy transition, renewable energy, energy security, and environmental justice. Dr. Oluoch is specifically interested in exploring how to integrate the public perspective in the development of environmental policies. His main emphasis is to develop linkages in academic and research endeavors in the subject areas of sustainability science with a strong emphasis on human-environmental interactions, climate risks and responses, species conservation, and natural resource management.
Interest: Studying how environment and human behavior affect the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses
Dr. Parker is an eco-epidemiologist, which means she studies the intersection between ecology and disease. Her research focuses on mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit in human-dominated landscapes. Since we do not have vaccines for many of the viruses spread by mosquitoes, controlling mosquito populations is the best way to prevent disease transmission. She looks at how mosquito species distribution and abundance vary based on how humans have altered the environment and how human knowledge, attitudes, and mosquito control practices affect the potential for mosquito-borne diseases to spread. Dr. Parker then uses this information to create outreach tools to work to reduce mosquito populations. Her research allows her to work with her community partners and the public.
Interest: Developing new vaccines and harnessing microbes to improve health and nutrition
Dr. Mester's research interests are in stopping disease-causing microbes in their tracks by developing novel vaccines and antimicrobial treatments. Creating healthy foods and beverages via microbial fermentation.
Interest: Using drones and data to protect butterflies by restoring critical plant habitats
Dr. Robertson's research interests are broad. She has worked in both a marine environment on spiny lobster populations and now on milkweed population recovery and management. The underlying theme is research at the population level, regardless of the environment. She has and continues to explore the success of populations by better understanding population size over time, reproduction, growth, and the success of a population in the context of the greater environment in which they live. Her current research focuses on understanding the success of milkweed, as this species of flowering plant is tied to the success of Monarch butterfly populations. Dr. Robertson is working with colleagues and students to better understand restoration and management impacts on the success of milkweed. They are also working to develop a sampling system using drone photography and GIS to map milkweed in restored areas over time and keep better track of population sizes and densities. Their goal is to promote better restoration and management of milkweed in hopes of positively impacting Monarch butterfly populations.
Interest: Studying animals and ideas to understand life, logic, and the limits of science
Dr. Sarchet researches water balance: aquatic vs. terrestrial environments; thermoregulation and energetics: ectotherms vs. endotherms; applications of logic in the scientific method: the roles of inductive and deductive logic; metaphysics and epistemology: how knowledge of the physical world is acquired, understood and applied; and the crossroads of ethics and science.
Interest: Using genetics and cell biology to uncover causes of rare neurological diseases
Dr. Schultheis uses molecular biology tools to study the function of P-type transport ATPase proteins. Most recently, using a mouse model, he has shown that mutations in ATP13A2 (PARK9) are associated with Kufor-Rakeb Syndrome, a rare genetic form of Parkinson’s disease, and neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, a lysosomal storage disorder.
Interest: Exploring how early genetic signals control development and what happens when things go wrong
As a developmental biologist, Dr. Shifley is interested in understanding how organs develop in the early vertebrate embryo, and she uses the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, as a model organism. Her research is focused on discovering and understanding the genetic signals that coordinate proper development. Even during the early stages of development, embryonic tissues become differentiated from one another and eventually undergo morphogenesis to form the organs of the adult body. These tissues are guided by different molecular signals instructing them to differentiate into the various organs. Dr. Shifley's research is focused on discovering and understanding how these genetic signals coordinate proper embryonic development. This research is important because it can help explain why certain birth defects occur, and it can help inform research aimed at directing stem cells into specific lineages for therapeutic purposes.
Interest: Using yeast to uncover the secrets behind chromosome errors linked to cancer
Dr. Strome's research is in studying genes involved in regulating genome stability. Her lab works to utilize the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae and create gene mutations to identify roles in instability. Aneuploidy assays, looking for abnormal chromosome numbers, allow them to view mutations and their roles in this cancer-associated phenotype. Their goal is to discover genes whose human homologs might be studied for their roles in cancer incidence.
Interest: Studying herbicides, metals, and reproduction to understand aquatic health risks
Research projects in Dr. Thompson's laboratory examine the physiological and toxicological implications of waterborne metals and organic herbicides. For example, Atrazine is an herbicide used in no-till farming and is frequently found in surface water, such as within the Ohio River watershed. While atrazine has been shown to have adverse effects on non-target species, there is a lack of information examining the potential impact of commercially available atrazine products, especially considering the additional ingredients often included in these formulations. His research also works with studies of the physiology of squirrelfish, which have shown that female squirrelfish preferentially increase their uptake of Zn during reproductively active periods and make this Zn available to the developing embryo. Dr. Thompson's lab is examining the possibility that differential Zn-transporter expression occurs at critical points in the reproductive cycle, under hormonal control.
Interest: Exploring bird behavior and using feathers to detect hidden environmental threats
Dr. Walters' research investigates the reproductive behavior of wild cavity-nesting birds. It seeks to answer broad questions about how birds navigate parental investment decisions to maximize their evolutionary fitness. Like all organisms that provide parental care to their offspring, birds face a tradeoff between investment in their offspring versus investment in their self-maintenance. This fundamental tradeoff forms the basis for the research questions that she investigates with her students about parental behaviors such as nest site selection, incubation, nestling provisioning, and waste removal. Dr. Walters also uses birds to study conservation-related issues such as factors influencing bird-window collisions and the use of nestling feathers as a bioindicator of environmental methylmercury contamination. Undergraduate students are involved in every aspect of her research, including planning, data collection, analysis, presenting, and publishing.
Interest: Curating and digitizing plants to support research, education, and conservation
Dr. Whitson's background is in flora of the southeastern US, molecular phylogenetic techniques, and taxonomy and systematics of the Solanaceae (Nightshade family), particularly the genus Physalis (ground cherries). She is the director and curator of NKU's John W. Thieret Herbarium, which is a research and teaching collection of about 30,000 dried plant specimens. Currently her work is focused on databasing and digitizing the herbarium collections and finding ways to use this data for educational purposes, as well as to inform the growth and management of our collections. Dr. Whitson is also interested in the flora of Kentucky and the Southeast, with a particular focus on under-collected native species and newly introduced non-natives.
Interest: Studying how the immune system interacts with brain development and behavior
Our brains determine almost everything we do, and our brains get inputs from the outside world at a remarkable speed. How do our bodies, and especially our immune systems and responses to pathogens, change our brains? How do our brains change what we do to survive infection and resolve inflammation? How does inflammation affect learning and memory? All of these questions drive Dr. Williamson's work in a rodent model of early-life infection. In her lab, they look at rodent learning and memory behavior and how that behavior correlates with inflammatory responses both outside and inside the brain.
Interest: Using tech and citizen science to track plant responses to global change
Dr. Xie is a plant ecologist. She is interested in the spatial and temporal interactions between plants and the environment. Her research focuses on the impacts of global change on plant phenology (i.e., the timing of life cycle events) and associated species interactions and ecosystem processes. Shifts in plant phenology (e.g., flowering time) can have substantial ecological and economic impacts. Understanding how plant phenology responds to environmental variation is critical in assessing the impacts and predicting the future. She works with scientists in multiple disciplines, undergraduate students, and local land managers. She uses integrated approaches including natural history, citizen science network, field observation, and a variety of remote sensing techniques (ranging from time-lapse cameras to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle systems and satellites) to identify the mechanisms, patterns, forecasts, and consequences.
NKU's CINSAM provides the following opportunties for NKU faculty to obtain research funding:
Each year, the Undergraduate Research in STEM (UR-STEM) program requests proposals to fund students in research projects either underway, or new projects appropriate for novice students.
Many faculty members have had success adding a UR-STEM student to their existing research team. Students that participate in this program have been retained at significantly higher levels than those who do not participate.
Each year, CINSAM seeks proposals CINSAM Research Grants, which provides support for STEM faculty research with students. The goals of the program are to:
Over the last decade, research faculty have received over three million dollars in externally funded grants from agencies, including (but not limited to):
