This year, UCLA Life Sciences welcomed eight outstanding new research faculty. Click on their names to learn more about their research.
Stepfanie Aguillon
Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Research question: Why do organisms look and behave the way they do, and how does this influence speciation?
Assistant Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology
Research question: How do steroid hormones generate social behaviors?
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Research question: What are the basic neural systems and cognitive processes that shape motivation and decision making?
Assistant Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology
Research question: How can we improve mood and memory disorders by understanding how our brains process episodic memories?
Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology
Research question: At a molecular level, how do plants produce new tissues and organs and how do they modify their body plans in response to their environment?
Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Research question: How can we develop useful predictive models for ecological systems and species coexistence as environments change, given unforeseen environmental conditions or incomplete information about the entire system?
Assistant Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology, also in the Institute of Society and Genetics
Research question: What genes, molecules and evolutionary processes guide development of the brain and behavior?
Associate Professor, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology
Research question: As organs and tissues begin to form in developing organisms, how do cells communicate to coordinate important decisions like when to grow and when to divide?
