Teaching, outreach and service
March 2023. Judging at the Fairfax School District Science and Engineering Fair.
Teaching
Spring 2022 (Jan 12 – May 4, 2022. Wed 11:30 – 13:30 ET; Science and Technology Campus: Colgan Hall Room CH 327 or CH 428)
BIOL575 Landscape genetics: The course caters to students in basic and applied ecology, conservation and population genetics, landscape ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. A key objective of landscape genetics is to study how landscape modification and habitat fragmentation affect organism dispersal and gene flow across the landscape. Landscape genetics requires highly interdisciplinary specialized skills making intensive use of technical population genetic skills and spatial analysis tools (spatial statistics, GIS tools and remote sensing).
Tentative Class Schedule
12-Jan Week 1 Introduction
19-Jan Week 2 Basics of Landscape Ecology
26-Jan Week 3 Basics of Population Genetics
02-Feb Week 4 Basics of Metapopulation Genetics
09-Feb Week 5 Basics of Study Design
16-Feb Week 6 Basics of Adaptation and Quantitative Genetics
23-Feb Week 7 Basics of Spatial Data Analysis
02-Mar Week 8 Simulation and Modeling
09-Mar Week 9 Assignment and Clustering Methods
16-Mar Week 10 Resistance Surface Modeling
23-Mar Week 11 Adaptive Landscape Genetics
30-Mar Week 12 Model Selection
06-Apr Week 13 Graph Theory and Network Models
13-Apr Week 14 Plant Studies in Landscape
20-Apr Week 15 Aquatic Systems
27-Apr Week 16 Presentation of Group Projects
04-May Week 17 Bringing it all together and look to future
Fall 2021
Biology 574 Population Genetics (Textbook: Population Genetics; Mathew B. Hamilton; Wiley-Blackwell Press)
Syllabus (subject to changes)
Spring 2021 Biostatistics (EMDP2 Cohort7)
Fall 2020
Biology 574 Population Genetics (Textbook: Population Genetics; Mathew B. Hamilton; Wiley-Blackwell Press)
Spring 2020
BIOL575 Landscape Genetics. This is a distributed seminar class and the course website is here
BIOL214 Biostatistics (EMDP2 Cohort6)
I teach biomedical statistics / biostatistics classes for two specialized post-Baccalaureate pre-Medical programs: Enlisted to Medical Degree Preparatory Program and Advanced Biomedical Sciences Program (GeorgeSquared).
Fall 2019
BIOL691 Medical Biostatistics
BMED602 Biomedical Statistics
Office hour: Wed 3-4 pm Colgan 409
Talks given:
Phylogeography and speciation of birds: Going wider and deeper. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, MD.
Understanding avian diversification and speciation with phylogenetic and genomic methods . School of System Biology Seminar Series, GMU.
Workshop:
CONS697 Bioinformatics Analysis for Conservation Genomics (Population Genomics Module) at Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation. Oct 2019.
Spring 2019
BINF402 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (Credits: 3). A combination of lectures, computer labs (eg data retrieval, genome browser, de novo assembly, variant calling, RNAseq analysis, QIIME, galaxy) and paper discussion to provide a comprehensive look at the field of bioinformatics.
Biology 574 Population Genetics (Textbook: Population Genetics; Mathew B. Hamilton; Wiley-Blackwell Press)
Fall 2018
BIOL691 Medical Biostatistics
BMED602 Biomedical Statistics
Office hour: Wed 3-4 pm Colgan 409
Spring 2018
BIOL214 Biostatistics for Biology Majors
BINF402 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Fall 2017
BIOL691 Medical Biostatistics
BMED602 Biomedical Statistics
Outreach and Services
2021
(Ongoing) Review Editor in Evolutionary and Population Genetics (specialty section of Frontiers in Genetics, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution and Frontiers in Plant Science).
2020
Provide assistance and advice on several pieces of genomics core equipment currently in my lab.
Genetics position (2) search committee
University grievance committee
2019
Mentor Biology Research Semester undergraduate student Navolle Amiri.
Mentor OSCAR undergraduate student Amanda Taglieri.
Genetics position (1) search committee
University grievance committee
Team teach: Bioinformatics Analysis for Conservation Genomics" in October 2019 at the Smithsonian Front Royal. This 10-day residential course for graduate students and professionals provides a survey of the concepts, methods, and software used in conservation genomics research. https://smconservation.gmu.edu/programs/graduate-and-professional/bioinformatics-analysis-for-conservation-genomics/
Mentor (with Dr R Forkner) OSCAR undergraduate student Mitra Kashani. Project: Infection of bumble bees by Nosema and other parasites.
Category Judge (Animal Sciences) for Fairfax County High School Science Fair (17 Mar 2018).