2006-07 PhD and Post-doctoral Fellowship Recipients

Jessica Homyack , Ph.D. Fellow, Fish & Wildlife

Jessica originally is from Pennsylvania and graduated with a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Resources, Magna Cum Laude from West Virginia University in 1999. She has a M.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Maine where she was voted the outstanding graduate student in her department in 2003. Prior to coming to the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences at Virginia Tech, Jessica was a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the Wyoming Ecological Services Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For her dissertation research, Jessica is investigating the experimental effects of forest regeneration methods on salamander populations in Virginia and West Virginia. Jessica is married to Tom Gorman, who also is a PhD student in Wildlife Sciences, and she looks forward to utilizing her AdvanceVT fellowship to explore issues in academia related to dual career relationships and balancing family and work.

Francis Bonier, Postdoctoral Fellow, Biology

Frances Bonier is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Zoology at the University of Washington. She will be defending her dissertation in July of 2006. Fran received her M.S. in Zoology in 2001 from the University of Idaho, where she investigated noninvasive detection of steroid hormones in cougars. For her dissertation, Fran investigated evolutionary, behavioral, and physiological responses to urban breeding habitat in songbirds. As a postdoctoral researcher, she will be working with Dr. Ignacio Moore at Virginia Tech, investigating the role of mountain ranges and asynchronous seasonality in promoting population divergence in songbirds in the Ecuadorian Andes.

Patricia Dos Santos, Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry

Patricia C. Dos Santos received a B.S. degree in Pharmacy from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Dennis R. Dean’s laboratory at Virginia Teach. Patricia’s research interest involves the in vivo assembly of Fe-S clusters. The Advance VT fellowship will provide funding for her study of how gram-positive bacteria build these essential metal complexes.

Deborah Johnson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry

Deborah holds a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Warwick (UK) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) from the University of Southampton (UK). She came to Blacksburg in 1997 and taught Biology at Blacksburg High School. She returned to graduate school in 2000 and completed her M.S. and Ph.D in the Departments of Biology and Biochemistry, respectively. She aims to use this fellowship to pursue an academic career in science education research, investigating the circumstances that allow science learners to develop and apply an understanding of scientific inquiry and the nature of science.

Jianhua Yang, Postdoctoral Fellow
Biological Sciences

Jianhua obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry in State University of New York at Buffalo in December 2005. She worked on the regulation of heme biosynthesis and iron metabolism in the bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum. At present, Dr. Yang has expanded her research interest towards areas of investigation that involve human diseases. She works in Dr. Finkielstein’s laboratory where she studies the mechanisms that control cell division and how its de-regulation leads to uncontrolled cell proliferation. Many human diseases, ranging from cancer and coronary artery diseases to Alzheimer, result from abnormal function of key components that mediates the decision to undergo cell death or division. A detailed understanding of how these molecules interact and their roles in cell signaling will provide new targets for drug development and disease treatment.