People in the Kier Lab
William M. Kier
I received my Ph.D. in Zoology in 1983 at Duke University, where I was a student of
Stephen A. Wainwright. After leaving Duke I was a Postdoctoral
Scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA.
Following my postdoc at WHOI, I was a National Science Foundation-NATO
Postdoctoral Scholar and worked at the Marine Biological Association of the
UK Laboratories in Plymouth, England and the Stazione Zoologica in Naples,
Italy. I joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in 1985. I am currently a Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor
and Associate Chairman of the Department of Biology. For additional
information, please see my CV.
Students / Postdocs
Jennifer Taylor, Ph.D. Student
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: Hydrostatic Skeletons in the Crustacea: Support
During Molting in an Aquatic and a Terrestrial Crab, 2007.
All animals require a skeletal support system for posture and locomotion. Animals either have rigid skeletons, like mammals and insects, or hydrostatic (fluid-based) skeletons, like earthworms and sea anemones. Arthropods (insects, spiders, lobsters, and crabs) are unique because they repeatedly shed their rigid external skeleton in order to grow, yet they maintain shape and mobility during these periods. My research focuses on this apparent paradox and suggests that crabs, and likely all arthropods, alternate between a rigid and a hydrostatic skeleton in order to remain functional during periods of growth. I test for the use of hydrostatic support in aquatic and terrestrial crabs and examine the consequences of skeletal support change, such as how the mechanical properties change and affect locomotor performance, and how switching skeletons influences growth. This is the first description of an animal that alternates between the two major categories of skeletal support. The ability to switch skeletons has important implications for the evolution of the arthropod body plan and the successful adaptation to life on land.
Jennifer will be conducting her postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Sheila Patek, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley.
Ted Uyeno, Ph.D. Student
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The
Functional Biomechanics of the Muscle Articulation: a New Class of Soft Tissue
Joint, 2007.
Muscle articulations are a new type of joint that I am in the process of characterizing. They do not rely on straps or contacts between the hard parts. Instead they are embedded in a complicated arrangement of soft tissues. In order to describe their form and function, I am investigating the feeding structures of several marine invertebrates, including octopuses, flatworms, bloodworms and brachiopods.
Ted is conducting his postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof Kiisa Nishikawa, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.
Rebecca Price, SPIRE Postdoctoral Scholar
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Function, Macroevolution, and
Macroecology of the Internal Ornamentation in Neogastropods, University
of Chicago, 2003.
I aim to explore why organisms change their shapes through time and space. My research involves neogastropods, a clade of marine snails that has thousands of species throughout the world's oceans. Neogastropods also have a rich fossil record extending back at least 140 million years ago. As you can imagine, the thousands of neogastropod species from today's oceans and from the fossil record have thousands of different shell shapes. But why are there so many species and so many shapes? To answer these questions, I've developed methods for quantifying shell shapes and statistically comparing groups of shells. Currently, my main projects (1) model the energy trade-offs associated with the evolution of different shell shapes and (2) assess the diversity of negastropod shell shapes in the North-Eastern Pacific.
Becca is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell.
.Research Technician
Ms. Sonia Guarda
Sonia provides expert assistance in the processing of tissue for
light and electron microscopy, photography, morphometrics, and
morphological analysis. In addition, she is responsible for general
maintenance of the laboratory including maintaining stocks and
supplies, ordering, instrument maintenance, etc.
Sonia will be leaving the lab as she has decided to pursue a degree in nursing, and is currently enrolled in the prerequisite courses for admission to a nursing program.
Former students and postdocs
Dr. Andrew M. Smith
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Ithaca College
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: Adhesion and the Tensile Strength of Water in Nature, 1992
Dr. Sönke Johnsen
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Duke University
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Optical Design of the Photic System of Ophiuroids, 1996
Dr. Joseph T. Thompson
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Franklin and Marshall University
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Ontogeny of Mantle Structure and
Function in the Oval Squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana (Cephalopoda,
Loliginidae), 2000
Dr. Diara D. Spain
Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Science & Mathematics, Dominican University of California
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: Peristaltic Locomotion in Holothuroids: Morphology and Movement, 2002