If you are a prospective Ph.D. student, please email Vernita: gordon at chaos dot utexas dot edu. Tell her what about her group is interesting to you and how it fits into your background. If you don’t hear back from her, wait a week and try again. Sometimes she gets overwhelmed and doesn’t respond to emails, but that’s her fault, not yours. She still wants to hear from you.

Vernita can take Ph.D. students from the Physics, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Cell and Molecular Biology, and Biomedical Engineering programs. She thinks she is a good advisor and she encourages you to contact her current group members to find out more about what life in her group is like.

We also take undergraduate researchers. If you are interested in doing undergraduate research, email Vernita. Tell her about your background and why you’re interested in doing research in her group. If you don’t hear back from her, wait a week and try again. Sometimes she gets overwhelmed and doesn’t respond to emails, but that’s her fault, not yours. She still wants to hear from you.

Because of the importance of biofilms to both basic science and health, our work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  In the past, our work has also been funded by the Human Frontiers Science Program and ExxonMobil.

More generally, the biophysical questions we ask address important topics because they address processes that are foundational to multicellular life (including ourselves and you, Dear Reader). We want especially to know how physics shapes these biological interactions and how physical tools and modes of thought can help us understand them better.

Motivated postdocs, graduate, undergraduate students will have the opportunity to contribute to multiple strands of fast-moving research within this theme. Our toolkit includes a variety of techniques for microscope imaging, micromanipulation, and computational analysis, and is likewise constantly expanding.

For more information on the group’s research and/or opportunities in the group, please email Vernita or come find us in person on the 14th floor of PMA.