Wes Colgan

Education

• Ph.D., Oregon State University, Forest Ecology, 1997
• B.A., Sonoma State University, Biology 1992
  
  

Department

• Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Science

 

Biography

Since joining the faculty at NNMC in 2018 as research professor, I have collaborated with several faculty on peer reviewed neurophysiology publications and was invited to fill a tenure track opening in January 2023.

Previously I was faculty at Louisiana Tech university (1999-2005). I was course coordinator for the introductory biology core courses. This required the recruitment, training and supervision dozens of graduate teaching assistants. I then joined ADInstruments (2005-2018) working with educators to record physiological signals from a wide array of organisms. I collaborated with educators from Cornell University, Emory University, HHMI, and many others to help establish the Craw-Fly invertebrate neurophysiology workshops. Hundreds of faculty members from North America and six foreign countries have passed through this course I codeveloped. For this effort, I was named 2014 Educator of the Year, by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience.

Courses Taught

• BIOL1110/L Introduction to Biological Sciences with Lab
• ENVS 1110/L Introduction to Environmental Science with Lab
• BIOL 2310/L Microbiology with Lab
• BIOL 2110/L Principles of Biology: Cell and Molecular with Lab
• BIOL 3105 Organismal Biology
• BIOL 3120 Mycology
• BIOL 3399 URE Experience
• ENVS 3336/L Environmental sampling and Instrumentation with Lab
• ENVS 3308 Invasive species
• ENVS 3370 Microbial Ecology
• BIOL 4451 General Ecology
• BIOL 4499 Capstone experience

 

Research Interests

My research lab focuses on soil microbial community dynamics and land use practices. We are also part of the Small World Initiative program crowd sourcing antibiotic discovery. https://www.smallworldinitiative.org/