Visiting Professor Immunobiology
alwinejames@gmail.com
610-220-6548

Expertise: All aspects of virology

Dr. Alwine’s is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Immunobiology at UA, and an Emeritus Professor of Cancer Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  After 38 years at the University of Pennsylvania he retired to Tucson.  During his research career he studied polyoma viruses, HIV and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV).  He has studied all aspects of virus-host interactions including transcriptional activation by viral proteins, analyzed viral RNA processing particularly polyadenylation signals and how they functioned.  During the latter prt of his career he focused his research on understanding the means by which viruses alter cellular signaling, especially stress signaling, and modify cellular metabolism.  He was been among the first to study: how HCMV alters the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway to resist inhibition by cellular stress; how HCMV alters the signaling pathways of the unfolded protein response for the advantage of the viral infection; and how HCMV utilizes these events to alter cellular metabolism.  With over 40 years of experience he provides a very broad knowledge of virology.

Associate Professor, Department of Immunobiology
deeptab@arizona.edu
520-626-8088

Expertise: Immune responses to vaccines and infections

Deepta Bhattacharya received his Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Indiana University. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology and immunology from the University of California, Berkeley. For his postdoctoral fellowship, he trained at Stanford University studying stem cell biology. In 2008, he began his own lab at Washington University in St. Louis, first as an Assistant Professor and then as a tenured Associate Professor.  Dr. Bhattacharya returned in 2017 to his birthplace of Tucson to join the Department of Immunobiology, where his lab continues to study both stem cells and antibody responses to infections and vaccines. Dr. Bhattacharya has received numerous honors, including the New York Stem Cell Foundation-Robertson Investigator award and American Cancer Society Research Scholar award. His lab is currently funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Public Health
Associate Dean, SBS
mjcasper@arizona.edu
520-621-1112

Expertise: Sociology of health and illness; trauma studies, women's health and reproduction; disability studies; environmental studies; health disparities; gender-based violence; critical animal studies

Monica J. Casper, Ph.D. is Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Inclusion in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Public Health at the University of Arizona. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the School of Sociology and in Africana Studies, and is co-founder of the UA Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. She has published several books, including the award-winning The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery; The Body: Social and Cultural Dissections; and Critical Trauma Studies: Understanding Violence, Conflict, and Memory in Everyday Life. Her current research focuses on biopolitics of infant mortality and maternal health; traumatic brain injury; and global politics of elephant trauma and rescue. She is founding co-editor of the successful NYU Press book series “Biopolitics: Medicine, Technoscience, and Health in the 21st Century” and founding co-editor of the newly launched UA Press Book Series, “The Feminist Wire Books: Connecting Feminisms, Race, and Social Justice,” as well as a managing editor of The Feminist Wire and publisher of TRIVIA: Voices of Feminism. She is a prolific creative writer with publications in numerous literary journals.
More information can be found at www.monicajcasper.com. 

Assistant Professor/ Dept. of Communication
rainliu@arizona.edu
520-626-3062

Expertise: Persuasion and social influence; health and risk communication; environment communication

Rain Wuyu Liu is an Assistant Professor of Communication. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Southwest University in China, she came to the U.S. and received her M.A. in Public Relations from the University of Miami (2012) and her Ph.D. in Communication from Michigan State University (2017). Rain’s research interests span the areas of persuasion, interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, and social influence. Specifically, her research focuses on the impacts of social norm messages on health and environment information processing, attitude change, and health and conservation behavior promotion. She is also interested in the interplay between cultural values and beliefs with the social normative influence in shaping individuals’ attitudes and behaviors. Her other research interests include research methods and statistics, strategic communication, and campaign designing. Rain has extensive experience of working on grant-funded research projects, including a National Science Foundation (NSF) project conducted among Tibetan herders in Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Other projects were funded by agencies such as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) and Sparrow/MSU Center for Innovation and Research. Her publications have appeared in journals such as Environmental Communication, Communication Studies, Intercultural Communication Studies, New Media and Society, American Behavioral Social Scientist, Sustainability, and Computers in Human Behavior.

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering & Chemistry and Biochemistry
daloy@mse.arizona.edu
520-609-6021

Expertise: Polymer Science, 3D printing

Currently a Professor with a split appointment with the departments of Materials Science & Engineering and Chemistry & Biochemistry, Doug is a fifth generation Arizonan and alumni of the University of Arizona (BS in Chemistry, 1983).  He received a Masters in Chemistry from Northern Arizona University in 1986 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine in 1991.   He subsequently joined Sandia National Laboratories, becoming a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff before moving to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2003 where he led the Polymer and Nanomaterials Synthesis Team in the Polymer and Coatings Group.   In 2005, he joined the faculty at the University of Arizona where he has continued investigating fundamental and unconventional sol-gel chemistries, synthesis of new polyarylenes by Diels-Alder polymerizations for gas separations and fuel cell electrolytes, tetrazine polymer chemistry, new materials for energy storage, and 3D printing of polymers, thermosets, glass and semiconductors.  He is a member of BIO5, Arizona Center for Accelerated BioMedical Innovation Fellow, and the 2017 Inventor of the Year in Physical Sciences at the U of A. He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications and proceedings, 7 book chapters, 60 conference proceedings, and 16 patents.

Professor of Psychology
mehl@arizona.edu
520-626-2374

Expertise: Social Interactions, Wellbeing, and Health

Matthias Mehl is a social and personality psychologist with interest in the conceptualization and measurement of how social processes affect health and wellbeing. Methodologically, he uses research methods for studying daily life and has helped pioneer novel methods of real-world data collection. One of these methods involves the unobtrusive sampling of ambient sounds via a mobile recording device called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). He has extensively published and given workshops on real-world psychological research methods and co-edited the Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Daily Life. He is a tenured Full Professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona where he also holds courtesy appointments in the Department of Communication, the Division of Family Studies and Human Development, the Arizona Cancer Center, and the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute. His research has been funded, among other sources, by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Templeton Foundation, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity (IARPA). He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. 

Staff Scientist, University of Arizona Genetics Core, Clinical Services. Founding Member, Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine
ryans1@arizona.edu
520-626-4882

Expertise: Clinical Genetic testing, Neurogenetics

Dr. Sprissler is Lead Scientist managing the University of Arizona Genetics Core facility specializing in cutting edge genomic technology and clinical genetic testing. A founding member of the Center for Applied Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Dr. Sprissler leads and collaborates on numerous efforts to better understand the role of genetics in a vast array of disease states with a specific expertise in neurogenetics. With over 15 years of experience in genetic assay design, validation and testing Dr. Sprissler strives to translate genetic research discoveries directly to patients. He is a current member of the Association for Bioresource Facilities (ABRF), the Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA) & the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Andrew Weil Chair for Research in Integrative Medicine; Research Director, Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine; Director, UA Institute on Place, Wellbeing & Performance; Research Professor, Medicine (CoM) & Psychology (CoS, Dept Psychology)
esternberg@arizona.edu
520-626-9947

Expertise: Stress & immune system; design and health; designing for wellbeing; mind-body science; place & wellbeing, sweat biomarkers

Internationally recognized pioneer in mind-body/brain-immune interactions, sweat biomarker detection, and design and health, Dr. Sternberg is Research Director, Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, Founding Director, UArizona Institute on Place, Wellbeing & Performance, Inaugural Andrew Weil Chair for Research in Integrative Medicine, and Research Professor of Medicine and Psychology. She develops and applies non-invasive devices to measure health, wellbeing and performance from molecules to environment. Her U.S. General Services Administration studies showing optimal healthy spatial layout, temperature/humidity, and sound are informing healthy building design standards. Previously, Sternberg was Senior Scientist and Section Chief at the National Institutes of Health (1986-2012). She has authored >225 scholarly articles, 2 popular books, edited 8 technical books, received the highest NIH, HHS, and FDA awards, including recognition by the National Library of Medicine as one of 339 women who “Changed the Face of Medicine;” Honorary Doctorate in Medicine, Trinity College, Dublin; member (2013-2018) and Chair (2018) NLM Board of Regents. She advised the U.S. Surgeon General; U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory; U.S. Army Research Laboratory; U.S. Green Building Council; Australian Green Building Council; Vatican, on built environment impacts on health. She received her M.D. from and trained in rheumatology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Associate Professor, Psychology
swolf22@arizona.edu
520-621-7431

Expertise: Psychological, sociological, and political reactions to coronavirus (and other environmental hazards); stress and chronic stress

Daniel Sullivan received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Kansas in 2013. His research concerns stress and trauma in the context of environmental hazards, such as natural disasters and environmental contamination. He is the author of Cultural-Existential Psychology from Cambridge University Press, and nearly 100 scholarly articles and chapters. He is a recipient of a Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science.