Faculty Labs and Research

Dr. Ayers’ research focus is on the neuroethology of motor systems in invertebrates and lower vertebrates and the application of this knowledge to the development of advanced robots.

One central strategy of the Detrich Lab’s work is the comparative approach to adaptational evolutionary biology – they use phylogenetically controlled contrasts to evaluate molecular causation in natural experiments, such as the evolution of proteins to function efficiently at cold temperature. Once they establish potential explanations for such phenomena, they exploit genetically tractable systems, such […]

The Lotterhos Lab at Northeastern Marine Science Center seeks to understand how climate has shaped marine biodiversity and how a now rapidly changing climate will affect biodiversity in the future.

This research group studies the evolution and ecology of marine organisms using cutting-edge, next-generation sequencing, which had revolutionized molecular genetics by providing unprecedented access to the genetic variation in any organism’s genome or transcriptome.

Much of the research in the Bowen Lab is focused on how salt marsh microbial communities, and in particular those microbes that are important in the nitrogen cycle, respond to global change drivers.

The Grabowski lab focuses on marine ecology, fisheries, conservation biology, social-ecological coupling, environmental policy, and ecological economics.

The Helmuth lab uses mathematical and physical models to incorporate the many factors of our changing climate to predict patterns of body temperature in key intertidal organisms around the world.

The lab is interested in the interactions among the numbers and identity of species, the genetic individuals that make up those species, and the ecosystem services that they provide.  They use a combination of lab and field experiments, molecular techniques, and data synthesis to understand the consequences of changes in marine biodiversity.

The Kimbro lab studies why coastal habitats such as salt marshes and oyster reefs thrive in certain areas, but not in others.

The lab studies hydrologic and climatic variability and its connections to the natural and built environment. They are interested in how floods, droughts, and other climate-related hazards shape landscapes and societies across the land-sea interface.

The program investigates a wide range of subjects in the marine and geological sciences, including global climate change, ocean acidification, paleoceanography, paleobiology, carbonate sedimentology, isotope geochemistry, biomineralization, and carbon sequestration.

The Patterson lab works to develop autonomous underwater robots for civil infrastructure and marine sensing and decision support tools for gray/green infrastructure like tide gates while studying environmental fluid mechanics,biomechanics, and mass transfer in living systems.