Faculty

Dr. Michael Kotarski

Associate Professor of Biology
College of Arts & Sciences – Biology

Email:  mmk@niagara.edu
Phone:  716-286-8255

Bio

I’m one of two geneticists on the Bio faculty at Niagara University. I teach courses in Genetics, Medical Genetics and Developmental Biology and a little bit of Anatomy and Ecology.

I do research on the molecular evolution of plants which overlaps teaching by taking students to the Rocky Mountain National Park for a summer course. I have an active undergraduate research group who learn to isolate DNA, amplify and sequence it, and they do bioinformatics and phylogenetic analysis with the data.

I’m one of the directors of the Freshman Support Program (formerly BURP), aimed at keeping freshman Bio majors in college, on campus and in the sciences.

Current Research

I was trained as a classical geneticist at a time when molecular biology and cloning was just beginning so my postdoc training was in molecular work. My particular educational "generation" is perhaps the last to have both aspects of genetics. Working in animal genetics for nearly 30 years, I recently switched to the molecular evolution of plants using all my classical and molecular training combined with DNA sequence analysis to study evolution. Current projects include (1) The speciation of Gesneriad plants (African violets, Petrocosmea and others); (2) The evolution of the chalcone synthase protein in plants, an interdisciplinary project involving molecular modeling with Dr. Mary McCourt; and (3) assisting Dr. Bill Edwards with the ecological genetics of the salamander Plethodon cinereus. These salamanders are the canaries in the coal mine for land disruption and global climate change.

Current Involvement

My research on Gesneriad plants has allowed me to contribute to national societies (African Violet Society of America and The Gesneriad Society) and to lead regional societies (past president of the Western NY African Violet & Gesneriad society). These societies give me the opportunity to speak at numerous venues to adult audiences about science and biology. Service to our students is in the form of the freshman retention program as a model for retention programs at small universities and as Chairman of the board of The Eastern Colleges Science Conference (ECSC), a regional consortium of 30 institutions dedicated to undergraduate research.

Educational Background

Associate Professor (1998-present), Assistant Professor (1994-1998); Assistant and Associate Professor, Department of Biology, West Virginia University (1987-1993); Postdoctoral Associate, Institute for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, PA (1985-1987); NIH Postdoctoral Trainee, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME (1981-1985); Pre-doctoral Trainee, Department of Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Ph.D. in Genetics (1976-1981); Undergraduate, Department of Biology, SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, BA in Biology (1972-1976).