Welcome to new faculty

Ann Fink, Ph.D. Professor of Practice

Ann Fink, Ph.D.

Ann Fink, Ph.D. was appointed as a Professor of Practice. She earned her bachelors degree in Psychology and her doctorate in neuroscience from UCLA.

Prior to her arrival at Lehigh, Dr. Fink was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, specializing in feminist biology. She also served in postdoctoral research positions at New York University in the Center for Neural Science, and at the Institut Pasteur in Paris France.In the classroom,

Dr. Fink will be teaching introductory, non-majors and writing-intensive biology courses, as well as our Core III: Integrative Biology class – both lab and lecture.

Fink's research expertise is in the biological basis of memory, emotion and mental health, and includes techniques such as electrophysiology, animal behavior, confocal and two-photon microscopy, and meta-analysis. Her current research explores how basic biological models of PTSD are translated from the laboratory to human populations and includes an ethical analysis of variations in mental health by social identity.

Santiago Herrera, Ph.D. Professor of Practice

Santiago Herrera, Ph.D.

Santiago Herrera, Ph.D. was appointed as a Professor of Practice. He earned his bachelors (Biology and Microbiology) and masters (Biological Sciences) degrees from the Universidad de los Andes, in Bogotá, Colombia. He then went on to earn his doctorate in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to his appointment as a professor of practice, Dr. Herrera was a visiting assistant professor at Lehigh and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Herrera will be teaching Oceanography, Epigenetics, as well as a first year seminar, “Biodiversity in a Changing Planet.”

Herrera’s research focuses on the molecular aspects of ecological and organismal dynamics and evolution. His research has been funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

 

 

David Zappulla, Ph.D. Professor of Practice

David Zappula, Ph.D.

David Zappulla, Ph.D. was appointed as an assistant professor. Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, Dr. Zappulla was an assistant professor in the Departments of Biology and Molecular Biology & Genetics at Johns Hopkins University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Middlebury College, his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Stony Brook University, and then he was a postdoc at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Univ. of Colorado in Boulder.

Dr. Zappulla is teaching a variety of courses in the molecular biology curriculum.

The Zappulla Lab is investigating the molecules and mechanisms that maintain chromosomes in order to control cell viability and proliferation. They study the enzyme telomerase — which consists of RNA and protein components and is centrally important to human cancer and aging — and how it maintains telomeres to prevent the erosion of chromosome ends during the course of cell divisions.