Tyler Allen is the Laboratory Technician for the Physics/Chemistry Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences. He earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from SUNY Geneseo, where he was an Undergraduate Laboratory Instructor for multiple biology courses. Following Geneseo, he had an internship in a research lab at Macquarie University based in Sydney, Australia. He has also worked as a research scientist in the pharmaceutical and polyurethane industries prior to joining SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Megan Dischiavo has been an instructor for over 12 years, 7 of those years being at SUNY Polytechnic. She teaches Anatomy and Physiology at the undergraduate level and Pathophysiology at the graduate level, using multiple learning styles to accommodate her students needs including extensive online resources for students to use as a supplement at home. Dr. Dischiavo is a licensed chiropractor, trained in manipulation, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, radiology, MRI, CT scans, differential diagnosis and medical massage. Her clinical background allows her to help students interested in clinical careers to prepare them in their educational journey. She is currently serving as Chair of Biology.
Dr. Lauren Endres earned her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in Medical Biophysics before going on to do Post-doctoral research in the field of cancer biology, first at Harvard Medical School, and then at SUNY Poly’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Her curiosity in biology is fueled by trying to understand the precise ways in which cells respond to their ever-changing environments, and she is particularly interested in how cells use anti-oxidant mechanisms in their response to environmental toxicants, which have important implications for cancer biology. She teaches Introductory Biology, Oncology, Cell Biology, and Medical Genetics.
Dr. Pallavi Gupta-Bouder earned her PhD in the field of Molecular Biology from Syracuse University in 2013. Her research focused on determining molecular mechanisms underlying host-pathogen interactions using plant and bacterial pathogen model system. Her research work now focuses on developing effective methods of pedagogy for real and virtual biology teaching. She also participates in Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program to provide her students with a broader prospective of learning. She teaches a wide variety of lecture and laboratory courses including Microbiology, Introductory Non-major Biology, Forensic Biology, Epigenetics and Senior Biology Seminar.
Dr. Adam McLain received his Ph.D. in biology from Louisiana State University in 2013, and prior to this an M.A. in anthropology from Hunter College of the City University of New York and a B.A. from Virginia Tech. He studies evolutionary biology and applied population genetics, predominantly in primate species, exploring the relationships between species and within populations using a combination of field, wet-bench and computational methods. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher in the Conservation Genetics Department of Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, studying endangered primate populations in Madagascar. Dr. McLain teaches Introductory Biology, Evolution, and Phylogenetics.
Dr. Margarita Orlova was interested in life sciences from an early age. Being fascinated by the diversity and complex behaviors of insects, she pursued studies in biology with a focus on entomology and earned her BSc, MSc and PhD degrees at Tel-Aviv University in Israel. After completing her PhD studies Dr. Orlova pursued postdoctoral research in Arizona State University, having won a fellowship from the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund, and later in Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on chemical communication in social bees and encompasses agriculturally important species such as honeybees and bumblebees, as well as solitary and subsocial bees.
Dr. Carlie Phipps earned her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas in 2001. Her research focuses on the evolution of plant-fungal relationships from the fossil record, in particular fungi that live on plant leaves. She teaches Introductory Biology, Plant Biology, Evolution, and Plant and Animal Physiology. She is currently serving as Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Vijay Ramalingam earned his Doctoral degree from The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York and pursued two postdoctoral positions first at Trinity University, Texas and then at Columbia University, New York. Before joining Suny Polytechnic Institute as an assistant professor he was a visiting assistant professor at Union college ,Schenectady, New York. He is interested in supramolecular chemistry particularly in the study of the host guest binding through noncovalent bond and in the design and syntheses of mechanically Interlocked molecules. He teaches organic chemistry I and II (lab and lecture).
Shannon Sergott is the Laboratory Technician for the Biology program for the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a Utica, NY native who graduated from SUNY Cortland with her B.S. Degree in Biology. She worked as a scientist in a Clinical Research Organization for 5 years prior to accepting this position. Her focus was in Pharmacokinetics. She worked on clinical and pre-clinical large molecule pharmaceutical drugs.
Dr. Narayan Sharma earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Miami University of Ohio and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan before coming to SUNY Poly. His research focuses on the metabolic effects of aspirin on the human body. He teaches Introductory Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Biochemistry. He is currently serving as Chair of the Chemistry Department.
Dr. Hanbing Wang earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Michigan Technological University and did her post-doctoral fellowship at Michigan-Tech University and Syracuse University respectively. Her research focused on nerve cell regeneration and fabrication. She teaches Introductory Chemistry and a variety of laboratory including essential chemistry, introductory chemistry, organic chemistry and bio-chemistry labs.
Affiliate Nanobioscience Faculty
