Kier Lab

People in the Kier Lab

William M. Kier

I received my Ph.D. in Zoology in 1983 at Duke University, where I was a student of Stephen A. Wainwright.  After leaving Duke I was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA.  Following my postdoc at WHOI, I was a National Science Foundation-NATO Postdoctoral Scholar and worked at the Marine Biological Association of the UK Laboratories in Plymouth, England and the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy.  I joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985. For additional information, please see my CV.

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Former students and postdocs

Dr. Andrew M. Smith

Professor, Department of Biology, Ithaca College
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: Adhesion and the Tensile Strength of Water in Nature, 1992

Dr. Sönke Johnsen

Professor, Department of Biology, Duke University
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Optical Design of the Photic System of Ophiuroids, 1996

Dr. Joseph T. Thompson

Professor, Department of Biology, Franklin and Marshall University
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Ontogeny of Mantle Structure and Function in the Oval Squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana (Cephalopoda, Loliginidae), 2000
SPIRE Postdoctoral Scholar, UNC Chapel Hill, 2000-2002

Dr. Diara D. Spain

Professor and Chair, Department of Natural Science & Mathematics, Dominican University of California
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: Peristaltic Locomotion in Holothuroids: Morphology and Movement, 2002

Dr. Rebecca Price

Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences,  University of Washington, Bothell
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Function, Macroevolution, and Macroecology of the Internal Ornamentation in Neogastropods, University of Chicago, 2003.
SPIRE Postdoctoral Scholar, UNC Chapel Hill, 2004-2006

Dr. Jennifer R.A. Taylor

Associate Professor, Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: Hydrostatic Skeletons in the Crustacea:  Support During Molting in an Aquatic and a Terrestrial Crab, 2007

Dr. Theodore A. Uyeno

Professor, Department of Biology, Valdosta State University
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Morphology and Biomechanics of the Muscle Articulation: A New Class of Soft Tissue Joint, 2007

Dr. Justin F. Shaffer

Teaching Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Title of Ph. D. Dissertation: Interactions Between Cardiac Myosin Binding Protein-C and Actin Contribute to the Regulation of Muscle Contraction, University of Washington, 2010
SPIRE Postdoctoral Scholar, UNC Chapel Hill, 2010-2013

Dr. Jessica Kurth
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd., Philadelphia, PA
Title of Ph.D. Dissertation: The Effects of Body Size on Soft-Bodied Burrowers, 2015.

Ms. Julia M. Olszewski
East Boston High School, East Boston, MA
Title of M.S. Thesis:  Obliquely Striated Muscle is Not Just for Super-Elongation, 2015