| Lars Schmitz | |
| Associate Professor of Biology | |
| Email: | lschmitz@kecksci.claremont.edu |
| Office: | Keck Science Center 124 |
| Phone: | 909-607-7409 |
| Office Hours: | M 10-11:30, W 1:30-3, or by appointment |
| Web Site: | http://schmitzlab.info |
| Educational Background: | |
| Postdoc: University of California Davis, Wainwright Lab PhD: University of California Davis, 2008 (supervisor: Ryosuke Motani) MSc: University of Bonn, 2003 (supervisor: Martin Sander) BSc: University of Bonn, 2000 |
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| Courses Taught: | |
| BIOL 44L Introductory Biology BIOL 120 Research Methods in Organismal Biology BIOL 141L Vertebrate Anatomy BIOL 150L Functional Human Anatomy and Biomechanics BIOL 167 Sensory Evolution BIOL182L Applied Phylogenetics |
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| Research Interests: | |
| Functional and evolutionary vertebrate morphology; paleobiology; evolution of vertebrate vision, phylogenetic comparative methods |
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| Thesis Topics: | |
| For a more detailed description of my research program please refer to http://schmitzlab.info 1) Analysis of morphological evolution. Students are measuring morphological traits in museum collections (e.g., LA County Museum of Natural History) and analyze the data from a functional and phylogenetic perspective. 2) Retina physiology and visualization. After the arrival of our new confocal laser scanning microscope we can analyze retina fine structure with traditional histology, stereology, and immunohistochemistry. In addition to lab work, students are involved in developing new visualization techniques of spatial distributions of cells across the retina. 3) Behavioral tests of visual performance. In order to groundtruth optical models we are carrying out experiments to determine the actual abilities of our study organisms. All projects have a strong computational component. |
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| Selected Publications List: Click to open new window. | |