Welcome
I am an Assistant Professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead. As part of the Biosciences department faculty, I teach courses for biology and related majors along with courses for non-majors. See more info below or by using the menu options to the left.
MSUM picture of Sara Anderson
Education
Ph.D. in Genetics (population genetics)
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
Purdue University West Lafayette, IN
Bachelor of Arts in Biology, May 2003
University of Minnesota, Morris
Morris, MN
Teaching
I teach several courses throughout the biology curriculum. I teach one of our core courses, Genetics, as well as labs for the course. I also teach a general education course about ethics and genetic technology called, DNA as Destiny: Genetics and Society. Molecular Ecology is an upper-level course, in which we study how questions in ecology and evolutionary biology can be addressed with genetics and molecular biology. See my courses page for more information about these and other courses I teach.
Research
Lab work
My research interests lie in the areas of landscape genetics, molecular ecology, conservation genetics, habitat fragmentation, and GIS & remote sensing. I enjoy learning how new molecular techniques can be applied to answer ecological questions or to investigate conservation issues. Specifically, I am currently studying interactions between landscape features and population genetic structure in painted turtles and a species of native bee, Halictus confusus. The field of landscape genetics is still growing, and both theory and application are exciting in their development. I'm also interested in applications of next generation sequencing technology to learn about hidden microbial communities by sequencing DNA from environmental samples. We can also learn about cryptic species by using specific DNA sequences as a kind of "barcode" for species identification. Look at my research page (in progress) to learn more about these projects and the students who work with me.
