Please cast your vote for your nominee to represent the School of Natural Sciences on the HSRI Executive Committee. We received two nominations for one vacancy on the EC. Only full HSRI members from the School of Natural Sciences are eligible to vote. Please see nominees' HSRI website biographies – including links to their research websites – and CVs below.
Linda Hirst, Professor, Department of Physics (HSRI member since 2012)
Professor Hirst's research focuses on soft-condensed matter physics. This field of research includes the study of a wide range of everyday materials, biomedical applications and different phenomena in fluid dynamics and biomaterials. Some current research interests include cell membranes in viruses and the lungs, self-driven flows in biological fluids and self-assembly of biological protein filaments.
In general, her research group looks at fundamental phenomena using lab-based in-vitro experiments. The group is trained in a variety of different microscopy techniques, materials characterization methods and x-ray scattering - probing how matter is put together both in and out of the body!
In addition to her research interests Prof. Hirst is also the author of the interdisciplinary textbook, Fundamentals of Soft Matter Science.
Ruben Michael Ceballos, Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology (HSRI member since 2023)
Prof. Ceballos's laboratory is focused on virology and biochemistry research as well as the development of microbial-based biotechnologies. In terms of biomedical and neuroscience related research, the lab studies neurotropic viruses (i.e., roseoloviruses) that have been implicated in a host of neurological disorders including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Specifically, we are interested in the genetics and -omics substrates that underlie between-strain differences and within-strain changes in: virulence, viral productivity, propensity for viral integration into nerve cell genomes, attenuation, and impacts of viral infection on neuronal (and glial) physiology. Likewise, we are interested in better understanding how viral infection of neural networks (both in vitro and in vivo) alters neural system signaling and behavior.
