KATHERINE ROBERTSON

 

Associate Professor

Department of Biology,

Westminster College, PA

 

I earned my Ph. D. in Developmental Biology from the Univeristy of London, UK, in the lab of Ivor Mason. I have an M.Sc. in Immunology, also from the University of London. I have done post-doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA and have taught classes at Duquesne University and Chatham University (both in Pittsburgh, PA). My research focuses on brain development and how the brain processes information; I use fruit flies and ants as model organisms. I am chair of the Westminster College Research Professions Advisory Committee (ResPAC). I live in New Wilmington with my husband, Tim

Image credits L - R: 1; Yanming Wang bmb.psu.edu, 2-4; Robertson (Westminster College), 5; florandfauna.org, James Traniello, Boston University

Research

My lab is interested in brain development and in how animals process and respond to sensory information. Our model system is the olfactory system in insects; we work with fruit flies and ants. We have found that insects can learn to associate odors with food, that they can habituate to repellents, that their olfactory systems are plastic and that GABA plays a role in regulating responses to different olfactory signals. We are currently investigating which cells exaclty in the olfactory processing centers respond to different types of  olfactory signals (attractive, repellent or irrelevant) and which cells exactly regulate differing responses to these different types of cues.

Courses

I teach courses for the Biology Department, as well as courses for our interdisciplinary Neuroscience major, of which I am a co-coordinator. Classes at Westminster are typically 10-25 students/class and all have an inquiry-style lab component. To see sample syllabi for each of these courses, click here

BIO 201: Foundations in Biology I (Cell and Molecular Biology)
BIO 202: Foundations in Biology II (Evolution, Form and Function)
BIO 304: Developmental Biology
BIO 363: Animal Behavior
BIO 113: Biology of Infectious Disease; a Service Learning Course. Please take a look at Project Malawi