AUM Faculty & Staff
Directory
Ben Okeke
Professor | College of Sciences
Ph.D. (1994): University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
M.S. (1989): University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
B.S. (1985): University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
Professor Okeke is a Distinguished Research Professor of Industrial and Environmental Microbiology in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science. His research interests include: biofuel and co-products, biosensors, bioremediation, enzyme biotechnology, effects of pollutants on microbial communities, indicators of microbiological safety of water and food, and genetic engineering of microbes. He teaches industrial microbiology, environmental microbiology, special topics biotechnology, general microbiology and directed research. Professor Okeke did postdoctoral work at the University of California, Riverside; Gifu University, Japan; and the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, Italy. Dr. Okeke has 60 research papers in peer reviewed journals, three US patents, two books, numerous conference abstracts and several research grants including a million dollar grant for research on fuel ethanol from biomass. His excellence awards include Alumni Professor, Ida Belle Young Endowed Professorship. He is the founding Director of the Bioprocessing and Biofuel Research Lab (BBRL). Dr. Okeke served as Associate and Assistant Editor for two peer reviewed international journals; the Journal of Environmental Quality and Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology.
Ben Rogers
Lab Coordinator | College of Sciences
B.S., Zoology, Auburn University
M.S., Biology, University of Arkansas
Bio: Ben Rogers is a biology lab coordinator for beginning biology labs at AUM. His primary area of interest in biology is birds of prey. He studied the dynamics of a winter bald eagle roost in Arkansas for his master’s degree under the Dr. Douglas James at the University of Arkansas. He is a former zoo keeper, and has also worked for the Peregrine Fund’s aplomado falcon re-introduction project in southeast Texas. Some of his other research work involved Mitchell’s satyr butterfly surveys, salamander body sizes, and sexual dimorphism in red-tailed hawks.
He maintains a strong interest in biology education, along with a fascination for weird insects and fossil hunting.
Cynthia Schmaeman
Lab Coordinator
B.S., Zoology and horticulture, Michigan State University
M.S., Biological sciences, Auburn University
I studied bat reproductive physiology and behavior as my master’s research and still have a fondness for bats.
Chelsea Ward
Professor/Head | College of Sciences
Ph.D. (2005) Auburn University in Biology
BS (1998) Florida Institute of Technology in Marine Biology
Dr. Ward’s research focuses are on immunology and stress physiology as it relates to temperature and changing environments. She also has interested in latitudinal gradients in stress physiology, immunology, and metabolism in Anurans.
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