Welcome New Natural Sciences Faculty

Kory EvansKORY EVANS, Assistant Professor of Biosciences

Kory Evans studies skull shape evolution in teleost fishes, the most species-rich assemblage of vertebrates on the planet. He integrates data from developmental biology, ecology, biomechanics and phylogeny to study the origins of phenotypic diversity and the interface between phenotype and the environment.

Evans was awarded a Southern Regional Education Board Doctoral Fellowship and completed his Ph.D. in biological sciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He obtained postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities as a CFANS Postdoctoral Fellow and at Brown University as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow.

Anna-Karin GustavssonANNA-KARIN GUSTAVSSON, Norman Hackerman-Welch Young Investigator and Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Anna-Karin Gustavsson designs innovative and versatile imaging tools and analysis algorithms in order to gain detailed information about cellular nanostructure, dynamics and molecular mechanisms. Her work is focused on the development and application of 3D single-molecule tracking and 3D super-resolution imaging throughout mammalian cells. Her research aims to improve our understanding of cellular function and pathogenesis and to answer biophysical questions related to aging and cancer.

Gustavsson was selected to receive an NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the 2018 PicoQuant Young Investigator Award, and the 2012 FEBS Journal Richard Perham Prize for Young Scientists.

Prior to joining the Rice faculty, Gustavsson completed her Ph.D. in physics at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She was awarded a Swedish Research Council International Postdoctoral Fellowship and obtained postdoctoral training at Stanford University. She comes to Rice as a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas scholar in cancer research.

Matt McCaryMATTHEW McCARY, Assistant Professor of BioSciences

Matthew McCary is an ecologist who studies how environmental disturbances (biological invasions, urbanization, and climate change) alter the relationship between soil biodiversity and ecosystem health. His research is interdisciplinary, which includes field and lab experiments, mathematical and statistical modeling, and molecular tools.
McCary completed his Ph.D. in ecology and evolution at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His postdoctoral training consisted of an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University’s School of the Environment. McCary will join the Rice faculty on July 1, 2021.

Chelsea WaltonCHELSEA WALTON, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Chelsea Walton is a mathematician whose research interests are in various aspects of noncommutative algebra, including quantum symmetries, algebras with origins in physics, noncommutative algebraic geometry, noncommutative invariant theory, deformation theory, representation theory and homological methods.

Walton completed her Ph.D at the University of Michigan and as a visiting student at the University of Manchester, UK. She was awarded an NSF postdoctoral fellowship and obtained postdoctoral training at the University of Washington, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a Moore Instructor. She held positions as the Selma Lee Bloch Brown Early Career Assistant Professor at Temple University and an associate professor and Karen and Brad Smith scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before joining the Rice faculty.