Biography

Dr. Matt Geisler

I was born in St. Catharine’s and grew up in Toronto, Canada. I have diverse interests from medieval history to biology to geology to quantum mechanics. After college (UofT), I naively claimed everything in the model organism fruit fly was found that I would like to carve a niche for my own. The genome of the model organism plant Arabidopsis was just sequenced. So I moved to Plant Biology at the Ohio State University (OSU). I applied mathematics to figure out the development of stomata (plant’s breathing structures which take in CO2 and release O2 and H2O). I met my wife Dr. Jane Geisler-Lee at OSU and we become a science couple and a team. At SIUC, I continue applying mathematics to study gene regulatory networks but expand to different aspects of bioinformatics. I collect rocks, minerals and fossils; play board games and strategy war games.

 

Dr. Jane Geisler-Lee

I grew up in Taiwan and was nurtured by my late grandmother to love plants. My husband Matt Geisler and I met at the Ohio State University and become a science couple and a team. To keep us together, we moved to California, Sweden and Canada. Eventually we settled in Illinois and have established the Geisler & Geisler-Lee Laboratory at Southern Illinois University Carbondale since 2006. Our specializations are in different aspects of bioinformatics, from genomics, transcriptomics, predicted interactome to phenomics. We work with biologists, biostatisticians, chemists, computer scientists, mathematicians and environmental engineers to understand biological questions and solve environmental problems. The question of how plants interact one another interests us that we study it from shoot to root, from gene expression to root behavior. I also study how potential toxicity derived from nanotechnology impacts environment, and seek green solutions for our sustainable society. I play Lego and strategic board games, and gamify science. I also grow tropical plants at home. Furthermost, I was an endometriosis patient (abnormal tissue growth outside uterus) before 2010 and am a Stage IIIC cancer survivor since 2011..

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Curriculum Vitae

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