You have reached the website of Dr. Marcia Harrison at Marshall University's Department of Biological Sciences.

 Dr. Harrison is the Principal Investigator of The MU-ADVANCE Program, an innovative networking effort between female STEM faculty working with administrative partners to foster institutional change.  The Program has been instrumental in developing university-level best practices for recruitment, new faculty orientation, and faculty retention.  Participating faculty benefit from professional development activities such as fellowships, mini-grants, networking events, and grant-writing workshops.  Our goal is to help faculty balance and integrate their teaching, service, and research, build competitive research programs, and form interdisciplinary collaborative networks.  MU-ADVANCE is part of the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE Program, which seeks to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers, thereby contributing to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce.  More about this program...

Research: Dr. Harrison studies the environmental regulation of plant growth and gene expression in the genetic model organism for plants, Arabidopsis thaliana.  She is also involved in the development of a mathematical approach to the analysis of tissue growth, based on digital images taken during the growth process.

Teaching: Undergraduate courses include core courses for biology majors, Principles of Biology and Principles of Cell Biology. In upper level and graduate courses (Plant Physiology and Plant Growth and Development), student teams work on independent projects that are presented in a poster session at the annual Marshall University Sigma Xi Research Day.

Outreach: Dr. Harrison is webmaster for the West Virginia Academy of Science.  She is the former Director of the West Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair, the state-wide competition hosted by Marshall University and the West Virginia Junior Academy of Science, open to all students in grades 9-12 who are attending West Virginia schools. The Fair is affiliated with the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

University Service: Dr. Harrison's committee efforts are dedicated to enhancing undergraduate research at Marshall University.  Dr. Harrison chairs the Marshall University Chapter of the NASA WV Space Grant Consortium which provides over 20 student research scholarships annual. She is the current President of the Marshall University Chapter of Sigma Xi, which host the annual research day on campus.  She is a member of the Biology Teaching Support committees and also manages the Marshall University Greenhouse and  CellCentral, a shared Molecular/Cell Biology Teaching and Research facility.

For more information, contact Dr. Marcia Harrison