Education and Professional Experience

Michael Gaines is assistant provost of undergraduate research and community outreach. Dr. Gaines is director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Education Program. The major goal of the program is to increase the number of disadvantaged students in biomedical research careers. He also directs an NIH Bridge Program between the University of Miami and Miami-Dade College. Its aim is to increase the number of community college students who are underrepresented minorities in the sciences transferring to research universities and completing baccalaureate degrees in biomedical fields.

Grants and Awards

• HHMI, 9/2006 - 8/2010, Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program. (PI) The goal is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities at the undergraduate level in the biological sciences at the University of Miami.
• NIH/NIGMS, 9/2005 - 2/2008 Partnership to Increase Minorities in Biomedicine. (PI) The aim is to support Miami-Dade College students in biomedical research research labs at the University of Miami.
• NSF, 1/06 - 12/08 Florida-Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. (Co-PI) The goal is to increase the number of minority students in the biomedical engineering program at the University of Miami.
• NSF, 2/06 - 1/08 Peer-Led Team Learning. (Co-PI) The goal is to disseminate the biology workshop model where students in large lecture classes work in small groups guided by a peer facilitator.
• USGS, 1/06 - 12//07 Development of Capability of Applying and Testing Across Trophic Level System Simulation (ATLSS) Models for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program (CERP). (PI) The goal is to develop mathematical models to monitor the health of the Everglades ecosystem.
• NPS, 1/06 - 12/07 Inventory of Small Mammals at Canaveral National Seashore. The goal is to inventory all the small mammals at Canaveral National Seashore
• NIH/NIGMS, 4/06 - 3/10 Initiative for Minority Student Development. The goal is to support underrepresented minorities in graduate programs in the biomedical sciences through fellowships.

Areas of Focus

• Conservation and Restoration Biology
  Evolutionary Biology
  Tropical Biology

Research Interests

My current research interests include the effect of habitat fragmentation on small mammal populations; I am interested in the effects of habitat patchiness on source-sink dynamics and the genetic structuring of populations, the evolution of mating systems in mammals using techniques in molecular genetics, and conservation genetics of threatened and endangered mammalian species. I am currently studying the effects of habitat fragmentation on small mammal populations on hammock islands in the Florida Everglades, genetic variation in the silver rice rat (Oryzomys argentatus) in the Florida Keys.

Teaching Interests

At the undergraduate level, I teach introductory biology, HHMI experimental lab, research ethics, and experimental design. At the graduate level, I teach a course in research design. My philosophy about teaching is that students at all levels need to be active participants in their own learning and not passive observers. A colleague of mine, Dave Janos, and I developed a new HHMI introductory biology lab where first-year students work in small groups alongside a faculty member doing a research project. This is quintessential active learning.

Selected Publications

• Sasso, C.R. and M. S.Gaines. 2006. Microhabitat use by small mammals on Key Largo, Florida. Florida Scient. 69: 124-134
• Wang Y., D.A. Williams and M.S. Gaines. 2005. Evidence for a genetic bottleneck in the endangered Florida Keys silver rice rat (Oryzomys argentatus) revealed by microsatellite analyses. Conservation Genetics. 6: 575-585.
• Quirino, W.,Fleming, L.E., Weisman R., Backer, L.,Kirkpatrick,B.,Clark, R.,Dalpra,D., Van de Bogart,G., and M.S Gaines. 2004. Follow-up study of Red-Tide-associated respiratory illness. Florida J. Environ. Health. 186: 18-21.
• Beck, H., Gaines, M. S., Hines, J. E. and Nichols, J. D. 2004. Comparative dynamics of small mammal populations in treefall gaps and surrounding understorey within an Amazonian rainforest. Oikos 106: 27-38.
• Sasso, C.R. and M.S. Gaines. 2002. Competition between Neotoma floridiana and Peromyscus gossipynus on Key Largo, Florida. Florida Scient. 65:267-27.