Rate My Professor Shaunna Phipps

Shaunna Phipps is a Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, at the University at Buffalo. Her teaching portfolio includes BIO 598: Education & Practice in Biological Sciences, BIO 211: Cell Biology Lab, BIO 201: Cell Biology Lecture, BIO 200: Evolutionary Biology Lab, BIO 200: Evolutionary Biology Lecture, and BIO 123: Marine Biology. She received her PhD in Evolution, Ecology & Behavior from the University at Buffalo, where she defended her thesis on February 27, 2020. Advised by Mary A. Bisson, her dissertation examined "The role of sodium transport in salt tolerance in two species of Chara." Phipps earned her BS in Marine Biology from the University of New Haven, Connecticut. Upon graduation, she transitioned directly into her current faculty position as Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

Phipps's research interests focus on the role of sodium transport in salt tolerance in two species of Chara, with emphasis on physiological and molecular mechanisms in charophyte algae. She has produced key peer-reviewed publications advancing knowledge in this field. In 2021, the Journal of Phycology published her co-authored paper "The role of ion-transporting proteins in the evolution of salt tolerance in charophyte algae" with Charles A. Goodman, Charles F. Delwiche, and Mary A. Bisson. The same journal featured another 2021 article by Phipps, Goodman, Delwiche, and Bisson: "Salinity-induced changes in gene expression in the streptophyte alga Chara: The critical role of a rare Na+ ATPase." In 2022, she contributed to "The molecular identity of the Characean OH- transporter: a candidate related to the SLC4 family of animal pH regulators" in Protoplasma, alongside M. Parker, B. Quade, M.C. Hoepflinger, M. Bisson, I. Foissner, and M. Beilby. These publications detail ion transport and salinity response mechanisms.