
Meet Professor Paul Plummer
Program Coordinator
Dr. Plummer has been a faculty member of the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics since 2001, he joined the Graduate Faculty in 2013, teaching courses in statistics.
Dr. Plummer completed his Ph.D., in mathematics/economics with an emphasis in statistics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2012. His research is in statistics, specifically change point analysis, with applications to DNA expression data. His research includes the development of both Bayesian methods and Information Criterion. In addition to his teaching,
Dr Plummer also serves as the Liaison for the Kansas/Western Missouri Section of the American Statistics Association's student honor society, Mu Rho Sigma, at UCM.

Meet Professor Sang-Wook Cha
Dr. Cha teaches in the fields of developmental biology and bioinformatics.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in genetic engineering and a Master degree in medical science/Ph.D. degree in Anatomy and Developmental Biology from the Kyungpook University in South Korea. After graduation, he became a postdoctoral researcher in Drs. Chris Wylie/Janet Heasman lab at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center from 2007 to 2012. He became an assistant professr at University of Cincinnati in 2012.
Dr. Cha recently joined the faculty of the University of Central Missouri with an emphasis in developmental biology in School of Natural Sciences.

Meet Professor Selene Nikaido
Dr. Nikaido received her BA in Chemistry from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), her MS in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience.
Dr. Nikaido joined the UCM faculty in 1998k and is a tenured Associate Professor of Biology and Program Coordinator for the Life Science tracks of the Biology Bachelor of Science (BS) program.
Dr. Nikaido has worked with graduate and undergraduate students to present papers on mulberry hybridization and gene expression of anthocyanin biosynthesis enzymes at regional and national conferences. In 2001, Dr. Nikaido received a National Science Foundation grant to build a genetics/molecular technology laboratory at UCM. She has authored several curricular proposals for the Biology program at UCM and contributed to the creation of the Bioinformatics BS degree.
Dr. Nikaido teaches Genetics with laboratory, Molecular Technology, Basic Genetics (online lecture), Life Science Senior Seminar, and Investigative Biology, an introductory biology course which she teaches with Dr. Jay Raveill.