Research - Biology | Calvin University

While at Calvin, you'll have opportunities to team up with professors on cutting-edge research projects.

Biology professors receive research funding from sources like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and each summer Calvin's School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics provides research fellowships for dozens of students, allowing them to serve as full-time research assistants for Calvin faculty during the summer months.

The professors in our department have a wide range of interests and different areas of expertise. Explore each professor's research interests below, and reach out to them to if you think you would be interested in getting involved with their projects in the future.

Dr. Ryan Bebej, Paleontologist and Anatomist

Professor Bebej's research utilizes the anatomies of modern mammals to help interpret the behaviors and functional capabilities of fossil forms. He is especially interested in large-scale evolutionary transitions between land and water and has spent most of his career studying the earliest cetaceans as they became fully adapted for aquatic life. His scientific work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Paleontology, Journal of Mammalian Evolution, and Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society and cited by multiple textbooks and articles in high-profile journals including Nature, Science, PNAS, and many others. He is also deeply interested in the relationship between science and Christian faith and has been an invited speaker at universities and churches throughout the country. He has been active as a speaker and writer for the BioLogos Foundation and was a Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford visiting scholar in science and religion. Learn more about Prof. Bebej and his research

Professor Ryan Bebej holding a massive blue whale lumbar vertebra

Dr. Erica Boldenow, Toxicologist

Professor Boldenow’s lab studies how pregnancy is affected by both infections and environmental chemicals, especially what happens at the maternal-fetal interface. Her research has focused on how bacteria such as Group B Streptococcus and toxic chemicals such as trichloroethylene (TCE) can change immune responses, alter inflammation, and increase the risk of pregnancy complications like preterm birth. Her lab has been supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, and the work she has carried out with her collaborators has been published in an impressive range of journals, including Nature Medicine, Science Advances, Science Immunology, Toxicology, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Biology of Reproduction. She has mentored many students during her years as a faculty member at Calvin, supervising research related to toxicology, reproductive biology, infectious disease, and public health. Learn more about Prof. Boldenow and her research

Professor Erica Boldenow and a student assistant showing their bacterial plates

Dr. Anding Shen, Immunologist and Virologist

Professor Shen’s research focuses on HIV. Her lab investigates how latent reservoirs of the virus form within immune cells called T cells and potential ways in which these reservoirs may be eliminated. In recent years, her work has focused on the roles that endothelial cells play in HIV infection and reservoir formation. Her lab has been supported by numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, and her work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Virology, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, and Retrovirology. During her career at Calvin, she has mentored countless students in her lab, many of whom have gone on to do research of their own, and in 2022, she was given the Calvin University Student-Faculty Research Award. Learn more about Prof. Shen and her research

Dr. Dave Warners, Botanist and Restoration Ecologist

Professor Warners works in the areas of botany and restoration ecology. He has worked with many undergraduate students to conduct botanical inventories of areas throughout West Michigan, and in recent years, he has collaborated with Dr. Garrett Crow on the Emma Cole Project, an effort to revisit and assess all the locations described by Emma Cole in her 1901 publication Flora of Grand Rapids. He is also dedicated to restoring natural areas that have been negatively impacted by human activity. In 2009, he cofounded Plaster Creek Stewards, an organization that partners with the local community to restore the watershed in which Calvin University finds itself. In 2019, he co-edited Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care with Dr. Matthew Heun, and in 2024, he collaborated with Dr. Gail Heffner to write Reconciliation in a Michigan Watershed: Restoring Ken-O-Sha. During his time at Calvin, he has mentored countless students, won many awards, received numerous grants, and published papers in wide range of technical journals. Learn more about Prof. Warners and his research