Laura Ferry, Ph.D.

Education:

• B.S., Biology, Cal Poly State University-San Luis Obispo
• M.S., Marine Science, San Francisco State University
• Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine
• Postdoctoral Associate, Center for Population Biology and Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California-Davis

Background:

Lara Ferry is the Vice President for Research, sitting in Arizona State University's Knowledge Enterprise and a President's Professor. In her administrative role, her focus is on developing and implementing strategies to expand and diversify funding opportunities and portfolios, with a particular emphasis on supporting inter- and multidisciplinary research. In this role she collaborates closely with faculty and academic units across the university to advance research programs and initiatives to achieve ASU’s research goals. She also works to support and grow partnerships that help the university’s faculty and enhance ASU’s impact in research—with other institutions, with community, with donors, and with industry—to deliver meaningful outcomes to our region, our nation, and internationally.

Dr. Ferry’s academic home is in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, where she still holds a faculty appointment in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. Dr. Ferry is also a graduate faculty member in the School of Life Sciences. She is a PLUS Alliance Fellow, a Senior Global Futures Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, affiliated faculty with the Biodesign Institute and the Global Security Initiative, and honors faculty in Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University.

Dr. Ferry is broadly trained as a comparative physiologist and ecophysiologist, and her research has focused largely on aquatic and marine organisms. This research is centered on questions relating to the evolution of jaws and their function in the aquatic realm, as well as the performance of skeletal materials such as cartilage.

Fields of Specialization: Biology, Marine Science, Ecology, Physiology, Ecophysiology