David Miyamoto
Hall of Sciences -107B; Phone x3356
dmiyamot at drew.edu
Click here for Dr. Miyamoto's personal website
Professional Biography
Dr. Miyamoto is a developmental and cell biologist with particular interests in microscopy and optical imaging. Born in Southern California, he received his BA from the University of California, San Diego before moving to North Carolina where he received his Ph. D. at Duke University. After post-doctoral studies at University of Texas at Austin, he came to teach in New Jersey at Seton Hall University before coming to Drew University in 1986. He spent a number of years at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts both as a student and as a investigator. His interests in biology are broad and universal, ranging from the molecular to the organism. He has taught courses ranging from biochemistry and genetics to vertebrate morphology and evolution. He has studied marine algae and marine invertebrates as an undergraduate; insects as a graduate student; chick development as a post-doctoral fellow; ascidians, fungi, cancer cells, and viruses at Seton Hall; and factors affecting the motility of chick and insect embryonic cells while at Drew. Recently he has mutated into a microbiologist and, in collaboration with Dr. Louise Temple of James Madison University, he studies Bordetella avium, a bacterium which causes a respiratory disease in birds. This work is done with support from National Institutes for Health and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Dr. Miyamoto’s first teaching assignment at Drew in 1986 was with the New Governor’s School in the Sciences. He has been involved with this program for exceptional high school science and math students nearly every summer since. In 1995 and 1996 he served as the assistant director of this program and in 1998 he became its current director. In addition he has been actively involved in facilities planning for the university, first as faculty shepherd for a new science addition and renovation and currently as chair for the college taskforce involved in long-range facilities planning. He also has an keen interest in the utilization of technology in biology education, particularly in regarding to use of computer imaging and analysis, and has received grants to upgrade the scanning electron microscope and other imaging equipment used by the department.
Dr. Miyamoto maintains a number of professional associations including membership with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for Developmental Biology, Marine Biological Laboratory, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (formerly: American Society of Zoologists), American Society for Microbiology, and the Council on Undergraduate Research. He recently retired from being a member of the Board of Trustees of Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child, an independent K-12 school.
On the personal side...
A visual arts minor in college, David’s interest in things visible can also be seen in his personal life. Handmade bird mobiles, hanging paper skeletons, origami, and molecular models share his office with pictures of corals, drawings of fish and flowers, computer generated images, and a wooden cow. Music also enriches his life as he continues to sing and play guitar with a contemporary liturgy group at the church where his wife, Terri, works as director of liturgy.
