FACULTY FOCUS: Dr. Darwin Jorgensen

Dr. Darwin Jorgensen received his B.S. from Iowa State University-Ames; M.S. from University of South Carolina; and Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1992. Jorgensen and his wife, Cheryl, live in Salem with their son, Ethan. Jorgensen has served Roanoke College for thirteen years. Jorgensen is the Brian H. Thornhill professor of Biology. This endowed professorship rotates among faculty for five-year term and is given to faculty member who is an outstanding teacher or mentor and who has a record of involving students in independent study and research.

For the Spring 2005 semester, Jorgensen will be teaching three classes: Scientific Inquiry: How Biologists Work, Principles of Physiology, and Biology Seminar: Animal Physiology.

Jorgensen works closely with many of his students, through the Summer Scholar program (individual research with students during the Summer) and graduate school placement. Jorgensen is a huge fan of Roanoke College athletics and is often seen at the Men’s Basketball games in the C. Homer Bast Physical Education Center.

Jorgensen’s research centers around a consideration of problems related to circulatory and respiratory function in a variety of different animals. At present, he is interested primarily in certain arthropods (lobsters and crabs) and molluscs (abalones). The general term that describes the kind of work that Jorgensen does is comparative physiology. As the term implies, comparative physiology compares how different kinds of animals solve similar physiological problems. The primary goal is to gain a better understanding of how these animals work.

Jorgensen is also very much interested in relating the physiology of an animal to its natural habitat. Jorgensen’s research activities are confined primarily to research laboratory and he spends a considerable amount of time in the field involved in such activities as collecting specimens to be used in laboratory experimentation, observing research animals in their natural habitat, and making measurements of physical parameters (e.g., temperature, salinity and dissolved gas levels) so that his students may have a better understanding of the physical conditions experienced by research animals in their natural habitat.

Most recently, Jorgensen has been studying cardiovascular and respiratory function in the American lobster, Homarus americanus and the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus. His students have been investigating how these two physiological systems respond when these arthropods undergo graded exercise in the form of treadmill walking. In this work, Jorgensen and his students monitor a variety of physiological parameters (such as blood pressure and the extraction of oxygen from ventilatory water by the gills) before, during and after an exercise period. From this work, Jorgensen hopes to develop a picture of how the cardiovascular and respiratory systems work together in these representative arthropods to deliver oxygen to the tissues under stressful conditions.

» New & Improved - Exciting Changes on Campus Trout Hall, the new home of the sociology department, opens for Spring 2005 classes plus the new entrance and residence halls are on track. Read more and see the pics!