The College of Science at Clemson University in South Carolina has announced the promotion of seven women to associate professor with tenure.
Sharon Bewick is an associate professor of biological sciences. Her lab studies patterns in biological organization from microbes through to vertebrates. Most of her work involves desert lizards. Dr. Bewick is a graduate of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University.
Miriam Konkel was appointed associate professor of genetics and biochemistry. Her research centers upon primate genomics and focuses on genome-mobilome interactions. In 2011, she became an assistant professor for research at Louisiana State University and then came to Clemson in 2017. Dr. Konkel received a medical doctorate from the Charité, Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.
Lela Lackey was named an associate professor of genetics and biochemistry. She joined the Clemson faculty in 2020. Her laboratory studies RNA structure and structural impacts on gene expression. Dr. Lackey holds bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biochemistry from North Carolina State University. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Minnesota.
Xinyi Li was appointed an associate professor of mathematical and statistical sciences. Her research interests include precision medicine, functional data analysis, non-/semi-parametric high-dimensional regression, spatio-temporal analysis, and reinforcement learning. Dr. Li earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematical statistics from Beijing Normal University in China. She holds a master’s degree in statistics from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in statistics from Iowa State University.
Emily E. Rosowski was promoted to associate professor of biological sciences. Her research investigates host-pathogen interactions and the innate immune response to infections using the larval zebrafish host model. Dr. Rosowski is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Anna Seekatz was named an associate professor of biological sciences. Her lab is interested in studying interactions within the gut microbiota, the indigenous microbes that live in the gastrointestinal tract. Dr. Seekatz is a graduate of Western Washington University, where she majored in cellular and molecular biology. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.


