My doctoral research focused on the genetics of sex determination in the fern species Ceratopteris richardii. My postdoctoral work focused on rice and soybean genomics. I joined the Division of Science faculty at IUPUC in the fall of 2006 where my interests include plant biology, genetics, and biology education. I now research biology education with a particular interest in how future scientists are trained to communicate scientific findings, both written and orally, with the public at large as well as with each other.

American Society of Plant Biologists
Association of College and University Biology Educators

My current research studies students’ writing in science courses, with a focus on biology courses. The goal of this research is to improve how writing is taught and used in science courses in an effort to improve the ability of these students as future scientists to better communicate not only with each other but also with the public at large.

• BIOL-K 101   Concepts of Biology I
• BIOL-K 103   Concepts of Biology II
• BIOL-K 322   Genetics & Molecular Biology
• BIOL-N 108   Plants, Animals & the Environment
• SCI-I 120   Windows on Science

Barbara Hass Jacobus earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology (Biochemistry option) and a Foreign Language Certificate in French from Michigan Technological University in 1996. She went on to earn her Ph.D. from the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University in 2001 and was named the department’s 2001 Outstanding Ph.D. Student. She held a postdoctoral appointment in the Agronomy Department at Purdue University.

Schedule biology courses and hire adjunct instructors for biology courses
Faculty Senate, senator and secretary
Science Learning Center, committee chair
IUPUI Budgetary Affairs Committee

Hass-Jacobus, B.L., M. Futrell-Griggs, B. Abernathy, R. Westerman, J.L. Goicoechea, J. Stein, P. Klein, B. Hurwitz, et al. 2006. Integration of hybridization-based markers (overgos) into physical maps for comparative and evolutionary explorations in the genus Oryza and in Sorghum. BMC Genomics 7. Online journal.

Lin, J.-Y., B. Hass Jacobus, P. SanMiguel, J.G. Walling, Y. Yuan, R.C. Shoemaker, N.D. Young and S.A. Jackson (2005) “Pericentromeric regions of soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) chromosomes consist of retroelements and tandemly repeated DNA and are structurally and evolutionarily labile.” Genetics 170:1221-1230.

Sano, R., C.M. Juarez, B. Hass, K. Sakakibara, M. Ito, J.A. Banks, and M. Hasebe (2005) “KNOX homeobox genes potentially have similar function in both diploid unicellular and multicellular meristems, but not in haploid meristems.” Evol Dev 7(1):69-78.

Hass, B. and S.A. Jackson (2005) “Cytogenetic analysis and physical mapping.” In: Handbook of Plant Genome Mapping: Genetic and Physical Mapping. Edited by K. Meksem and G. Kahl. WILEY–VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, pp. 133-150.

Jackson, S., B. Hass Jacobus, and J. Pagel (2004) “The gene space of the soybean genome.” In: Legume Crop Genomics. Edited by R.F. Wilson, H.T. Stalker, and E.C. Brummer. AOCS Press, Champaign, Illinois, pp. 187-193.

Jackson, S.A., P. SanMiguel, J.G. Walling, B. Hass Jacobus, R.M Westerman (2003) “Comparative cytogenomics and physical mapping in the Oryzeae.” In: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Genetic Resources for the Genus Oryza. Edited by S. Nakayama, N. Tomooka, M. Hisada, D.A. Vaughn and K. Kadowaki. Tsukuba, Japan.

Hass, B.L., J.C. Pires, R. Porter, R.L. Philips, and S.A. Jackson (2003) Comparative genetics at the gene and chromosome levels between rice (Oryza sativa) and wildrice (Zizania palustris). Theoretical and Applied Genetics 107: 773-782.

Strain, E., B. Hass, and J.A. Banks (2001) Characterization of mutations that feminize gametophytes of the fern Ceratopteris. Genetics 159(3): 1271-1281.

DeYoung, B., T. Weber, B. Hass, and J.A. Banks (1997) Generating autotetraploid sporophytes and their use in analyzing mutations affecting gametophyte development in the fern Ceratopteris. Genetics 147: 809-814.