Search Gustavus

Jon Grinnell is the Francis Morey Uhler Chair in Biology. He spent his youth roaming the hills of coastal California watching the hawks and admiring alligator lizards and rattlesnakes. From the time of his first borrowed binoculars he has been fascinated with wild creatures and places, and now is excited to share those with students. 

As an undergraduate he worked with the last wild California Condors before they were taken into captive breeding programs, and as a graduate student he studied the social and communication behavior of African lions in Tanzania. For years, he worked on lions in South Africa before transitioning to American bison in South Dakota. In each of these projects he eagerly involved research students, as one of his great loves is taking students out into the field to get hands-on experience with animals and ecosystems. 

Recently his attention has shifted to the plight of shallow marine habitats and regularly takes students to study the Mesoamerican coral reef in Belize. Jon feels privileged to have the chance to teach animal behavior, aquatic biology, vertebrate zoology, and other field-based courses at Gustavus, as well as the many travel courses he has led throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Jon is an avid cyclist, scuba diver, hiker, animal watcher, and bow hunter. 

We support you as you prepare for veterinary school. We give guidance on the requirements of veterinary medicine. This includes opportunities for hands-on animal experience. We connect aspiring veterinarians with practicing vets and other veterinary students. And we provide essential resources for navigating this competitive field.

Since 2003, Kiki Harbitz has taught courses in the department of Biology, as well as the department of Health and Exercise Science. She specializes in anatomy and physiology, evolutionary biology, and animal behavior. She enjoys teaching students about their own bodies and helping them build upon the skills necessary to advocate for themselves and others in medical settings and situations. She spends her free time with family and friends, with pets (and foster dogs), gardening/landscaping, making art, being active, storm chasing, doing photography, and enjoying nature.

Music scholarships at Gustavus support students who wish to continue their involvement in music, regardless of their major or minor.

Chris Nolting has been a Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics at Gustavus since 2023. In his classes, he focuses on including many worked example problems and opportunities for hands on learning in groups, and as many physics demonstrations as possible. As a computational astrophysicist, he enjoys showcasing examples related to astronomy whenever possible. His research focuses on the study of galaxy cluster environments and powerful jets from active galactic nuclei, supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that accrete matter and power some of the brightest objects in the universe. This work is mainly done through numerical simulations on compute clusters and supercomputers using up to tens of thousands of processors simultaneously. Gustavus students working on research with Chris learn coding languages and data visualization techniques, and even 3D print some of the structures they simulate.

Chris is the faculty advisor to the Society of Physics Students and the Gustavus Engineering Club.

Outside of Gustavus, Chris a self-identifying nerd. He is a lover of board games, magic the gathering, Marvel movies, anime, and going on walks with his dog.