Damian Dudka

What are your research interests?

Faithful chromosome segregation is crucial for fertility, development, and tissue homeostasis. Despite such highly conserved roles, genomic analyses suggest that the chromosome segregation machinery evolves rapidly. This is a fascinating puzzle because chromosome segregation must remain highly accurate to ensure organismal viability and reproduction. Solving this puzzle requires experimental systems that test hypotheses emerging from genomic analyses. In my lab, we are building such systems by combining molecular evolution, gene editing, experimental evolution, confocal microscopy, and mouse models.

What classes are you teaching at Lehigh?

BIOS411 - Advanced Cell Biology

What degrees do you hold and where did you earn them?

Bachelor of Science from Biotechnology (University of Warsaw); Master of Science in Medical Biotechnology (University of Warsaw); Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences (University of Geneva)

What was your previous institution?

University of Pennsylvania

What do you enjoy most about teaching?

​​A former colleague once told me, "Your undergrads receive graduate-level training" — and that captures what I love most about mentoring and teaching. I enjoy helping students take their first independent steps as researchers, learning what motivates each of them and creating space for that curiosity to grow into real scientific work. The students I mentored as a postdoc came in with little research experience and went on to co-author papers and start PhDs at top programs. Watching that arc — from curiosity to ownership of a research question — is the most rewarding part of this work for me.

Why did you choose Lehigh?

I chose Lehigh because of the people and the fit. From my earliest conversations with faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences, it was clear that this is a collaborative, welcoming community — one where colleagues genuinely enjoy talking science with each other and where new faculty are supported rather than left to figure things out alone. That mattered to me. I am excited to learn from colleagues whose expertise spans cell biology, genetics, development, and evolution, and to find natural collaborators for the questions my lab is taking on.

Lehigh's location was also important for me. Having spent my postdoc at Penn, I have built strong scientific relationships in Philadelphia and across the region, and being close enough to maintain those collaborations — while joining a new community here at Lehigh — feels like the best of both worlds.

Finally, I was drawn to Lehigh's commitment to integrating students into research. Mentoring undergraduates and graduate students at the bench is one of the best parts of this job, and Lehigh is a place where that kind of close, hands-on training is genuinely valued. It is the right environment to build the lab and the mentoring program I want to build.