Zac Kohl is an adjunct faculty member at Unity College. He earned his B.S. and M.S. at Portland State University in Oregon and has taught biology in various forms since the late 2000’s. He aims to connect the real-world experiences we share as animals in a complex ecosystem with the concepts essential to understanding homeostasis, especially when viewed through the lens of comparative physiology.

Zac’s research experience began with studying South American killifish as an undergraduate at PSU. In the egg, they can survive prolonged anoxia, dehydration, massive temperature swings, and intense radiation that would kill or severely impair nearly any other developing vertebrate. He then studied amphibians to better understand the cardiovascular challenges of adapting to terrestrial life. That project led to further studies of alligators, snapping turtles, and chickens focusing on the impacts of blood viscosity changes during development. Zac has also explored adaptions to exercise in cheetahs and carbon dioxide tolerance in fishes. 

Recently, Zac’s research has focused on continuing a project spearheaded by Unity’s own Associate Dean, Dr. Rita Peachey, as director of the CIEE Research Bonaire. That project investigated the origins of an enigmatic but cosmopolitan parasite that causes Black Spot Syndrome in tropical marine fishes and, later in its lifecycle, infects osprey.