Gregory L. Florant, Ph.D.
Born in New York City, Dr. Florant grew up in Palo Alto, California. As a child he spent most of his free-time watching birds and mammals and fishing. When he was 14, Greg worked at the Palo Alto Jr. Museum taking care of the birds of prey. While working at the museum, Dr. Florant was able to study many different kinds of animals, which is how he became interested in science.
Dr. Florant attended Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, earning his BS degree in Biology with an emphasis in Physiology in 1973. For graduate school, Dr. Florant moved back to California and earned his PhD degree from Stanford University in 1978. Dr. Florant first taught at Swarthmore College (10 years) and Temple University (5 years) before accepting his current job in the Department of Biology at the Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. As a Professor, he teaches both undergraduates and graduate students as well as conducts research. Dr. Florant has been awarded two Senior Fulbright Research Scholarships, one in 1983 and, most recently, one in 2000 to study alpine marmots in Austria.
Dr. Florant’s research interests are centered on the mechanisms that animals use to adapt to different situations. Recent investigations have focused on animals that hibernate and the mechanisms they use to regulate energy stores. Dr. Florant’s studies of the quantity and quality of lipid stored in the form of fat have proven fruitful in elucidating potential mechanisms for sparing the metabolism of essential fatty acids in mammals. Other research interests include the role of nutrients in regulating food intake and hormonal regulation of metabolism. Over the past several years, Dr. Florant has investigated whether animals that get fat for the winter show the metabolic consequences of obesity, whether the kind of fat that they accumulate influences how well they are able to hibernate, and finally, whether these animals that get fat have unique metabolic pathways that relate to energy deposition. Most recently, Dr. Florant has studied whether the insulin signaling pathway is altered in hibernators as they prepare for winter by increasing their fatmass.
When Dr. Florant isn’t in the lab or classroom, he loves to go fishing, hiking, bird-watching and biking. Dr. Florant also does volunteer work as much as he can, particularly in middle and high schools.