People

Damian Dudka, PhD

Assistant Professor · Department of Biological Sciences · Lehigh University
dad526@lehigh.edu · Google Scholar

I am a cell biologist studying the rapid evolution of chromosome segregation. My research program integrates molecular evolution, gene editing, fluorescence microscopy, and mouse models to understand the origins and functional impacts of the rapid evolution of the chromosome segregation machinery at molecular, cellular, and organismal levels — and what that means for fertility, development, and disease.

Assistant Professor

Lehigh University, USA · 2026–present
Rapid evolution of chromosome segregation

Postdoc

University of Pennsylvania, USA · 2019–2026
Lab of Michael Lampson · Female meiosis and centromere drive

PhD

University of Geneva, Switzerland · 2014–2019
Lab of Patrick Meraldi · Biomedical Sciences · Mitotic spindle and centrosome function

MS

University of Warsaw, Poland · 2012–2014
Lab of Maria-Anna Ciemerych Litwinienko · Medical biotechnology · Stem cell differentiation

BS

University of Warsaw, Poland · 2009–2012
Biotechnology

Visiting

MBL Scholar (Harvard, 2018) · EMBO Short-Term Scholar (Warwick, 2016)
Erasmus Scholar (Montpellier, 2013) · Visiting Scholar (Rennes, 2011)

Selected Awards & Fellowships

• Porter Prize for Research Excellence — ASCB · 2025
• Merton Bernfield Award — ASCB · 2025 (declined)
• SNSF Early Postdoctoral Fellowship · 2019–2021
• Physiology Course Research Grant — MBL · 2018
• Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Short-Term · 2017
• EMBO Short-Term Fellowship · 2016

Mentorship. Prior trainees have gone on to PhD programs at MIT, Cornell, and Thomas Jefferson University.