Rate My Professor Heidi Appel

Heidi Appel, Ph.D., serves as Dean of the Honors College and Professor in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Houston. She assumed the deanship in 2024. Trained as a biologist, her background includes leadership roles in honors education at multiple institutions, where she has emphasized interdisciplinary approaches integrating the arts, humanities, and sciences. Prior to her current position, she was Dean of the Jesup Scott Honors College at the University of Toledo and Senior Associate Director of the Honors College at the University of Missouri. She has also held teaching positions at Pennsylvania State University’s Schreyer Honors College and served as an affiliate professor in environmental sciences at the University of Toledo.

Appel’s research centers on the chemical ecology of plant-insect interactions and plant sensory ecology, including how plants detect and respond to vibrations from insect feeding. She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in general studies from Oakland University. In 2018, she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.