May 22nd, 2007 - June 21st, 2007
Accolades
Assistant Professor Mark Simmons has been appointed an associate editor of the American Journal of Botany
Professor A.S.N. Reddy was elected to the American Society of Plant Biology Executive Committee as the Western Sectional Representative.
Welcome
The Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program from the National Science Foundation awards supplements to existing grants for stipends and travel for undergraduate researchers. This year's group of REU's includes (lab sponsor and project):
Davyion Crossland (from Winona State U., Pilon-Smits lab, metal tolerance in plants)
Marie Pengilly (from U. Idaho, Poff lab, aquatic community ecology)
Sarah Atherton (Wall lab, anhydrobiosis in Antarctic and temperate nematodes)
Katie Parsons (Knapp lab, tall grass prairie ecology at the Konza Prairie in Kansas)
Jenny Coughenour, Jennifer Cappa (Simmons lab, phylogenetics of the spindle-tree family)
MaryBeth Culp, Mary Snyder (Anderson lab, meiosis in plants)
Krista Lewicki (from Oberlin college, Garrity lab, development of heart rhythm in zebrafish)
Alex Ard, Helen Lepper (Antolin lab, immunogenetics in prairie dogs)
Audrey McDonald, Casey Ehlinger (Mykles lab, molecular control of crustacean molting)
Richard Siller (from U. Michigan, von Fischer lab, ecology of methanotrophic bacteria in soils)
Varma-Rose Williams (from Widener
Univ., Bedinger lab, pollen biology in tomato species)
Blaire Steinwand is an American Society of Plant Biologists Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in the Bush lab, researching sugar signaling in plants. This highly competitive fellowship provides stipend and travel to present results at the 2008 ASPB Meeting.
Research Funding and Grants
Professor Alan Knapp was awarded $399,720 by the USDA Managed Ecosystem Program for a 3-year study entitled "Grassland structure and function in response to warming and more extreme precipitation patterns". His collaborators on this project are Dr. Melinda Smith at Yale University and Dr. John Blair at Kansas State University.
Professor Mike Antolin, along with colleagues Indy Burke (PI), Gene Kelly and Nicole Kaplan received a $270,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for "Improvements to the Shortgrass Steppe Biological Field Station", located on the grasslands 33 miles northeast of Fort Collins near Nunn, CO. This grant will support housing, further funding is sought to build a classroom/conference center and a new laboratory.
On the Road
Assistant Professor Lisa Angeloni conducted field work in Wisconsin on smallmouth bass reproduction from May 26th to June 3rd.
Special Assistant Professor Arathi Seshadri presented a seminar on June 7, 2007 as a part of the Cafe Botanique Lectures at Denver Botanic Gardens, entitled "Flowers and Insects, Entangled Forever - Scientist View of Flower Adaptations"
Professor Diana Wall attended the US National Commission for UNESCO Annual Meeting on May 20-22 in Washington, DC. Diana serves as a US UNESCO commissioner and committee member.
Research Scientist Ed Ayres of Professor Diana Wall's lab attended the EcoSummit in Beijing, China from May 22-27 where he delivered a presentation entitled 'Soil biota in a carbon dioxide-enriched world'.
Assistant professor Mark Simmons travels to New Orleans from June 27 through July 2 to make a presentation and lead a symposium at the Willi Hennig Society annual meeting.
Graduate students Liz Harp and Dylan George, Post-doct Stu Field, Assistant Professor Colleen Webb, and Professor Mike Antolin participated in the 5th Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Workshop and conference in Ithaca, NY. The Biology Department will host this event next year.
Graduate students Aryn Wilder and Liz Harp, post-doc Stu Field, and Professor Mike Antolin attended the "Forum on Microbial Threats: Vector-borne Diseases -- Understanding the Environmental, Human Health, and Ecological Connections", held at the Hilton in Fort Collins, and sponsored by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor Diana Wall was an invited speaker at the 6th (PNRA) Italian Program for Antarctic Research meeting in Tuscany, Italy, on Issues and Research Priorities for Antarctic Biology from June 6-10.
Professor Diana Wall was an invited participant at the NSF Office of Polar Programs Antarctic Integrated and System Science (AISS) workshop in Washington, DC from June 13-15 and attended a board meeting of Island Press also in DC, June 11-12.
Mr. Youngkee Lee, Ministry of the Environment of South Korea, on sabbatical in Diana Wall's lab, attended the International Union of Biological Sciences conference on Meeting the Challenges of Sustainable Development in an Era of Global Change in Washington, DC, May 10-12.
New Publications from Biology
Professor Alan Knapp recently published a book with his colleague Dr. Tim Fahey (Cornell University) in the Oxford University Press LTER Series. Its entitled: "Principles and Standards for Measuring Net Primary Production". Fahey, T.J. and A.K. Knapp. 2007. Oxford University Press, NY, 268 pages.
Savage, V.M., Webb, C.T., and Norberg, J. 2007. A general multi-trait-based framework for studying the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. Journal of Theoretical Biology 247: 213-229.
Professor Diana Wall discusses potential implications of global change on low diversity ecosystem in the Antarctic Dry Valleys:
Diana H. Wall (2007) Global Change tipping points: above- and below-ground biotic interactions in a low diversity ecosystem Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B online doi:10.1098.rstb.2006.1950
Assistant Professor Gul Shad Ali, Postdoctoral Research Associate Sai Prasad Goud, former Special Assistant Professor Maxim Golovkin, Professor A.S.N. Reddy and collaborators from Columbia University published a paper in PLoS ONE: "Regulation of Plant Developmental Processes by a Novel Splicing Factor".
Professor A.S.N. Reddy has written an invited book chapter in Methods in Molecular Biology, Humana Press.
TWIB is published (semi) weekly by the Department of Biology, Colorado State University, edited by M. Antolin