Recent PhD graduate Ashley Coble published a paper in collaboration with her advisor, Amy Marcarelli, and other Michigan Tech researchers.
“Temporal patterns of dissolved organic matter biodegradability are similar across three rivers of varying size”
Authors Ashley A. Coble, Amy M. Marcarelli, Evan S. Kane, David Toczydlowski, Robert Stottlemyer
Journal of Geophysical Research, Biogeosciences
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JG003218/full
Congratulations to Professor Nancy Auer (Bio Sci) and her PhD Graduate Student J. Marty Holtgren who published “Re-envisioning State and Tribal Collaboration in Fishery Assessment and Restoration,” in the journal Fisheries. Read the article here.
Congratulations to Professor Charles Kerfoot group who published Kerfoot, W. C., M. M. Hobmeier, F. Yousef. B. Moraska LaFrancois, R. P. Maki, J. K. Hirsch. 2016. A Plague of Waterfleas (Bythotrephes): Impacts on Microcrustacean Community Structure, Seasonal Biomass, and Secondary Production in a Large Inland-lake Complex. Biol. Invasions. 18 (4): 1121-1145 doi: 10.1007/s10530-015-1050-9 Read the article here.
by Sponsored Programs
After 21 years of competing, Houghton High School ended a drought and took first place in the Department of Biological Science’s 27th annual Bioathlon competition. Calumet High School took second and L.L. Wright High School (Ironwood, Michigan) rounded out third place. This year 15 western and central Upper Peninsula schools competed to display their biology knowledge. Team members did not have any biology beyond the sophomore level. The four problems the four-student teams tackled:
First, second and third place teams were awarded a plaque to display at school and each student on the team was awarded $200 for first place, $100 for second place and $50 for third place. All bioathlon competitors received a certificate of participation and a t-shirt sporting this year’s competition logo.
While students were busy with challenges their teachers participated in a workshop “Ethnobotany: how people use plants” led by academic advisor and botany instructor, Stacy Cotey. Feedback indicated that the teachers were excited to learn new activities to incorporate into lesson plans.
The Department is pleased to use this outreach activity to demonstrate the exciting disciplines available at Michigan Technological University and to support the university’s mission to emphasis Health, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (H-STEM) education. We look forward to next year’s competition scheduled for early May 2017.
Funding was provided by MTU Admissions, the Department of Biological Sciences, the Michigan Tech Fund, MTU Alumni Mark Cowan, MD, Robert C. and Kathryn DellAngelo, MD, Olive Kimball, D.Ed., PhD, Nancy Auer, PhD, and Janice Glime, PhD.
More details about the competition can be found on the Bioathlon web page.
The team winning FIRST PLACE was Houghton High School from Houghton, MI.
Team members: Andra Campbell
Kieran Storer
Won Young Choi
Ann Desrochers
Instructor: Lauri Davis
The team winning SECOND PLACE was Calumet High School from Calumet, MI.
Team members: Chelsea Pittsley
Gunnar Lindemann
Brandon Fraki
Joseph Roy
Instructor: Jennifer Peters
The team winning the THIRD PLACE was L.L.Wright High School from Ironwood, MI.
Team members: Zane Ozello
Ian Hughes
Kinley Lyons
Nick Niemi
Instructor: Cheryl Jacisin
It’s the best turnout in recent history for our high school visit program. Biological Sciences is proud to announce seven schools—about 180 students and their teachers—came to our spring semester event to help connect students to Michigan Tech. This year two schools attended for the first time in our program’s 25-plus-year history: Copper Country Christian School and Nah Tah Wahsh PSA (Hannahville Indian School), joining the returning Superior Central (Eben Junction), Dollar Bay, Hancock, and Ontonagon High Schools. Houghton High School was also here to participate in a cooperative joint program between Biological Sciences and Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology. Unfortunately, after several attempts to reschedule, Marquette High School was unable to make it due to winter weather.
In the morning, students were greeted by our chair, Dr. Shekhar Joshi. They heard the story of how Dr. Thomas Werner became a biologist and got career advice from Dr. Amy Marcarelli, Brigitte Morin and the advisor for Pre-health, Stacy Cotey. They also attended their first college-level lecture in anatomy and physiology. At lunch break they were introduced to the wonderful selection of food at Wadsworth Hall’s cafeteria. In the afternoon, after a quick stop to pose by the Husky Statue, they reinforced that morning’s lecture using the human anatomy and physiology laboratory equipment to measure various parameters of their respiratory, cardiac, muscle and urinary systems and then learned how to do blood typing in the Medical Laboratory Science lab.
We are excited to participate in Michigan Tech’s mission to attract motivated students, including high school-aged girls, into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. In a broader sense the day of activities and pep talks by a diverse team of faculty, staff, and college students motivated high schoolers to think more deeply about attending college. And it hopefully encouraged a specific focus on degrees in biological sciences, medical laboratory sciences, or one of our many other life-science-related majors on campus.
Brent VanAcker, a senior in the Medical Laboratory Science Program, was recently awarded an American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) National Student Honor Award (NSHA). This award is based on academic achievement, leadership ability, community activities, professional goals, and endorsements from faculty and community leaders. Brent will be graduating at the end of this semester and then will be going to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN to complete a Clinical Practicum in Medical Laboratory Science. Our congratulations to Brent for earning this prestigious award!
Submitted by:
Karyn Fay MS MT(ASCP)SH
Director: Medical Lab Science Program
Michigan Tech University
Friday 15 April,
The Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology hosted a joint visit for Houghton High School’s Anatomy and Physiology classes. The teacher, Alex Geborkoff, accompanied 35 students who spent a day on the Michigan Tech campus learning about health careers from Pre-med advisor Stacy Cotey and faculty member Steven Elmer, attending a college lecture in Anatomy and Physiology, experiencing lunch at Wadsworth Hall Dormitory and taking part in many hands-on lab activities. Some of the lab activities in KIP included learning about the influence of stress on blood pressure in Dr. Jason Carter’s lab and conducting an experiment comparing concentric versus eccentric muscle groups in Dr. Steven Elmer’s lab. In Biological Sciences students learned how to measure aortic blood pressure in Dr. John Durocher’s lab and being led through a dissection by Travis Wakeham in the anatomy and physiology teaching lab.
News coverage of the visit included TV6 news.
From Tech Today
The Graduate Student Government and the Grad School would like to congratulate the following winners of the 2016 Three Minute Thesis Competition held last Thursday:
Masters Divison:
First Place, $500- Ekramul Ehite (ME-EM)
Runner Up, $250- Abhilash Kantamneni (CS)
People’s Choice, $100- Abhilash Kantamneni (CS)
PhD Division:
First Place, $500- Rupsa Basu (Biology)
Runner Up, $250- Zichen Qian (Bio Med)
People’s Choice, $100- Rupsa Basu (Biology)
Originally published in Tech Today
Chang Kyong Choi (ME-EM) and Karyn Fay (Bio Sci), have been named winners of the 2016 Distinguished Teaching Awards.
Choi, affectionately known as “CK”, won in the Associate Professor/Professor category, while Fay, a professor of practice, received the award in the Assistant Professor/Lecturer/Professor of Practice category.
Choi received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Chung-ang University in Seoul, Korea and earned a PhD from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
He emphasizes a personalized learning connection with each of his students, achieved through active individual meetings while valuing what he calls the “unique ideas, experiences, strengths and attitudes” each student brings to the classroom. Read Choi’s full story.
Fay, a native of Manistique, received a BS in Medical Technology from Lake Superior State College (now Lake Superior State University). She worked in medical labs throughout the country, returning to the Upper Peninsula to earn a Master’s in Biological Sciences.
After serving as hematology superior at a local hospital, she came to Michigan Tech initially as an adjunct faculty member in 2002, eventually turning to teaching full time. Read Fay’s full story.
Fay and Choi will each receive a $2,500 monetary award and a plaque at an awards dinner sponsored by University President Glenn Mroz in the fall.
The Society for Medical Laboratory Sciences club voted in new officers for the 2016-17 school year.