Posts under the ‘News’ category

The Biotechnology Research Center announced its Spring 2013 Travel Grants. Recipients include:

Post-doctoral Research Scientist Presentation:
*Kaela Leonard (ChE) Advances in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (podium)

Graduate Student Presentations:
*Patrick Bowen (MSE) 2013 Minerals, Metals and Materials Society Meeting (podium)
*Katrina Bugielski (Chem) 245th ACS National Meeting and Exposition (poster)
*Weilue He (Bio Med) Gordon Research Conference-Nitric Oxide (poster)
*Na Hu (Chem) American Geophysical Union 2012 (poster)
*Robert Larson (KIP) Experimental Biology (poster)
*Yiping Mao (Bio Sci) Keystone Symposia on Molecular & Cellular Biology (poster)
*Sandra Owusu (SFRES) ASPB: 2013 Midwestern Section Annual Meeting (poster)
*Alison Regal (KIP) North American Society for the Psychology of Sport & Physical Activity (poster)
*Rafi Shaik (Bio Sci) Plant and Animal Genome XXI (poster)
*Ashley Shortz (CLS) IEE Annual Conference and Expo (podium)
*Amy Sieloff (ChE) AIChE 2012 Annual Meeting (poster)
*Srinivasa Rao Sripathi (Bio Sci) Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (poster)
*Huan Yang (KIP) Experimental Biology (poster)
*Nazmiye Yapici (Chem) 245th ACS National Meeting and Exposition (podium)

Undergraduate Student Presentations:
* Michael Bobian (Bio Sci) C. elegans Development, Cell Biology and Gene Expression 2012 (poster)
* Hal Holmes (Bio Med) Materials Research Society Annual Conference (podium)
*Angelea Young (Bio Sci) Experimental Biology 2013 (poster)

The team winning FIRST PLACE was A.D. Johnston High School from Bessemer, MI

Instructor:       David Rowe
Molly Wieringa
Valerie Rowe
Jess Mazzon
Zack Mazurek

The team winning SECOND PLACE was Hancock High School from Hancock, MI:

Instructor:       Kristin Raisanen Schourek
Andrew Bess
Kaylor Holmstrom
Matthew Sanregret
Aspen Stroud

The team winning the THIRD PLACE was Houghton High School from Houghton, MI

Instructor  Alex Gerborkoff
Brittany Coombs
Kyra Neufeld
Julia Menzel-Smith
Isaac Stone

TV10 video

Daily Mining Gazette article

Each team was composed of four students who have not had formal class work in biology beyond the traditional sophomore high school general biology course.  All teams tackled the same four problems:

Dissection: designed by Biological Sciences undergraduate students Shannon Twomey and Travis Wakeham with input from Dr. John Durocher and assisted by Komal Bollepogu

Molecular Biology: Designed by Biological Sciences graduate student Emily Geiger, assisted by Aparupa Sengupta.

Field Identification: Designed by Biological Sciences graduate student Ashley Coble assisted by Ramana Pidatala and Jamie Olson.

Medical Laboratory  Science: Designed and proctored by Medical Laboratory Science undergraduate students, Claire Meneguzzo, Christjana Nichols, Brooke Bedore, Kelly Hanes and Misty Brouilette with input from Senior Lecturer Alice Soldan and Professor of Practice Karyn Fay.

Through these exercises, students needed to demonstrate organizational skills, knowledge of facts and concepts, laboratory skills and creativity.

Each member of the first, second and third team will receive a small cash award along with a plaque.  Each student participating in the competition will also receive a certificate of participation and a Bioathlon T-shirt.

The teacher activity was:

What’s up with the Weather? Climate Change and Aquatic Life in the Great Lakes. This was an interactive workshop developed and taught by Stacy Cotey, Academic Advisor of Biological Sciences.

In the morning, they toured the newly opened Great Lakes Research Center. The center is an interdisciplinary facility that studies the processes, function, and issues of the Great Lakes. They discussed how climate change may alter this dynamic ecosystem. In the afternoon, they conducted activities suitable for the classroom that explored the effects of a changing climate on aquatic organisms in the Great Lakes.  They collected and analyzed water samples from the dock at the Great Lakes Center and at Prince’s Point.

Funding was provided by MTU Admissions, the Department of Biological Sciences, the Michigan Tech Fund, MTU Alumni Mark Cowan, M.D., Robert C. and Kathryn DellAngelo, M.D., Olive Kimball, D.Ed., Ph.D., Nancy Auer, Ph.D. and Janice Glime, Ph.D.

Congratulations to Dr Rupali Datta and Dr. Nancy Auer as well as the many other faculty our Department collaborates with.

On May 3, the Board of Control approved the tenure and promotion recommendations put forward by the Michigan Tech administration.

Promoted from assistant professor without tenure to associate professor with tenure were Megan Frost (Bio Med), Wenzhen Li (ChE), Veronica Griffis, Jacob Hiller (CEE), Christopher Middlebrook, Wayne Weaver (ECE), Gregory Waite (GMES), Bo Chen, Seong-Young Lee, Desheng “Dennis” Meng (MEEM), Lanrong Bi (Chem), Edward Cokely (CLS), Matthew Seigel (HU), Claudio Mazzolini (Physics), Patricia Helsel (VPA), Latha Poonamallee (SBE), Evgueny “Eugene” Levin and Aleksandr Sergeyev (SOT).

Appointed from associate professor without tenure to associate professor with tenure were Elena Semouchkina (ECE) and Rupali Datta (Bio Sci).

Promoted from associate professor with tenure to professor with tenure were Paul Bergstrom, Seyed “Reza” Zekavat (ECE), Nancy Auer (Bio Sci), Haiying Liu (Chem),

The Department of Biological Sciences sends our most sincere congratulations to the following Medical Laboratory Science interns.

Completed or completing 2012-13 practicums
Nicole Asiala, MLS, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI
April Hintzman, MLS, Marshfield Labs, Marshfield, WI
Sam Kerlin, MLS, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN
Tina Nguyen, MLS, Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau Claire, WI
Kelly Roxbury, MLS, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI
Faith Rushford, MLS, Aspirus Wausau, Wausau, WI
Brianne Schneider, MLS, St. John-Providence, Grosse Pointe Woods, MI
Ana Vuk, MLS, Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC

Beginning 2013-14 practicums
Jacob Davis, MLS, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI
Brittany (Hardy) Weirich, CT, Marshfield Labs, Marshfield, WI
Molly Laurin, MLS, Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau claire, WI
Kiley Mason, MLS, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI
Claire Meneguzzo, MLS, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN

More information on the Medical Laboratory Science/Clinical Laboratory Science program is available on our web page.

Dr. Stephanie Groves (left) is our newest team member at the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute. A West Michigan native, she graduated fromMichigan Technological University with a Ph.D in Biological Sciences – Microbiology. Her doctorate research was focused on the optimization of yeast strains and fermentation conditions for the production of fuel ethanol from woody biomass. She also received her BS and MS from Michigan Tech in Microbiology.Her areas of specialty are industrial microbiology, bioprocess engineering, and fermentation science. In addition, she has work in the brewing industry as a QA/QC manager. Some projects she will be working on at the institute are defining the relationship between sensory analysis data and the chemical composition of wine and optimizing the fermentation of acidic musts. She will also be working on a program to offer the area wineries microbiology testing services.

Read more here.

Congratulation on the great showing and wins

from the Dept. of Biological Sciences!

More details on SURF awards – Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Award Winners Original Research Category: 1st – Miles Corcoran 2nd – Julie A. Padilla 3rd – Jade E. Ortiz and Martin Hobmeier (Tie)

Coursework/Informational: 1st – Nancy Auer’s BL4465 Biological Oceanography class

More details at Center for Water and Society