Tag: Andrew Burton

Promotion and tenure announced

Congratulations to the following faculty who were recently approved for promotion and tenure by Michigan Tech’s Board of Control :

Andy Burton, promoted to Professor with tenure
Rod Chimner, promoted to Associate Professor with tenure
Oliver Gailing, promoted to Associate Professor with tenure
Audrey Mayer, promoted to Associate Professor with tenure
Chris Webster, promoted to Professor (already tenured)

In Print – Andrew Burton

The Faculty of 1000 (F1000) has selected a paper by Associate Professor Andrew Burton to include in its library of the top two percent of articles in biology and medicine.

The article, Chronic N Deposition Alters Root Respiration-Tissue N Relationship in Northern Hardwood Forests, appeared in the journal Global Change Biology, 2012. F1000 selects the most important articles in biology and medical research publications for its database. Articles are chosen by a peer-nominated group of the world’s leading scientists and clinicians, who then rate them and explain their importance.

Andrew Burton – Distinguished Teaching Award Candidate


Associate Professor Andrew Burton

Weigh in on Candidates for the Distinguished Teaching Awards – The Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development  seeks input for its annual Distinguished Teaching Awards, which recognize outstanding contribution to the instructional mission of the University.

Based on over 50,000 student ratings, ten finalists have been identified for the 2012 awards. The selection committee is soliciting comments from students, staff, faculty and alumni to aid in its deliberation.

Associate Professor Andrew Burton from the School is a finalists for the Associate Professor/Professor Category.

Comments on the nominees are due by Monday, March 30, and should be sent to CTLFD at Faculty Award.

The process for determining the recipients from this list of finalists also involves additional surveying of their classes. The selection committee makes the final determination. The recipients will be announced in the fall.

In Print – Burton

Associate Professor Andrew Burton

Associate Professor Andrew Burton is an author on a paper, “Soil-Warming Carbon-Nitrogen Interactions and Forest Carbon Budgets,” published in this week’s early online edition (May 23 to 27) of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Burton is director of Michigan Tech’s Ecosystem Science Center and the Midwestern Regional Center for the US Department of Energy’s National Institute for Climatic Change Research. Lead author on the paper is Jerry Melillo of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. For more information, visit EurekAlert.

Research Excellence Fund Awards Announced

The Vice President for Research has announced this year’s recipients of the Research Excellence Fund Awards, which total $502,378 among 27 people.

Recipients from the School from the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science nd their respective award categories are:

Mentoring Grants Oliver Gailing

Research Seed Grants – Michael Falkowski  and Oliver Gailing

Infrastructure Enhancement Grants Andrew Burton, “Improving Michigan Tech’s Ability to Quantify Stable Isotopes of Water”

Forty-six proposals, totaling $1.2 million, were submitted. “We thank all of the members of the review committee for their important role in this process,” said David Reed, Vice President for Research.

ESC/BRC Student Research Forum Winners Announced

The Ecosystem Science Center and the Biotechnology Research Center announce award recipients of the Seventh Annual ESC/BRC Student Research Forum, held March 25.

For the graduate students, two Grand Prize Awards, six Merit Awards and two Honorable Mention Awards were presented. They were selected from among the 42 posters and abstracts submitted by graduate students conducting research related to ecology, the environment and biotechnology at Michigan Tech. New this year was a separate undergraduate research division with 9 submissions. For the undergraduate students, each center awarded a grand prize winner.

Posters will continue to be on display in the atrium of the Noblet Building, School of Forest Resources, Michigan Tech Campus through April 8

Graduate Research$500 Grand Prizes
Ecosystem Science Center:

  • Mickey Jarvi (SFRES) for “Sugar Maple Root Respiration Shows No Short-Term Acclimation to Soil Warming,” advisor: Andrew Burton

Biotechnology Research Center:

  • Katherine Snyder (BME) for “Development of a Novel Vapor Deposited Silica Sol Particles for Use as a Bioactive Materials System,” advisor: Rupak Rajachar

$100 Merit Awards
Ecosystem Science Center:

  • Rita Koch (SFRES) for “Insect and Disease Response to Prescribed Burning, Harvesting and Wildfire in Red Pine Forests,” advisors: Linda Nagel and Andrew Storer.
  • Meagan L. Harless (Biological Sciences) for “Sublethal Effects of Road Salt (NaCl) Exposure on the Survival and Growth of Larval Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvatica),” advisor: Casey Huckins.
  • Laura Kangas (SFRES) for “Microtopography in Created Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) Wetlands,” advisor: Rodney Chimner

Biotechnology Research Center

  • Yiru Chen (SFRES) for “Auxin Efflux Carrier Pta PIN9 Regulates Wood Formation and Gravitropic Response in Poplar,” advisor: Victor Busov
  • Surendar Reddy Dhadi (Biological Sciences) for “Functional Analysis of Bidirectional Promoters in Rice,” advisor: Ramakrishna Wusirika
  • Xiaochu Ding (Chemistry) for “Efficient One-Pot Synthesis and Loading of Self-Assembled Amphiphilic Chitosan Nanoparticles for Low-Leaching Wood Preservation,” advisor: Patricia Heiden

$50 Honorable Mention Awards: Ecosystem Science Center

  • Marcella Campione (SFRES) for “Herbaceous Community Compositional Changes in a Northern Hardwood Forest,” advisor: Linda Nagel
  • Karl Romanowicz (SFRES) for “Plant Species Composition in Northern Peatland Ecosystems may have Significant Effects on Carbon Cycling,” advisor: Erik Lilleskov

Undergraduate Research: $150 Grand Prize Awards
Ecosystem Science Center

  • Alisha Autio (SFRES) for “The Effects of Canopy Height on Leaf Mass per Area in Eucalyptus Spp,” advisor: Molly Cavaleri

Biotechnology Research Center

  • Hal Holmes (BME) for “Magnetoelastic Materials as a Means to Control and Monitor Cellular Adhesion,” advisor: Rupak Rajachar

Organizers thank participants, the judges and all who helped with another successful ESC/BRC Student Research Forum.

Funding for Undergraduate Research Announced

This summer, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) will support 23 students from across the University with funds from the Vice President for Research, the Honors Institute and the Biotechnology Research Center (BRC). The total funding for the program this year is $74,300.

The recipients, their major, membership in the Honors Institute (HI) and advisors  from the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science are:

Alex Mehne (Forestry), Associate Professor Andrew Burton, Performance of Non-local Tree Species Planted in Baraga County, Michigan.

Auriel Van Der Laar (Wildlife Ecology and Management, HI), Assistant Professor Joseph Bump, Developing Morphometrics Models to Predict the Sex of King and Virginia Rails.

Katherine Waring (Civil and Environmental Engineering, HI), Assistant Professor Rodney Chimner , Sleeper Lake Fen Restoration: Modeling Water Flow Patterns and Water Chemistry.