Category: Undergraduate

VanGoethem and Gervais Named Academic All-American

AUSTIN, Texas — Michigan Tech football players Ryan VanGoethem (West Branch, Mich.) and Brett Gervais (Lake Linden, Mich.) were both named 2015 Academic All-Americans by the College Sports Information Directors of America today. VanGoethem, a junior punter, was named to the First Team while Gervais, a senior defensive back, earned Second Team honors.

The pair were two of only 48 NCAA Division II players nationally to earn Academic All-America status. Criteria for the award requires nominees to be in their second year at their institution and maintain at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average. Voting by CoSIDA members is based on both academic and athletic performance.

VanGoethem is a 3.96 student in biological sciences. He posted a 39.3 yards-per-punt average with a long of 67 yards and four punts inside the opponents’ 20. His punting average was the third best in school history. VanGoethem earned All-GLIAC Honorable Mention following the 2015 season.

Gervais owns a 3.79 GPA in exercise science. Three times in his career he earned All-GLIAC recognition including a spot on the First Team in 2015. Gervais posted 61 tackles, three interceptions, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery this past year. He finished his career with 203 career tackles and eight interceptions.

Michigan Tech has now had 20 Academic All-America First or Second Team honorees in its history. The most recent were Jacob Clark and Matt Curtin in 2012.

Full CoSIDA Division II Football Academic All-America Team Release

See the original press release at: http://www.michigantechhuskies.com/sports/fball/2015-16/releases/20151202m3680l

Several Biological Sciences students playing in the 4th Keweenaw Honors String Festival (Violapalooza)

KSO-KeweenawHonorsStringFestivalFour students from a variety of Biological Sciences majors are participating in this Saturday’s Rozsa performance of  the 4th Keweenaw Honors String Festival (Violapalooza).

 

 

 

The four students are:

*Laura Deters, Bioinformatics playing the viola
*Erin McKenzie, Biological Sciences playing the cello
*Elise Cheney-Makens, Biochemistry playing the cello
*Megan Schluentz, Biological Sciences playing the cello

The show will be streamed live at the Visual and Performing Arts web site. Tickets and additional information about the performance are available on the Michigan Tech Events Calendar.

 

New class offering: Cancer Biology, BL4752, Spring 2016

Cancer Biology imageNew class offering: Cancer Biology, BL4752, Spring 2016

• Do you know that cancer is the second leading cause of death?
• In 2013 alone, 14.9 million people had cancer & 8.2 million people died from cancer
• Do you know of anyone who has cancer?
• Are you interested in learning what causes cancer or the molecular changes that lead to cancer?

• Take BL 4752; learn about the biology of cancer with Dr. Tumban

• Course Objectives: Students will have an understanding of:
• the biological/non-­‐biological agents that cause cancer
• how these agents contribute to different cancers
• the molecular mechanism(s) leading to the disease
• how the circulatory and lymphatic systems affect the disease
• current treatment and therapeutic approaches

The prereqs are BL3012 Essential Cell Biology or BL4370 Cell Biology or BE2400 Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Cancer Biology Flyer

 

Enhanced Med School Program to Expand

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and its Upper Peninsula higher education partners, including Michigan Tech, will announce an agreement today to establish a cooperative program of premedical education by which students of Bay College who transfer as undergraduate premedical students will have the opportunity to be granted an enhanced opportunity for admission to MSU College of Human Medicine. Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan are also part of the agreement.

The formal announcement will take place at 11 a.m. today at Bay College in Escanaba. Stacy Cotey, academic advisor and director of pre-health professions, will be on hand to represent Michigan Tech.

2015 SURF Awards recipients for Biology and BMB students

The following students in Biological Sciences and Biochemistry and Molecular are recipients of Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Recipients (SURF) Awards for 2015:

Student Name Student’s Major Advisor/Department Project Title
Peter Nouhan Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Thomas Werner / Biological Sciences Uncovering the Enhancers of the Pigmentation Gene Yellow
Ryan Van Goethem Biological Sciences Amy Marcarelli / Biological Sciences Impact of Stamp Sands on Aquatic Macrophyte Communities, Myriophyllum spicatum, and Myriophyllum spicatum x sibiricum Hybrids in the Portage Waterway
Virginia Van Vianen (HI) Biological Sciences Erika Hersch-Green / Biological Sciences The Effects of Increased Anthropogenic Nitrogen on Plant Characteristics and Pollinators

Additional University recipients can be found at: http://www.mtu.edu/research/archives/awards/surf/

This is the description of the award from the University web site:

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)

SURFs are open to all Tech undergraduates who have at least one semester remaining after the summer.

Annual awards of up to $4,000 are available. Program requests for applications are announced in TechToday beginning in November, with applications for these annual awards due January 30, 2015.

Fellowship recipients will conduct a research project under the guidance of a Michigan Tech faculty mentor, during the summer semester.

Fellowship recipients are required to:

  • Submit interim reports of their progress through the summer
  • Attend meetings of SURF award recipients
  • Present their research

Linville, Dalton awarded Student Leadership Awards; Bachman Departmental Scholar

Bachman photo small

Dalton photoStudent Leadership Awards Ceremony Held Friday

Outstanding students, staff and a special alumna were honored Friday at Michigan Tech’s 21st Annual Student Leadership Awards Ceremony. The event’s keynote speaker was also the winner of, perhaps, the most prestigious award presented. Brtta Jost, ’02, ’04 received the 2015 Outstanding Young Alumna Award. Jost is senior engineer in large structures design engineering for Caterpillar. In her remarks, Jost recalled the changes that have occurred since her days as a student, most of them in technology and social media.

“Back then, if a speaker looked out and saw the audience looking down, she would have thought they were bored or disinterested,” she said. “Now I know you’re posting my remarks on Twitter.”

Jost said the most important aspects of a Michigan Tech education have not changed since her time here a decade and half ago.

Perhaps the most prestigious undergraduate award, the Presidents Award for Leadership, was presented to Kim D’Augustino, a double major in Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. President Glenn Mroz cited D’Augustino’s numerous accomplishments including serving as vice president of the biomedical engineering society, mentoring students through the Wahtera Center and the ExSEL program and acting as event coordinator at the recent, highly-successful, campus Relay For Life.

Dallas Linville, was the recipient of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Advancement Award for Service, Nate Peterson received the Exceptional Leadership in Student Governance Award, the Exceptional Enthusiasm as Student Leader Award was presented to Luke Dalton and the Student Employee of the Year was awarded to Taylor Driscoll.

The Rising Star of the Year, presented to a first or second year student showing great potential for leadership, was awarded to Keagan Fortier. Britta Anderson was named Outstanding Future Alumnus or Alumna. The award is presented to a student already living the Alumni Association’s motto of “Celebrating Traditions, Creating Connections.”

Other awards handed out included:

Exceptional Program of the Year: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program

Most Improved Student Organization: Mu Beta Psi

Exceptional Community Service Project: Society of Women Engineers, Homecoming Spirit Sprint

Claire M. Donovan Award: Susan Liebau, Director of the Waino Wahtera Center for Student Success

Student Organization of the Year: Broomball Committee

Student Organization Advisor of the Year: Jeremiah Bauman, Broomball Committee

The Provost’s Award for Scholarship was selected from the Departmental Scholars. This year’s recipient was Melissa Michaelson, Departmental Scholar from Social Sciences.

Award recipients who received their awards at previous ceremonies were also recognized. They include:
Percy Julian Award: Taylor Driscoll
Exceptional Graduate Student Leader: Abhilash Kantamneni
Exceptional Graduate Student Scholar: Xu Yang
Outstanding Graduate Mentor: Dr. Gregory Odegard
Greek Man of the Year: Jonathan Iafrate
Greek Woman of the Year: Erica Morley

This year’s Departmental Scholar in Biological Sciences was Evan Bachman