Biological Sciences Blog

Winners of the ESC 11th Annual Student Research Forum

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Jade OrtizThe Members of the Ecosystem Science Center would like to congratulate the winners of the 11th Annual ESC Student Research Forum:

Grand Prize winner of the Graduate Student submissions :
Alex Bales (Bio Sci, Advisor: Erika Hersch-Green) for the poster “Polyploidy Influences Plant Carbon/Nitrogen Balance and Resistance to Insect Herbivory in Chamerion angustifolium“
The Two Merit Prize winners of the Graduate Divisions were:
Alida Mau (SFRES, Advisor: Molly Cavaleri) for the poster “Photosynthetic Temperature Responses Within Temperate and Tropical Forests”

Mickey Jarvi (SFRES, Advisor: Andy Burton) for the poster “Below-ground C Allocation Responses to Climatic Variation across Sugar Maple’s Native Range”

The Grand Prize winner of the Undergraduate Student submissions:
Jade Ortiz (Bio Sci, Advisors: Amy Marcarelli, Casey Huckins and Kevyn Juneau) for the poster “Invasive Myriophyllum Spicatum and Nutrients Interact to Influence Phytoplankton Communities in the Portage Waterway”
The ESC would like to thank all the participants and our judges for a good forum. The posters will remain on display in the atrium of the Noblet building for the next two weeks.
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Hospital Labs: Behind the Scenes

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Hospital LabsHere, unseen professionals detect crucial health information from your medical tests.

The white-coated phlebotomist stops by your bedside to draw blood. Making sure the labels on the collection vials match your hospital ID band, she applies a tourniquet above the antecubital space inside your elbow, where the veins pop up nicely. You barely feel the venipuncture needle as she expertly slides it in. Your blood fills several tubes: a lavender top for a complete blood count, a red top for chemistries like potassium levels and a blue top to measure clotting.

“These’ll go straight to the lab,” she says, and you vaguely picture a roomful of dark countertops crowded with test-tube racks and microscopes.

Read more at U.S. News & World Report Health News, by Lisa Esposito.

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The End of HPV

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Dr. Ebenezer Tumban. Undergoing a Pap smear—a simple test to detect cervical cancer—is a regular health habit for most American women. But in many other parts of the world (and some under-served populations in this country), women lack access to cervical cancer screening and treatment. As a result, some 275,000 women—80 percent of them in developing countries—die each year from the disease, which is caused by the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).

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In Print

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Huan Yang (Post-Doc Harvard), Assistant Professor John Durocher (Bio Sci), Robert Larson (Bio Sci) and Professor Jason Carter (KIP) published the paper “Role of the Ovarian Cycle on Neutral Cardiovascular Control in Sleep-deprived Women,” in the American Physiological Society’s Journal of Applied Physiology, 15 Feb. 2015, Vol. 118, No. 4, 419-426. Yang earned her PhD in Biological Sciences at Michigan Tech, her advisor was Jason Carter.

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Graduate Student Awards

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Congratulations to our award winning graduate students:

The Graduate School and Graduate Student Government proudly announce the 2014-2015 academic year winners of the following awards:

Outstanding Scholarship Award
Ashley Coble
PhD Student, Biological Sciences
Advisor
Amy M. Marcarelli

Outstanding Teaching Award
Chelsea Mitchell
MS Student, Biological Sciences
Advisor
Thomas Werner

Outstanding Teaching Award
Mengmeng Qiao
PhD Student, Biological Sciences
Advisor
Guiliang Tang

More details at:

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Travis Wakeham is awarded the David S. Bruce Outstanding Undergraduate Abstract

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 Travis Wakeham is a David S. Bruce Outstanding Undergraduate Abstract Awardee! This award is based on the abstract that Travis submitted to the Experimental Biology Conference that will be held in Boston at the end of March, a personal statement written by Travis, and a letter of support from his mentor Dr. Durocher. Travis will receive $100 and a 2-year complimentary membership to the American Physiological Society as part of this award. He will also be eligible for an Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award at Experimental Biology based on his poster presentation. His abstract is titled “Obesity and neural cardiovascular responses to mental stress in humans.” Dr. Durocher has noted that “Travis always anticipates what needs to be done in the lab and he is extremely dedicated and reliable. He makes conducting a research study a seamless process.”

Congratulations Travis!

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Congratulations to Top 10% Biological Sciences instructors in Fall 2014

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It gives me great pleasure in congratulating the following faculty, instructors and graduate students from Biological Sciences Department for their inclusion in the list of campus wide, top 10% instructors in fall 2014 semester.

The following faculty received scores above 4.78 out of 5 on average of 7 elements of university-wide class size group with response rate of >50% on student evaluations of their lecture classes.

  • Dr. Amy Marcarelli, Assistant Professor
  • Ms. Brigitte Morin, Lecturer
  • Ms. Karyn Fay, Professor of Practice
  • Dr. Ramakrishna Wusirika, Associate Professor
  • Dr. Thomas Werner, Assistant Professor

The following instructors received scores above 4.64 out of 5 on average of 7 elements of university-wide class size group with response rate of >50% on student evaluations of their lab classes.

  • Dr. Cinnamon Pace, instructor
  • Ms. Emily Geiger, Graduate student
  • Mr. Morton Harwood, Graduate Student
  • Mr. Ryan Dixon, Undergraduate student

 

Thanks for your great contributions!
Dr. Chandrashekhar Joshi, Chair, Department of Biological Sciences

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Jackson Grant Recipients Announced

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Due to a generous gift from William G. Jackson, the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is pleased to announce the 2015 grant recipients. Nearly $55,000 in grants were awarded to instructors and teams of instructors at $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 levels. These grants will support course/program reform or expansion projects using blended and online learning.

This year’s solicitation placed special emphasis on mentoring of instructors new to blended learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, shared content, matching support, testing and assessment. A committee, assembled by the Provost and the CTL Director, reviewed many compelling grant proposals in order to select this year’s grant recipients.
Grants that included Biological Sciences faculty are:

$5,000 Level

  • Integrative Statistics for Social, Behavioral and Biological Sciences Using Blended Learning ($3,000), Susan Amato-Henderson (CLS) and Erika Hersch-Green (Bio Sci)
  • Blended and Active Learning for Health Sciences at Michigan Tech, Brigitte Morin and John Durocher (Bio Sci)

For additional awards in other departments see the original Tech Today article.

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Medical Careers Week – January 26-29, 2015

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MedicalCareersWeek-flyer See the flyer for more details! Flyer-medicalcareersweek_final

Michigan Tech students will get to explore a wide variety of careers in the medical and health fields during a four-day event called Medical Careers Week. Medical professionals from diverse fields will be on campus to discuss their professions and the educational pathways to success in those fields and to answer students’ questions.

Medical Career Week topics will be

  • Monday, Jan. 26—Medical Informatics
  • Tuesday, Jan. 27—Allied Health and Medical Laboratory Sciences
  • Wednesday, Jan. 28—Medical Careers
  • Thursday, Jan. 29—Medical Devices

Each day features a Lunch and Learn presentation from noon to 1 p.m., followed by small group discussions with visiting professionals from 6 to 8 p.m. These informal events will take place in the Memorial Union Ballroom. They are open to all students, and no registration is required.

Departments in the College of Sciences and Arts, the College of Engineering and the School of Technology pitched in to help organize the event. Guy Hembroff, director of the medical informatics graduate program in the School of Technology, helped organize Medical Informatics Day. High school students from area schools who are involved in robotics have been invited to participate.

Jason Carter, chair and professor of kinesiology and integrative physiology, and Karyn Fay, director of the medical laboratory science program in the Department of Biological Sciences, helped organize Allied Health/Medical Laboratory Sciences Day.

Stacy Cotey, director of pre-health programs, helped plan Medical Careers Day. Students from the health careers programs at local high schools have been invited to participate.

Sean Kirkpatrick, chair of biomedical engineering, helped put together Medical Device Day. A variety of medical device companies will be at Michigan Tech to discuss the future of the medical device industry.

Many of the speakers are Michigan Tech alumni, including William Karpus ’84 (BioSci), Brad Tomassucci ’84 (MedTech), Erin Thompson ’02 (ClinLabSci), Robert Richards ’77 (MedTech), Tracey Bershing, ’92 (Pre-PharmEd), Michelle Seguin ’07(BioSci), along with current medical students Eric Sturos and Stephanie Rutterbesch.

“Events like Medical Careers Week give students from all fields of study the opportunity to learn more about careers available in the medical field, said Shelley Farrey, coordinator of career development for Michigan Tech Career Services. “Not every student knows what avenue he or she wants to pursue in life when they enter college. Medical Careers Week gives them a chance to learn about the many opportunities available and the paths to get there.”

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