The EEB buzz

We'd love to hear from you! Please send your updated information to eeb-webinfo@umich.edu.

We're interested in where you're working, your Web site address, e-mail address, new publications, awards and honors. Even if you just have a good story to tell, we'd like to hear your latest adventures. We'll publish some of this information on our Web site and in upcoming newsletters.

You can also email us photos and we'll include some of them here.

To alumni we've heard from, thank you for sharing your good news and congratulations!

Thanks to Prosanta Chakrabarty (Ph.D. EEB 2006) who sent in this photo taken in Madagascar in June 2008. Pictured from left to right, Chakrabarty, Phil Willink (Ph.D. EEB 2004), John Sparks (Ph.D. EEB 2001), and Steve Goodman (B.Sc. Zoology 1984) with his family. 

Chakrabarty is completing his postdoctoral fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, and will be starting as assistant professor/assistant curator of fishes at Louisiana State University in August. Willink is assistant collections manager of fishes at the Field Museum, Chicago and will be traveling to Bolivia this summer for teaching and research on fishes. Sparks was recently granted tenure and is curator-in-charge in the Department of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History. Goodman is a MacArthur Fellow working on numerous projects involving the natural history of Madagascar. The Sparks, Willink and Chakrabarty team met with Goodman in Antananarivo to discuss their expedition to the caves in Madagascar in search of blind fishes. They have all returned safely back to the U.S. and are happy to report a successful collecting trip.
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Krista McGuire is at the University of California, Irvine for her postdoctoral fellowship. Working with Professor Kathleen Treseder, she will investigate plant and fungal diversity relationships in both the tropical rain forest and the boreal forest. Forest conversion is a major threat to plant diversity in these regions. Understanding the impacts of plant diversity loss on fungi, which play a major role in providing nutrients to plants, is important for managing and restoring these systems.
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Mary Ann Evans is working her postdoctoral fellowship at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station with field work throughout lower Michigan.

Her research expands on the topic of her dissertation, controls on phytoplankton photosynthesis, into areas of phytoplankton community ecology. She will investigate the controls on abundance of Microcystis, a toxin producing cyanobacteria known to cause harmful algal blooms. After testing, the model of Microcystis abundance she and her team develop, will be used to explore how future climate change and the continued spread of invasive zebra mussels will impact the occurrence of Microcystis-caused harmful algal blooms.
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Heather Lerner successfully completed her doctoral degree in August 2007. She will began her postdoctoral research fellowship in fall 2007 at the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
 
Lerner will be working on a new project with Drs. Helen James and Rob Fleischer establishing molecular and morphological phylogenies of Hawaiian songbirds including the Hawaiian honeycreepers, honeyeaters, crows and thrushes. The adaptive radiation of the Hawaiian honeycreepers includes 56 species of which 23 are known only from subfossil bones. “For the extinct and endangered species of songbirds, I will be extracting DNA for sequencing from subfossil bones and other museum specimens using ancient DNA techniques,” Lerner said.
Photo (right): Carla H. Kishinami, Collection Manager, vertebrates, Honolulu

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Xiaoxia Wang’s thesis “Molecular evolution in primates” received an honorable mention in the 2007 Distinguished Dissertation Award competition. Out of 700 dissertations produced at U-M last year, 51 were nominated for this award. Ultimately, eight awards and eight honorable mentions were conferred. Wang is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego. Her advisor was Professor George Zhang.
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Ashley P.G. Dowling, (Ph.D. EEB 2005) became an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas in the Department of Entomology in January 2008. He spent the last two-and-a-half years as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Kentucky. He will teach general entomology each fall (class for juniors, seniors and grad students) and every couple years in the spring will teach a graduate course in systematics. He is working on a book on parasitic mites that is expected to be published in mid-2009.  Dowling was recently elected president of the Acarological Society of America for 2009. He was named associate editor for the Journal of Parasitology.

“The last few months have been very good to me,” writes Dowling. He has two potential Ph.D. students starting in January 2009. One will work on the systematic and historical ecology of a diverse group of mites and the other is a Costa Rican doctor of veterinary medicine who wants to study the role of mites (excluding ticks) as vectors of disease among bats and other small mammals.

“Annie and I have both missed Ann Arbor since leaving in 2005, but we find Fayetteville to be a similar and suitable (and smaller) replacement and think we will be very happy here with the three cats and one really crazy Irish terrier.”

Photo: Dowling with penguins on a trip to South Africa. "They really are silly little creatures," he writes.
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Ondrej Podlaha is a postdoctoral researcher in the Evolutionary Developmental Biology Department at Yale University. He is working in Antonia Monteiro's lab. His research specifically focuses on the evolution of morphological novelties, namely the molecular basis of color pattern formation--such as eyespots--on butterfly wings.

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Corinne Richards has been awarded three postdoctoral fellowships: an NSF International Research Fellowship, a Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship and a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship. She is currently doing research on the evolution of morphological variation among strawberry poison dart frogs in Panama, where she will be until the end of June. After that, she'll be at Berkeley for two years.

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We heard from Janice M. Ball (B.S. Zoology 1947) who said evolutionary biology was her favorite subject. She is glad to see our focus on ecology and evolution. She wrote that she did not use her science degree until 1969 when she started teaching seventh grade biology. During the 60s, she returned to college at Northern Illinois University and got her teaching credentials. 

“It was a very exciting time for me, we used many texts but the main one was ‘Interaction of Man and The Biosphere.’ There was a strong emphasis on ecology with the students doing many lab experiments and field trips. This was at West Chicago Junior High in Illinois. I realize now that this approach was way ahead of its time. The students thoroughly enjoyed the class as did I. Hopefully this experience enriched their lives.” Her maiden name was Janice Marie Ward.
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José Juan Terrasa-Soler (M.S. Biology/Ecology 1992) is lecturer and design critic in landscape architecture at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, San Juan. He received a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard and established his own environmental consulting, planning and design firm called EnviroDesign Studio. Terrasa-Soler received his license to practice landscape architecture in Puerto Rico and was recently welcomed into the Colegio de Arquitectos y Arquitectos Paisajistas de Puerto Rico. He lives in San Juan with his wife, Alicia, and daughter, Sara Lauren.

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Laura Eidietis (Ph.D. EEB 2005) is an assistant professor teaching science education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College, New York, NY. She got married in July 2007 to Andrew Gilroy and they moved from Michigan to New Jersey. Email Laura here.
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Beth Hahn (Ph.D. EEB/SNRE 2007) has started a new job as regional wildlife ecologist for the northern region of the USDA Forest Service, based in Missoula, Mont.

The northern region includes all forests and grasslands in northern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and northwestern South Dakota. Her main programs will focus on non-game terrestrial wildlife. She is starting to get involved in studies of community ecology related to aspen die-offs and fire ecology-wildlife interactions.
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Andrew Gorlin, M.D., (B.S. 1996) has accepted a new job as staff physician for the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) in Manang, Nepal.

HRA is a non-profit organization which strives to reduce casualties in the Nepal Himalaya. Founded in 1973, it operates a rescue post at Manang, along one of the most popular trekking routes in the Annapurna Himalaya. The aid post is staffed by volunteer doctors during the two main trekking seasons. One of their most important goals is to prevent the deaths of foreign trekkers from Acute Mountain Sickness. For the last 25 years, the HRA has helped make the Himalaya safer for tourism.


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David Gorchov (Ph.D. 1987) has been promoted to professor in the Botany Department at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He continues to advise students in the ecology of invasive plants and population ecology of harvested plants.
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Michael W. Henry (B.S. Botany 1979) is vice president of business development at Athena Diagnostics, Inc., a genetic testing laboratory in Worcester, Mass. He collaborates extensively with academic scientists and gene hunters who discover new disease genes.

Henry started his Ph.D. in Botany at UC Berkeley, had a change of heart, salvaged a M.A. Botany degree and received his M.B.A. at UC Berkeley. In 1984, he started working in the biotechnology industry at Calgene, Davis, Calif. From 1985 to 1991, he served as manager of new business development at Allelix, Mississauga, Ontario, where he helped sell Allelix Crop Technologies to Pioneer HiBred for $30 million. Henry then worked in academic medical centers, serving as director of technology transfer at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from 1992 to 1995, and senior director of licensing and ventures, at University of Massachusetts Medical School from 1995 to 2001. He returned to the biotechnology industry in 2001 as vice president of business development at Avant Immunotherapeutics, Needham, Mass. In 2004, Henry joined Athena, where he helped sell Athena to Thermo Fisher for $283 million.

Henry lives in Needham, Mass., with his wife Patricia (B.Sc. Biology, University of Toronto) and sons Mickey, 12 and Alex, 10. All are avid naturalists, and the boys are especially keen birders. Henry fondly remembers his time with Professor Herb Wagner and others at U-M botany, and would like to hear from other botany alumni interested in contributing to EEB. You can send an email to Michael Henry.

Photo above: Michael Henry at a rain forest biological station in Costa Rica donning a Michigan cap signed by Lloyd Carr.

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Professor Margaret Towne (B.S. Biology 1961, MS Biology 1962) recently published “Honest to Genesis – a Biblical and Scientific Challenge to Creationism.” She received her EdD from Montana State University in 1995 and did her dissertation on “The Influence of Critical Thinking on Christians’ Belief and Belief Change with Reference to the Polarities of Creationism and Organic Evolution.” The esteemed Jurassic Park paleontologist, Jack Horner, was on her doctoral committee. He encouraged her to write this book and wrote an endorsement that is printed in the book.

Towne was a distinguished visiting professor in science and theology at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Penn. She continues to teach science and religion courses at the college level.

While at U-M, Towne worked for Dr. Henry van der Schalie in the Mollusk Division and was a guide in the Museum of Paleontology for four years.

The book can be purchased through Amazon.com and any bookstore will order it. Towne will send a signed copy ($25) on request to 8370 W. Cheyenne Ave., Suite 109-32, Las Vegas, NV  89129. She has done book signings at Barnes and Noble, Borders, in libraries in Las Vegas and Montana and at science and religion conferences across the country.
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Professor Douglas J. Futuyma, former chair of ecology and evolutionary biology at U-M, has the rare distinction of being elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He is a distinguished professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University, Long Island, NY.

The NAS is an honor society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the advancement of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. There are some 2,000 members and foreign associates of the NAS. More than 200 of them have won Nobel Prizes. Members and foreign associates of the academy are elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors bestowed on a scientist or engineer.
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Jeffrey S. Pippen, (M.S. EEB, 1987) is a research associate in global climate change at Duke University, Durham, NC.  While at EEB, Pippen studied plant taxonomy with Ed Voss, professor emeritus and curator emeritus for the U-M Herbarium. Pippen got interested in birds and butterflies while taking field courses (and being a teacher assistant for Voss) at the U-M Biological Station.

“Here at Duke I ended up going into CO2 ecology and climate change, but my first love is still getting out in nature and going birding and butterflying!” he said.

Pippen was awarded the Clarence F. Korstian Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Duke Forest including teaching, research, and service. He is also owner and president of Pippen Enterprises Nature Photography, Durham, NC. He has recently published photos in several national field guides and textbooks as well as scientific articles in various journals.

Photo credit: Jeffrey S. Pippen.
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Diane E. Humes (M.S. Botany 1977) received the Making a Difference - Treasure of the Bay Award by her fellow Texas master naturalists of the Galveston Bay Area for her work in wetland and prairie restoration.

Humes just celebrated 26 years of marriage to husband Allan Treiman (Ph.D. geology, U-M 1982). Their first child, Daniel Tremain has graduated college, their second child, Michael Treiman graduate high school and has started college.

While Humes says she was never able to go the the BioStation, she sponsored a student for this fall and says she is happy someone else can go.
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Matthew A. Wund (Ph.D. 2005) published “Variation in the echolocation calls of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in response to different habitats,” 2006, Am. Midl. Nat. 156:99-108.

Wund received a National Research Service Award (NRSA) postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. He is working at Clark University in Worcester, Mass, with Dr. Susan Foster. He is looking at the evolution of differences among populations. Specifically, his work investigates the evolution and development of differences in behavior (antipredator behavior and boldness, in particular) among populations of stickleback fish.

His first child, Olivia, was born on January 18, 2006!

(Left: Proud dad with Olivia, ready for sledding. Right: Wund mist-netting a bat. )

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We heard from Dr. Anthony T. Chapekis (M.D. 1983, M.S. Biological Sciences 1978, B.S. Zoology, Psychology, 1976) and Cheryl S. Chapekis (MBA 1981, A.B. Psychology-Sociology 1977). Dr. Chapekis works at the Mid-Ohio Cardiology and Vascular Consultants.

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Dr. Owen J. Sexton (Ph.D. Zoology 1957, A.M. Zoology 1953) is an emeritus professor in the Department of Biology at Washington University, St. Louis, Miss.

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Jonathan G. Don (M.S. Botany, 1975)  enjoyed the mini sessions for alumni at “Bug Camp.” He says the nature photography was outstanding.

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John M. Smitka (M.S. Biology 1952) and his family spent the summer at Douglas Lake (U-M Biological Station) in the 1960s and he said it was a great learning environment.