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!


We heard from Leah Boris (M.S. EEB 2008) who writes "apparently becoming an intern at the River Bend Nature Center is hot stuff in the town of Faribault, Minn., as we were profiled in the local newspaper. The town is about 22,000 or so, so I suppose I can see that." Read the article in the Faribault Daily News "On the learning path: A new batch of interns start at River Bend Nature Center."

In a recent email, Boris wrote “Yesterday was an early dismissal day for the elementary schools, so we had 40 some kids for an afternoon program--the theme was insects! I taught them all about telling the difference between beetles, true bugs (like cicadas or stink bugs), flies, and bees. It was pretty awesome.”
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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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Recent EEB graduate Wendy Grus (Ph.D. EEB 2008) has entered a contest with an interpretive dance of her Ph.D. thesis on YouTube. Here is the info about the AAAS contest. Help her win by watching and passing it on.

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Corinne Richards (Ph.D. EEB 2007) 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. EEB 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.

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