Alumni NewsletterEcology and Evolutionary Biology Vol. 12

Fall 2014

| Dr. Doosey, Dr. McLean and Dr. Ribeiro participated in the 2014 Gulf Coast Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education.

| Dr. Ribeiro was awarded an American Association for University Women postdoctoral grant to study the effects of lead on New Orleans mockingbirds with Dr. Derryberry’s lab. Read the article on Page 5.

| Dr. Derryberry moved into her new lab space in the spring. Then over the summer, her team set up a workspace to study the songs of live bird specimens in the Tulane Vivarium.

Tulane University • School of Science and Engineering • New Orleans, La.

| Dr. John Caruso retired from Tulane at the end of the spring 2014 semester. Read our fond farewell on Page 3.

| Dr. Tim McLean started as EEB’s new Professor of the Practice. Meet Dr. McLean on Page 3.

| Dr. Blum ramped up two parts of the interdisciplinary Urban Ecology project in New Orleans this summer. Read on Page 2 how the Tulane Herbarium assists one team in identifying plant specimens and then read on Page 5 about another team’s effort to track rat populations.

| Dr. Bart held his own against reality TV by debunking a swamp monster myth on the Discovery Channel’s show “Beasts of the Bayou.”

| Ph.D. student Kimberly Mighell was awarded an EPA STAR to further her research with Dr. Van Bael’s lab on increasing the sustainability of bio-fuel crops. Read articles about her award and her research on Page 4.

| Congratulations to graduate students Nathan Cooper and Ray Schmidt for success-fully defending their respective Ph.D. theses.

| Our thoughts are with the family of Emeritus Professor Dr. Arthur Welden who passed away in September 2014. Read our remembrance of Dr. Welden on Page 5.

SoFar

This

Ph.D. student Erik Enbody of Dr. Karubian’s lab is working to increase local awareness of conser-vation in Papua New Guinea. Read about his fieldwork on page 4.

PHOTO BY MAXIME ALIAGA

2014 Faculty & Student TravelogueHere’s where we’ve been over the last year...

Alabama Gulf CoastAlaskaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutGrand CanyonIdahoMississippi Gulf CoastNew YorkNorth CarolinaOklahomaTennesseeTexasWashington

Atchafalaya BasinBaton RougeBayou SauvageBayou SignetteChandeleur Islands

CocadrieHoney Island SwampLafayetteLower 9th WardMyrtle GrovePearl RiverVenice

AROUND LOUISIANA...

AROUND THE COUNTRY...

AROUND THE WORLD...AustraliaBrazilCosta RicaDenmarkEcuadorFrance

French GuianaJamaicaJapanKenyaPapua New GuineaPeruSuriname

GRAPHIC BY JACK LESLIE

Year...

The Fred R. Cagle Memorial PrizeNathan Boyd Frumkin Nathan sets a high bar for the EBIO major. He achieved the top GPA among a strong graduating class, conducted multiple independent research projects, completed an excellent Hon-ors Thesis and served as an Undergraduate Fellow. He has worked with breeding birds in New England and has explored Ecuadorian rainforests. We are pleased that Nathan has continued on with EEB as a 4+1 Masters student.

The Phi Beta Phi AwardAlexander Charles Phillip Rose As a junior ENVB major last year, Xander recently had a paper accepted by the Tulane Undergradu-ate Research Journal on a study he conducted in Australia. He has been working with the Karubian lab on the impacts of an invasive plant species on red-backed fairywrens. He is an exemplary student, a very promising biologist and currently an Undergraduate Fellow.

The Senior Scholars Award, for two recipientsJulia Kittleson Berkey Julia received the Senior Scholars Award for her outstanding Honors Thesis on mating behavior in a polymorphic frog.

Nathan Boyd Frumkin Nathan received the Senior Scholars Award for his Honors Thesis on how mockingbirds respond to differ-ent habitat types within Uptown, New Orleans.

The Gerald E. Gunning Memorial Award, for two recipientsJulia Kittleson Berkey Julia’s GPA was among the top in her graduating class. She was a member of the Newcomb-Tulane Honors Program and completed an Honors Thesis based on original research that she conducted on the role of female mate preference in gener-ating reproductive barriers. She made important contributions to field and lab research in the Richards-Zawacki lab and also participated in research in South Africa through the Organization for Tropical Studies.

Published Undergraduate ResearchTulane provides students with a

rich undergraduate experience, including the ability to conduct research. Some students assist fac-ulty with on-going research in the field or in the lab. Others design and conduct their own scientific re-search under the guidance of their professors.

We are proud to acknowledge the following individuals who have recently had their undergraduate research published in academic journals.

Kelly Barry, ‘12Laura Petrauskas, ‘13Heins, D.C., K.A. Barry and L.A. Petrauskas. Consistency of host responses to parasitic infection in the three-spined stickleback fish in-fected by the diphyllobothriidean cestode Schistocephalus solidus. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Mitchell G. Hinton, ‘14Hinton M.G., A. Bendelow, S. Lantz, T.W. Wey, L. Schoen, R. Brockett, and J. Karubian. Patterns of Ag-gression Among Captive Ameri-can Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber). Zoo Biology.

2014 DEPARTMENT AWARDS

By EEB Staff

Briana Megan O’Malley Briana performed outstandingly well as an EBIO major. She did some of “the most beautiful dissections” ever seen in the Vertebrate Morphology class and earned a high GPA. She was always enthusiastic in the classroom and the field. She was fearless in the jungles of Costa Rica, capturing and han-dling many kinds of snakes, and also navigated several complex statistical procedures to analyze her data. She completed an out-standing Honors Thesis.

The Newcomb Zoology PrizeCasey Gu Casey is a creative and insightful student. She main-tained a high GPA, successfully completed rigorous coursework in the major and even began preparing early for the 4+1 Masters program that she is currently enrolled in with Dr. Van Bael’s lab investigating plant-fungal relationships.

The Stuart Bamforth Prize for Excellence in Environmental StudiesMarlee Labroo Marlee earned a high GPA while maintaining a rigorous course load, served several semesters as an Undergradu-ate Fellow and completed an REU in a plant molecular biology lab the summer of her Junior year. She always engaged her professors in thought-provoking conversations.

Teaching Assistant Awards, for two recipientsKimberly Louise Mighell Kim made invaluable contributions in two upper-level courses: Ecology lab in the fall and Processes of Evolution in the spring. Her dedication and positive attitude were appreciated.

Justin David Yeager Justin regularly receives extremely positive reviews from the students in his Diversity of Life lab. He has always been a reliable TA and valuable mentor.

GRADUATE AWARDS

Justin Lee, ‘03Lee, J.S., D.C. Heins, A.F. Echelle, and A.A. Echelle. Annual ovarian cycle and other reproductive traits of female red river pupfish (Cyprin-odon rubrofluviatilis) in the Red River drainage of Texas. Southwestern Naturalist.

Emilie Ospina, ‘10Ospina, E., C. Cooper, M. Liljesthrom, D. Ardia, D. Winkler. Biparental nest attendance in Chilean Swallows (Tachycineta meyeni) breeding in Ushuaia, Argentina. Emu - Austral Ornithology.

Alexander Rose, ‘15 Mitchell G. Hinton, ‘14Rose, A., M. Hinton, S. Lantz, J. Swad-dle, M. Webster and J. Karubian. Habitat and Arthropod Relation-ships Supporting the Red-backed Fairy-wren in the Tropical Savanna Dry Season. Tulane Undergraduate Research Journal.

Victoria Troeger, ‘13Troeger, V., P.W. Sammarco, J.H. Caruso. Aspergillosis in the com-mon sea fan Gorgonia ventalina: isolation of waterborne hyphae and spores. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms.

Herbarium Collections Aid Urban Ecology Project

This summer, the Tulane Herbarium became the scene of “ID parties” aimed at putting names on hundreds of plant samples gathered from yards, parks, sidewalks, and vacant lots throughout New Orleans. Assisted by Herbarium Curator Anne Bradburn and, occasionally, by Dr. Steven Darwin, the team worked to build a database of plant diversity, a first step toward understanding the relationship between historical land use change, urban vegeta-tion dynamics, and large scale infrastructural systems like drain-age systems, floodwalls, and navigation canals. The project is part of a Socio-Ecological Movements (MOVE) project in collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Tulane/Xavier Cen-ter for Bioenvironmental Research. At the session pictured here, the EEB plant identifiers are (clockwise from bottom left) alumna Courtney Amabile, senior Tyler Mark, graduate student Mark Fox, senior Stasia Widerynski and Rebecca Hazen, a graduate student and the MOVE project leader.

PHOTO BY STEVEN DARWIN

UnderGrAdUATe AWArdS

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By Steven Darwin

By EEB StaffIn April of 2014, the Department of Ecol-

ogy and Evolutionary Biology hosted a mini-symposium to honor the retirement of Dr. John H. Caruso.

Dr. Caruso sat listening among the audi-ence boasting a warm smile alongside his wife Pam, whom he met when she worked as an illustrator at the Tulane fish collection. One by one current and former colleagues took to the podium to give talks in celebration of Dr. Ca-ruso’s 30-years as a Louisiana marine biologist.

Dr. David Heins, Chair of Tulane’s EEB De-partment and a former graduate classmate of Dr. Caruso’s at Tulane, gave opening re-marks, including some warm – and quite amusing – words about his old friend.

Dr. Steve Darwin started off the symposium appropriately with a talk about Charles Dar-win, the man who arguably started it all.

Next Dr. Nancy Rabalais, Director of the

Posing at the reception after the mini-symposium are from left to right, Dr. Tom Soniat of UNO, Dr. R. Eugene Turner of LSU, Dr. Nancy Rabalais of LUMCON, the honoree Dr. John Caruso, Dr. Mark Benfield of LSU, Dr. Hank Bart and Dr. David Heins.

Welcome Our Newest Faculty Member! By EEB Staff

PhDUNC-Chapel Hill, 2001

Postdocs USC, 2001-2004

University of Miami, 2004-2007

Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Southern Mississippi, 2007-2014

Teaching This Semester: Marine Biology

Microbial Diversity & EcologyWetlands Ecology

Dr. Tim McLean

The first thing you notice when you walk into the office of EEB’s new Professor of the Practice, Dr. Tim McLean, is a strange stack of about a dozen weathered plastic pyramids. When asked, Dr. McLean happily unfolds one into its normal cube shape and explains. “They’re cubitainers. I use them to collect sea water for study.” Then he adds with a grin, “I bet I can probably get 20 gallons with those.”

Dr. McLean is a marine microbiologist. His interest isn’t the water itself, but the universe of microscopic organisms that live within it. With an extensive background in marine microbes, Dr. McLean will be able to provide a new perspective for EEB’s marine biology and ecology courses.

After receiving his PhD at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2001, he took a postdoctoral position in a ma-rine microbial lab at the University of Southern California. “USC is where I developed my love for dinoflagellates.” A love that took him next to the University of Miami, where as a postdoc he focused on Karenia brevis, the dinoflagel-late that causes the red tide algal bloom along the Gulf Coast.

In 2007, he accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Southern Missis-sippi, which gave him the opportunity to continue his research on Karenia brevis as well

as to teach. During his time at Southern Miss, he began to realize that his true passion was teaching, helping students understand the amazing and diverse organisms and ecosys-tems of the ocean.

As Professor of the Practice at Tulane, Dr. McLean will have a focus on teaching. “That’s why I have so much excitement for this position.” He’ll be instructing various courses related to marine biology and ecology, and he will oversee the Minor in Marine Biology program.

Dr. McLean is honored to be able to carry on the legacy of Marine Biology at Tulane by teaching hallmark courses like Marine Biology, Sharks and Marine Invertebrates.

But he also looks forward to putting his own touches on the EEB curriculum, with future courses such as Microbial Diversity and Ecol-ogy, Coral Ecology and Wetlands Vegetation.

“I’m thrilled to bring a microbial, molecular component to the students. To expand the sphere of ecology and include new classes of organisms.”

Sounds like EEB will need to invest in some more cubitainers!

The Department of Ecology and Evolu-tionary Biology is pleased to welcome Dr. McLean, his wife Grace, daughter Charleston and Great Dane Selma to Tulane!

“I take Dr. Caruso’s courses not only because they look interesting, but because he is teach-

ing them.”

“He was one of the only teachers I had that ac-tually changed the way I think about the world.”

“Dr. Caruso is the reason that I found my pas-sion for this major.”

“Within Dr. Caruso’s classroom, no question goes unanswered, no subject is uninteresting, and ev-ery student is worth forming a relationship with.”

“Quotes for Caruso”Students share their love

PHOTO BY JACK LESLIE

friends, good food and good wine, the stories and memories didn’t stop.

EEB wishes Senior Professor of the Practice Emeritus, Dr. John H. Caruso the best of luck in his retirement.

Dr. John Caruso Retires

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Louisiana University Marine Consortium (LUM-CON), a group with whom Dr. Caruso has been involved with for years, discussed efforts to identify coastal stressors on fish. And then Dr. Mark Benfield of LSU discussed his work col-laborating with oil and gas companies to study deep-sea biodiversity. He emphasized the vi-tal contributions that Dr. Caruso has made to help identify the mysterious creatures caught on camera deep beneath drill platforms.

To end the symposium, Dr. Hank Bart re-called Dr. Caruso’s involvement as a grad student in helping the late Dr. Royal D. Suttkus build his famous fish collection. Dr. Bart, who is the Director of the Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute that maintains the Suttkus collection, brought the house down with old stories and some very choice photographs.

The symposium was followed by a recep-tion where, under the influence of good

The economies of developing countries can be stymied by the high cost of fossil fuels and by international pressure to reduce carbon emis-sions. One way tropical countries have met these challenges is to utilize bio-fuels from crops. But green energy crops can compete with agri-cultural land and they can require energy-inten-sive inputs like fertilizer and pesticides.

Dr. Sunshine Van Bael and Ph.D. student Kimberly Mighell are researching ways to use natural symbi-onts to make bio-fuel crops more profitable and sus-tainable. They’re studying Jatropha curcas and the impacts that its biome has on plant performance, including increasing growth rate, reducing herbi-vore and pathogen damage, and decreasing de-pendence on water and fertilizer inputs.

Jatropha, as it is commonly known, is an ideal candidate for sustainable, green energy re-search because it grows well in sandy, nutrient-poor soils, thus not competing with food crops. And because only the seed is harvested, the tree is left behind to continue sequestering carbon, preventing erosion, and producing future seeds.

While some work so far has been done to map jatropha’s microbiome in laboratories at the Smith-sonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, this summer Kimberly and undergraduate Emma Tower began setting up jatropha plots in the field.

They also established connections with a farm-er’s association in Panama’s cattle country to discuss the importance of microbial symbionts, to test the acidity of farmer’s soil, and to gen-erate a dialogue about biodiesel production in Panama. Through these connections, Kimberly is able to apply her research directly to Panama-nian communities and conduct outreach efforts

to farmers across the region. Integration of microbial symbionts has

changed the way agriculture is conducted in many crop systems. This research promises to increase the sustainability and decrease the financial burden of biodiesel agriculture in the tropics. This will greatly benefit small farmers, who will be able to grow jatropha on marginal land as a cash crop. Also, this research can be applied to understand how plant microbiomes are generated. The Van Bael lab is uniquely ad-vantaged to conduct this research in Panama as it has laboratory space at STRI. This labora-tory space is essential for microbial culturing and cutting-edge next-generation sequencing of jatropha’s microbiome. The time and the lo-cation could not be more ideal for collabora-tion of STRI, Tulane and Panamanian farmers to understand the microbial ecology of this crop.

By Kimberly Mighell and Sunshine Van Bael

Increasing Sustainability of Bio-Fuel Crops Through Microbial Symbionts

Emma Tower (left) and Kim Mighell (right) work a jatropha plantation in rural Panama.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KIMBERLY MIGHELL

Karubian Lab Enlists Community to Help Study Fairywrens in Papua New Guinea

This summer EEB graduate student Erik Enbody spent much of the summer in a remote village in eastern Papua New Guinea conducting NSF-funded research on plumage evolution in the White-shouldered Fairywren, Malurus alboscapulatus. While there, Dr. Jordan Karubian joined him for two weeks for an adventure-filled jaunt to the little-known Western Province for additional data collection on this fascinating passerine bird. Researchers in the Karubian Lab travel half way around the world to study this unique species because of the fascinating pattern of varia-tion in female plumage it exhibits. In some parts of the island of New Guinea, fe-male fairywrens are dull brown and contrast to the male’s brightly ornamented black and white plumage. In other parts of the country, females and males are similarly ornamented, yet in other areas still, females are somewhere in between. Males remain consistently brightly plumaged throughout the island. This system provides an outstanding opportunity to assess the mechanisms and evolutionary consequences of variation in female plumage, which is the over-arching goal of Erik’s Ph.D. thesis research.

Alongside his traditional scholarly research, Erik is also working to increase lo-cal awareness about conservation in the region and to build research capacity among local residents. With support from National Science Foundation and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, two local residents, Serena Ketaloya and Gabriel Kareba, have become trained in the skills necessary to carry out inde-pendent research. In addition to gathering data in the field, these local residents provide workshops aimed at training members of their surrounding communities in biodiversity surveys and conservation techniques. This includes an environmental fair in early October 2014, where representatives from 4 villages and 11 schools in the area attended and shared wildlife based arts, music, and shows. This com-mitment to community-based participatory research has served to increase the quality and scope of Erik’s research while simultaneously promoting conservation and sustainability in this region.

By Erik Enbody

Mockingbird Study Sparks Media Interest

The announcement of a new study by Postdoc Renata Ribeiro and collaborators Assistant Professors Jordan Karubian and Liz Derryberry has grabbed the attention of local media outlets including WWL-TV, the Times-Picayune’s website nola.com and the Tulane online news source The NewWave. The study will track the ef-fects of lead in the soil of New Orleans on mockingbirds’ abilities to learn new songs. Learning new songs is important for mockingbirds to be able to attract mates and reproduce. It is widely known that lead can be as toxic to animals as it is to humans, but little is known about what specific impacts that lead contamination has on urban wildlife. New Orleans, with its historic neighborhoods, tends to have a high amount of lead in its soil. In her in-terviews, Dr. Ribeiro reached out to local residents interested in becoming “citizen scientists” to help record data relating to mockingbird song in their own backyards.

PHOTO BY RONNIE MAUM

By EEB Staff

K i m & j a t r o p h a

Kimberly Mighell, EPA STAR

Congrats to Ph.D. student Kimberly Mighell, who received the coveted EPA STAR fellowship! The 2-year program gives Kim $10,000 of research funding on top of tuition and a stipend.

The funding will allow her to more thoroughly research tropical endophytes in agriculture. She’ll be able work in the field in Panama, establishing close ties with local farm-ers. She’ll also be able to work in the lab of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, using cutting-edge, next-gener-ation sequencing techniques to understand the formation of plant microbiomes.

Page 4

Tracking the Post-Katrina Rat PopulationBy Anna Peterson

This summer, EEB researchers braved the heat of New Orleans catching rats as part of the Coupled Natural and Human Systems project – led by Principle Investigator Dr. Michael Blum.

Hurricane Katrina left an indelible mark on New Orleans greatly impacting not only the people that live here, but also the natural eco-logical systems within the city. The ultimate goal of the project is to understand how both human and natural communities have re-es-tablished post-Katrina, and if the same general ecological principles can help us understand these seemingly very different systems. Ecolo-gists from EEB have teamed up with sociolo-gists, geographers, and rodent control experts from institutions across New Orleans, including Dillard University, the US Forest Service and the City of New Orleans Mosquito, Termite and Ro-dent Control Board, to understand the com-plex nature of how human and natural systems interact in urban environments.

The project has a heavy focus on urban rat populations, as these species commonly inter-act with humans and may carry diseases that

are of human health concern. This past sum-mer a team led by graduate students Anna Peterson and Bruno Ghersi-Chavez began trapping rodents, which they will repeat each summer and winter for the next three years. Using molecular genetic techniques, they will be able to determine how rodent popu-lations are related across the city, how they may have repopulated some areas of the city post-flooding, and which sort of landscape features may hinder or facilitate their move-ment. Of course, collecting tissue samples from all of the rats to test for a suite of patho-gens is also a major priority of the project.

A new project can often come with chal-lenges. It turns out that catching the large number of rats required for the genetic analyses and pathogen screening was more difficult than expected (but perhaps that’s a good thing?) After many long days spent knocking on doors to gain permission to set traps in neighborhoods, as well as many a visit to some of the darkest and dirtiest com-mercial dumpsters of the city, perseverance finally paid off. In the end, they managed

PHOTO BY BRUNO GHERSI-CHAVEZ

Researchers perform rat necropsies at New Orleans Rodent Control. They looked for signs of disease and took tissue samples for pathogen and DNA analysis.

In Memoriam

Dr. Arthur L. Welden

A native of Birmingham, Ala-bama, Arthur Welden was edu-cated at Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Ten-nessee, and the University of Iowa, where he received a Ph.D. in Botany with a dissertation on development in myxomycetes. He later shifted to the study of tropical fungi, especially the taxonomy of Stereum and re-lated West Indian and Mexican wood-rotting basidiomycetes.

Welden began his associa-tion with Tulane University in 1955 as an Instructor in Botany, attaining the rank of Professor in 1968. In 1979, he was appointed the Ida Richardson Professor of Botany, a position he held until retirement as Emeritus Profes-

27 Jan. 1927 - 10 Sept. 2014

By Steven P. Darwin

to trap hundreds of rats at 70 different blocks across the city.

From Lakeshore to the Bywater, and nearly everywhere in between, no place was safe from the rodent trapping team!

sor in 1993. Welden authored or co-authored 34 scholarly articles based on research supported by the American Philosophical Soci-ety and the National Science Foundation. He was a Councilor of the Mycological Society of America, and an honorary member of the Sociedad Mexicana de Micología. His mycological herbarium was acquired by the New York Botanical Garden 1999. At Tulane, he was Associate Editor of Tulane Studies in Zoology and Botany, and Pro-gram Director of the Mesoamerican Ecology Institute. He chaired the Department of Biology 1985-1990.

Popular with students, Professor Welden offered courses on ethno-botany, mycology, and plant morphology and evolution. Alumni re-member him for his friendly wit and wisdom and his ability to converse on topics from cosmology, to political philosophy, to table manners. He was a great lover of books and ideas and encouraged his stu-dents (and faculty colleagues) to think broadly as well as deeply. He was the organizational force behind Tulane’s Yucatan Colloquium, a cross-disciplinary course that immersed undergraduates in Mayan culture and environment, ancient and modern. Throughout his life, Arthur Welden’s views were decidedly international and inclusive.

Welden is survived by his wife, Frances Colvin Welden; two sons, Charles Woodson Welden and Arthur Frederick Welden, and three grandchildren.

Koch-Richardson Fellow Helps Keep Up Botany Tradition at Tulane

Tulane has a rich tradition of appreciation for plant life, as evi-denced in part by the pride the university takes in its beautifully main-tained Uptown campus, but also by a history of placing importance on teaching botany. In 2013, EEB established the Koch-Richardson Fellowship in Plant Ecology and Evolution to bolster the botany cur-riculum at Tulane. Over the past year, the inaugural Koch-Richardson Fellow Dr. John Schenk has certainly lived up to the task.

Dr. Schenk has stayed busy teaching two courses at Tulane: Plant Biology & Adaptation and Biogeography. He’s also been advisor to several undergraduate scholars as they conduct independent stud-ies related to plant biology.

Undergraduate Rachel Herschlag wrote up her research into a pa-per co-authored with Dr. Schenk and another colleague. The paper, entitled “Describing a new species into a polyphyletic genus: Taxo-nomic Novelty in Ledermanniella s.l. (Podostemaceae) from Camer-oon,” was recently accepted for publication by the journal System-atic Botany.

Rachel and fellow undergraduate Sophie Kontur accompanied Dr. Schenk this past summer to the Botany Conference in Boise, Idaho. The students received grant funding from the Newcomb College Institute to attend and present posters of their respective research. Sophie’s poster was titled “Speciation in response to novel habitats in Paronychia (Caryophyllaceae).”

While at Botany, Dr. Schenk also organized a joint symposium and colloquium on phylogenetic comparative methods.

At the end of the Spring 2014 semester, Dr. Schenk’s postdoctoral fel-lowship term will be up. EEB is proud to have had him carry the torch of plant sciences at Tulane these last few years. Kudos on a job well done!

Dr. John Schenk (right) with undergrad re-search students Sophie Kontur (middle) and Rachel Her-schlag (left) at the Botany Conference in Boise, Idaho Summer 2014.

By EEB Staff

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN SCHENK

Page 5

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary BiologyTulane University400 Lindy BoggsNew Orleans, LA 70118-5698

Henry L. Bart Professor, Director of the Tulane University Biodiversity

Research Institute

Mike BlumAssociate Professor, Director of the Tulane/Xavier

Center for Bioenvironmental Research

Steven DarwinProfessor, Director of the Tulane Herbarium

Elizabeth DerryberryAssistant Professor

Bruce Fleury Professor of the Practice

David C. HeinsProfessor, Department Chair

Donata HenryProfessor of the Practice

Jordan KarubianAssistant Professor

Tim McLeanProfessor of the Practice

Cori Richards-ZawackiAssistant Professor

Thomas W. SherryProfessor

Caz TaylorAssistant Professor

Sunshine Van BaelAssistant Professor

Tulane University6823 St. Charles AvenueLindy Boggs Bldg., Ste. 400New Orleans, La. 70118Tel. (504) 862-5191 Fax (504) 862-8706

Office Administrative Staff

Jeanette “Davi” BattistellaOffice Manager

John “Jack” LeslieOperations Manager

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

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Visit us online! tulane.edu/sse/eebio

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Donating directly to EEB helps fund the programs that are vital to the educational experiences for our undergraduate and graduate students.

In 2007, the EEB General Endowed Fund was established with an initial generous gift from Katherine S. Griffin (BA, 1925). You can help grow this endowed fund, which supports a variety of programs, including the Undergraduate Fellows, by making an unrestricted gift to EEB. Simply make the check out to Tulane University and write “EEB General Endowed Fund, #050195” in the memo line.

Do you have an interest in supporting a particular program or activity? You are also welcome to make a restricted gift, which will be used in the specific way of your choosing. Please contact the Dr. David Heins, Department Chair, to discuss restricted gifts at (504) 865-5191.

THANKS!

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