Spring 2013 • Volume 9 • No. 1

INSPIRING VISION

from the editorI’ve always been fascinated by the power of stories.

As long as I can remember, they’ve been an important part of my life. As it turns out, research shows our brains are wired for storytelling. Part of being human is hearing and sharing all kinds of stories.

My parents recounted touching stories of growing up during the Great Depression. I learned about distant relatives who thrived despite great hardship, as well as the struggles and successes of grandparents I never knew. Their tales are peppered with lessons of hope, determination, and the human condition.

Working as a broadcast journalist in my early career, I met new people practically every day — discovering and sharing remarkable stories of survival, despair, and celebration. We all have unique experiences and perspectives; yet millions of stories about interesting people from all walks of life go untold.

As a communications professional new to ASU’s School of Life Sciences, I gather stories centered on discovery, imagination and determination and find them absolutely invigorating. From microbiology to conservation ecology, and from genetics to animal physiology, the professors, students and staff members I meet are energized and passionate about their research and experiences.

ASU senior Ashleigh Gonzales’ story will inspire you as she researches a new way of looking at and understanding science-related images. Professor Wayne Frasch looks beyond our traditional understanding of DNA and turns science fiction into science fact by creating an organic computer made of DNA. Director Brian Smith and assistant professor Stephen Pratt set their sights on a future with bio-inspired robots, and Miles Orchinik makes his vision for an “active learning classroom” a reality.

The School of Life Sciences is more than a school. It’s a place alive with the energy of motivated and dedicated people who genuinely care about having a positive impact on others and in our community. As we explore and discover new chapters in our lives, exciting stories take shape.

I believe everyone has a story to tell. What’s yours?

Sandra Leander Executive Editor

Our MissionTo inspire and transform students by providing an innovative learning experience that prepares them to thrive in a dynamic and demanding world. We improve life by stimulating scientific discovery and solving critical problems at the intersection of science and society.

Cover art by Jacob Sahertian

03 14 22

director’s note, 02our robot overlords, 03

active learning, 07future vision, 09

dna computing, 12decoding robin redbreast, 14

team effort for sustainability, 19lifetime achievement award, 21

freshmen ignite, 22honors and awards, 24

SOLS publication staffexecutive editor: sandra leanderassistant editor: karla moellerart direction and design: jacob sahertiancopy editor: gabrielle malophotography: sandra leander, jacob mayfield, jacob sahertian, charles kazilek and tom storyfunding: school of life sciences, arizona state university

(additional credits noted in articles)

We are particularly interested in reconnecting with Alumni and Emeriti. If you have information to include in this magazine, please contact us. Manuscripts should be less than 1000 words, photos should be high resolution, and submissions should include all pertinent contact information. Send to Executive Editor, Sandra Leander • sandra.leander@asu.edu SOLS Magazine, P.O. Box 874501 Tempe, Arizona, 85287-4501 sols.asu.edu/news-events/publications/magazines

To learn how you can contribute to School of Life Sciences and ASU please visit the ASU Foundation web site: secure.asufoundation.org/givingWe reserve the right to edit all submissions. © 2013 ASU School of Life Sciences.

School of Life Sciences is an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.

sols.asu.edu

contact us

contents

4107/0413/2.5m

1

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

director’s noteIn 2005, I joined the faculty at Arizona State University having been drawn to the model President Crow articulated for the New American University. Teaching and research, and even the basic academic structures to implement them, need to be dynamic and capable of quickly reorganizing to take advantage of rapidly evolving technologies for communication and experimentation. Use-inspired research should build a pipeline from fundamental, basic research to the development of innovations that make our lives better.

Created in 2003, School of Life Sciences (SOLS) grew rapidly through the end of the decade. We were enormously successful in implementing the use-inspired model in these early years. After becoming Director of the school in July of 2011, I realized we were poised to enact a second, transforming period of growth. We could drive innovative thinking at the intersection of science and society by nurturing growth in connections among researchers.

During the past year, we began cultivating this growth philosophy in several ways. We developed new hiring plans for this and future years that emphasize how new faculty hires will integrate into and specifically augment the capabilities of existing networks of researchers across programs at ASU. We launched small grant programs for SOLS faculty to put together interdisciplinary teams of researchers from anywhere in the world. We built a new ‘active learning classroom’ (see p. 7) and began using new classroom technologies that substantially enhance the impact of the classroom experience on learning outcomes. Our dedicated graduate students are reaching out to local middle school students in underserved schools to build enthusiasm and inspire the next generation of scientists.

In the coming year, we will seek creative opportunities to strengthen ties to the communities around us. We will develop win-win research and teaching programs with local organizations. We will initiate evening seminars open to the public to effectively communicate the meaning and impact of scientific research. And, we are eager to bring our expertise to bear on programs at ASU Online, which reaches out to students all over the U.S. who cannot attend classes on a traditional campus because of their unique life situations.

In closing, I want to express my sincere thanks to all faculty, staff and students who have such a wonderful ethic of service. It makes SOLS a special place to be. And, I am honored to be its Director.

Brian H. Smith Professor and Director, School of Life Sciences

2

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

“I, For One, Welcome Our Robot Overlords”How two ASU social insect researchers are contributing to swarm robotics

By CLInT PEnICk

At Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where President Obama honored Navy SEAL Team 6 after its successful raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in May 2011, there was only one member of the team the President congratulated by name — Cairo, the team’s Belgian Malinois service dog. On the morning of the raid, Cairo boarded a Black Hawk helicopter in Jalalabad with close to $30,000 worth of equipment attached to his body, including a high-definition video surveillance system and canine body armor that could double as a repelling harness. Cairo’s most valuable asset, however, was not something strapped to his body but his innate sense of smell. >>

3

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

Since World War II, dogs have served as the U.S. military’s most effective means to detect explosives, far surpassing any attempts to engineer a man-made sensing device. However, during the past decade the military has been looking into alternatives that would help get dogs out of the line of fire and increase the military’s explosives detection capabilities. It was during this push that Brian H. Smith, professor and director of the School of Life Sciences (SOLS) at Arizona State University, was asked to join a consortium of researchers to address this issue.

“The military heard you could train insects to detect odors,” said Smith. “And they wondered if you could also train them to detect synthetic chemicals, like the components of an explosive.” In his ASU laboratory, Smith was already investigating how honey bees learn odors by using a technique similar to one Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov had used on dogs. Instead of conditioning dogs to salivate at the ring of a bell like Pavlov had done, Smith was using scents that cause honey bees to stick out their tongues (or proboscis) when they encounter an odor. When Smith repeated this over and over with his bees, offering them a sip of honey water as a reward, he eventually trained them to detect all sorts of compounds.

When news about the military’s interests in honey bees reached the general public, wild images were conjured of honey bee swarms descending on passengers at airport security checkpoints and rifling through suitcases. An official at the Pentagon admitted to the New York Times that the project had a certain “giggle factor,” but for the military the interest was serious.

At one point, officials even flew Smith and the other members of his team to a remote location outside Quantico, Virginia for a field workshop. “We were literally standing in a field,” said Smith. “There was a Marine Staff Sergeant who was telling us that what he needed most — if he had a squad of Marines out there — was to see what was on the other side of that hill.” The Sergeant pointed. After that he offered each member of the team a chance to try on his fully-loaded pack, just so the scientists would know what the soldiers had to carry without any additional devices piled on top. “I had been used to doing basic research my entire career,” said Smith, “and then suddenly, I entered a whole different culture of making something work — a product. They wanted milestones and quarterly reports. If I worked at General Motors it would have been the same.”

As the project neared the final months, Smith sat down with a representative from the military to have a conversation that would eventually change the way Smith thought about their entire approach. In addition to using dogs like Cairo on land, the Navy was using dolphins and sea lions in the water, but Smith learned that the second the military could stop using animals, it would. “Because animals are a headache,” the representative said. “What we really want is a box. You put something in the box and it lights up green, it’s a good guy. Red? It’s a bad guy.”

When Smith thought about what the military was doing with honey bees, he realized they were working in the wrong direction: the military didn’t need bees to function like mechanical sensors, they needed mechanical sensors to function like bees. The best chemical sensors on the market work really well in a controlled environment, but when they are taken outside, the game is over.

“Virtually all animal sensors are more robust, reliable and sensitive than anything humans have ever made,” said Smith. A chemosensor inside a dog’s nose can function in virtually any environment and is capable of resetting itself on a millisecond timescale. Smith had already spent years researching the sensory system

One example of professor Brian Smith’s technique of training honey bees to learn odors. Illustration by James Baxter

4

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

of honey bees, and what he knew from his research was that the sensors covering a honey bee’s antennae were not the entire picture. What made a bee’s sensory system so robust was the brain behind the sensors.

“I began to realize that the way to work with the military in this field,” said Smith, “was not to try to convince them that training bees was going to solve their problems, because I was convinced it wasn’t, but to work with engineers and build devices that were inspired by the way honey bees work.” It was at that time Smith began to work with colleagues at UC San Diego, who had funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), on software that could integrate information received from chemical sensors in a way analogous to the honey bee brain. As a honey bee learns to associate a scent with a reward, networks in its brain are rewired so it can integrate other components of a scent — different compounds or visual cues — with the reward. Smith believed this capacity to learn

was key, and now he has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to pursue this angle from a biological perspective.

In the end, military officials wanted a system that could be placed inside a robot, something the size of a bee, that could locate victims within the rubble of a collapsed building by honing in on CO2, or discover TNT based on its scent before it exploded. At one point, they even asked Smith if he thought they could develop a system to track people based on their individual scents, but he thinks that is a long way off. While Smith works on research for developing the sensory end, there are others working on actual robots, and that is where School of Life Sciences professor Stephen Pratt comes in.

Last year, a video of tiny robots with quad-rotors went viral on You Tube, with more than six million hits. The video starts slowly; one robot hovers in front of a white sheet but

soon, a swarm of robots appears and it performs a complex set of maneuvers—hovering in formation, flying in figure eights and collectively avoiding obstacles placed in its path. The video demonstrates work coming from an ONR-funded project called Heterogeneous Unmanned Networked Teams (HUNT), which is a collaboration between biologists and robotics engineers to create bio-inspired robots. Pratt serves as the lead biologist on the project and applies his expertise in ant behavior to help develop decentralized robot systems.

“I, for one, welcome our robot overlords,” said Pratt in reference to the online video. “But the thing is,” he said, “these robots are flying in a room with infrared sensors. There is still a centralized system and the robots have access to a global view, which of course ants don’t have.” Pratt is interested in studying how ants accomplish coordinated tasks, such as how ten ants carry a large piece of food to their nest without

Left: A team of A. cockerelli ants carries a large plastic force sensor. The sensor is calibrated such that the forces exerted by the ants can be determined by measuring how far they bend the sensor arms. Right: To attract the ants, scientists use a heavy, artificial load made of a dime attached to a soft, graspable foam disk smeared with fig paste. This load helps researchers decipher behavioral rules that allow the ants to coordinate without having a leader. Photos: Stephen Pratt

5

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

a leader or centralized control. This same challenge faces roboticists trying to design robots that can clean up hazardous contamination sites or militarized zones. “Originally, they were interested in anonymous swarm-like behaviors,” said Pratt, “where you have a million termites, they’re all blind and know very little about what they are doing, but they perform tasks in a coordinated way — essentially, collective intelligence from individual stupidity.”

But HUNT team members realized they were ignoring the fact that individual insects were actually not all that stupid. “The cartoon of extremely stupid individuals in large numbers turned out to be a useful heuristic, but it doesn’t accurately describe what’s going on in nature,” said Pratt. Engineers on the team have helped design sensors the ants can carry so researchers can measure how individual ants behave in real time. The sensors don’t look like food, but when researchers spread fig paste on them, they can get the ants to carry

almost anything. These relatively complex sensors are not something that Pratt could have developed alone, and this points to another goal of the HUNT project — the collaboration should be a two-way street, where Pratt provides information about ants to use in robotics and the engineers provide Pratt with unique tools he can use to better investigate the ants. The engineers designed the current prototype Pratt is using — a robot ant. The robot itself is several hundred times the size of an ant, but it controls a small module that Pratt covers in a trail guiding pheromone. Using the robot, Pratt leads the ants across an arena in his laboratory like a scaled-down version of the Pied Piper.

“Now that we have these new tools,” said Pratt, “there may be interests in funding the project from the biological side.” The HUNT project is in its last year, but the team plans to continue the research and apply for new funding sources. Spring Berman, one student who was highly involved with the project, graduated and has

been hired as a new faculty member by ASU’s School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy. Over the past two years, Berman has been working on another high profile project. RoboBee, a robot that mimics the size and shape of a bee, will be used in surveillance and rescue applications. “Now that [Berman] will take over as an ASU faculty member,” said Pratt, “we will be able to collaborate more closely.”

Smith will also continue to pursue research in bio-inspired sensory technology, and as director of SOLS he is helping to integrate a bio-inspired approach into the ASU curriculum. Smith has forged a connection between School of Life Sciences and the ASU Institute for Design and the Arts. The schools now offer classes open to both design and biology students in an effort to encourage bio-inspired collaboration and future innovation.

6

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

You know the drill.

You’ve just eaten lunch after pulling a late night reading several chapters in your English literature book. Snaking your way through the throngs of a noontime crowd to arrive at your next class, you enter a massive auditorium to hear a class lecture with 300 classmates.

Since you’re a little tired, you choose a seat toward the back of the room so you can sit quietly — unnoticed. Hurriedly, you check your texts one last time and mute your phone. Like the rest of the crowd, you push a button to sign in using a clicker and settle in for another lecture.

The class starts out fine, the professor is interesting, but part way into the lecture you have a question about the material. Should you raise your hand? Surely you can find the answer in your

textbook tonight. Random thoughts follow, and, despite wanting to pay attention, you struggle to stay awake.

Later that night, you can’t find the answer to your question in your textbook.

Sound familiar?

At Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences, biology students are moving away from lecture-style classes. Subjects such as neurobiology, evolution and genetics are taking on new life in an interactive, high-tech classroom designed to enhance what’s described as “active learning.”

Rather than listening passively to a lecture in an auditorium, students work in small groups on “student-centered” learning exercises — facilitated by faculty and teaching assistants trained in active learning teaching

wake up with active learningBy SAndRA LEAndER

7

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

methods. Research shows this highly structured approach enhances long-term conceptual learning and student success. In addition, by actively engaging with course content, peers, and instructors, students recognize that learning is their responsibility.

“There’s a national movement — a critical mass moving away from the lecturing style where we know students really only retain five to 10 percent of the material, to a more student-centered approach,” says Miles Orchinik, associate director for the school. “On a large scale, research has shown great student success when traditional lecture classrooms are transformed into something like this. Instead of being a passive recipient of the information, students actually have to actively engage with the science concepts we are teaching.”

The new Active Learning Classroom holds 96 students grouped into tables of six. As the first of its kind in the school, one 23-inch touchscreen computer is available for every two students. Students can share

information among groups or across the classroom through four projectors that display their work onto large screens. In addition, white boards help create an environment conducive to sharing information in real time.

“With this technology, we can nurture skills required by most employers today — skills that traditional lecture halls simply don’t have the capacity to build,” shares Bina Vanmali, an instructional professional and biology education researcher in the school. “This innovative classroom helps students learn teamwork, collaboration and communication, and ultimately, will help them when they land their first jobs out of college.”

Since last fall, teaching professionals have been training faculty and graduate students how to work effectively in the active learning environment. Vanmali has worked with faculty to modify lessons, labs and activities and Kathy Hill, an ASU doctoral student in education, has trained graduate students in scientific teaching methods.

“Students learn more when they wrestle with the material, ask questions, talk with their peers and answer those questions,” explains Vanmali. “Rather than having a professor at a podium in the front of the classroom giving a lecture, the professor actually moves around and works directly with the students — one on one. There is no front to this classroom by design. Our faculty will be able to relax more and get the students more involved in the learning process.”

Christopher Dimond, an ASU life sciences graduate student who has both taken Hill’s class and taught in the Active Learning Classroom, says he believes more classrooms should be modeled after this one.

“With small group activities, everyone is engaged in the process,” shares Dimond. “It’s easy to hide in a classroom of 300 students. It’s harder to hide in a class of 25, and nearly impossible to hide in a group of three, four or six students. Learning by doing is really important.”

Planning for the new classroom began in February 2012 and crews completed construction in August the same year. The technology installation was finished two months later. The room cost approximately $625,000 to build — paid for by a combination of funds from the School of Life Sciences and student program fees.

Previously, the room was used as a lichen herbarium — storing a large research collection that is currently being moved off-campus.

“This renovation was not done on a whim,” adds Orchinik. “We are using current data that shows how students learn, how to teach most effectively, and how to reach into student learning patterns. In order to make life scientists and scientifically literate citizens for the next century, we must teach students how to think critically about information that is already out there.”

Top: ASU Life Sciences C building, Room 180: Before construction and after remodeling. Photos: Jacob Mayfield. Below: Undergraduate students work in small groups on “student-centered” learning exercises. Photo: Sandy Leander

8

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

a vision for the futureUndergraduate Imagines Science Education for the Blind

By GABRIELLE MALO

When ASU senior Ashleigh Gonzales signed up for a cell biotechnology class last spring, she didn’t imagine that her idea for a research project would both inspire a new technology for teaching science and open an avenue for her own career in science.

Gonzales first found her calling when she took a biotechnology class her senior year of high school. Intrigued by the interactions among microscopic components of cells, she decided to major in molecular biosciences and biotechnology at ASU. But her fascination with the mysterious inner workings of cells posed a unique challenge few of her peers would be willing to face.

Gonzales has been blind since the age of thirteen. >>

9

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

As an undergraduate, her interest in cell biology led to an internship when she took a course in Cell Imaging Biotechnology taught by Debra Baluch, researcher and manager of the W. M. Keck Bioimaging Facility in ASU’s School of Life Sciences. Gonzales worked with a team of researchers studying protein kinase c delta (PKC delta), an enzyme active in signaling pathways within cells. Her project explores the role of PKC delta in cellular scaffolding.

“Basically my work uses a lot of images,” says Gonzales. “We determine the effects of our experiments on cells by looking at microscope images, so it was very difficult for me to participate in data analysis. At the time, I had to rely on verbal descriptions of images, which are unconsciously biased by the perspective of the person viewing the images.”

Blind or visually impaired students have access to Braille and line drawings for textbooks and class materials, but these resources have limitations. “When people look at images to transcribe them, they decide what they think is important about those images and then translate that into a partially 3-D tactile image,” Gonzales says. “What we wanted to do was find a way to take the real image and make it completely tactile without any kind of translation or interpretation.”

To help Gonzales bring her idea to life, Baluch introduced the research team

to Rogier Windhorst, a Regents’ and Foundation Professor in the School of Earth & Space Exploration and expert in image technology who works with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

3D-IMAGINE was born.

3D-Image Arrays to Graphically Implement New Education (3D-IMAGINE) is a collaborative project aimed at supporting the full participation of partially or fully blind students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classes. Students and faculty from the School of Life Sciences, the School of Earth & Space Exploration, the School of Engineering and ASU’s Disabled Resource Center designed a method to produce 3-D images carved into high-density plastic.

The surface of each 3-D board varies in height to show image details such as light intensity, altitude, depth, temperature, or color — features that can be difficult to describe or represent in simple line drawings.

Windhorst says the team generated more than 60 images used last semester by students in introductory Astronomy 113 and Biology 100 lab classes. He encourages visually impaired students to take these classes because there are many 3-D images available. “The visually impaired and blind students who have already used the images have done very well in these courses and we want to expand our efforts to serve more students in more classes,” he

Top left: Page Baluch (L), associate research scientist, and undergraduate Ashleigh Gonzales (R) explain 3-d tactile image boards to scientists at a national microscopy conference in Phoenix. Photo: Tom Story

Top right: Undergraduate biology student Leanne Harris, Ashleigh’s teammate on the project. Photo: Tom Story

Above: Ashleigh Gonzales tests a 3-d tactile image board. Photo: Jacob Mayfield

Previous: Ashleigh Gonzales (L) and Leanne Harris (R) received ASU/nASA Space Grants to support the development of 3-d tactile images. Photo: Sandra Leander

Page 11: A 3-d tactile board (L) corresponds to an original Hubble Space Telescope Butterfly nebula image (R). Photos: (L) ASU (R) Hubble Space Telescope Image

10

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

says. “More than anything, we want students to believe they can do this because we believe they can. If they have the interest to study in STEM fields, we will help them achieve their goals.”

Recent ASU graduate and sociology major Tanner Robinson became interested in the 3D-IMAGINE project and took Professor Windhorst’s astronomy lab last year. “The part I loved was how expressive the images were. You can only convey so much of an image through verbal description,” says Robinson. “I was able to get so much more out of the astronomical images such as intensity and brightness,” he shares. Robinson, who is also visually impaired, is an intern in Arizona’s Secretary of State Office this spring and is planning a career in politics.

Another member of the 3D-IMAGINE team, physics major and senior Eric Hasper, is a teaching assistant for Windhorst’s astronomy lab. He is also the recipient of an ASU/NASA Space Grant for teaching astronomy to visually impaired students by using 3-D tactile images and other adaptive learning devices.

Hasper selects images of clusters, planets and constellations to use during sky viewing sessions. To make sure the tactile images are meaningful and user-friendly, he devised a method to quantitatively grade each tactile image for its usefulness. Hasper says

of his teaching experience so far, “I count the successes by the comments I hear. One student said he never thought he would see in that much detail again. Once you’ve heard that, consider yourself a success.”

To spread the word about using the 3-D tactile images for research and education, Gonzales and classmate Leanne Harris presented their work titled “Pictures Worth a Thousand Words” at several national conferences. Gonzales was even awarded a travel grant from the American Society for Cell Biology to present her research. Also, Gonzales and Harris are both recipients of ASU/NASA Space Grants that support their experiments in cell biology and the development of 3-D tactile images.

So, what’s next for 3D-IMAGINE? You may be surprised. Imagine a hydro-gel skin that can be placed over your smart phone or tablet that renders Braille and 3-D images on demand. Windhorst says the prototype could be only a year away. ASU Professors Hongyu Yu (SESE) and Lenore Dai and Hanqing Jiang (School of Engineering) are developing a model.

As for Gonzales, she graduates this May and has applied to ASU’s graduate program in Biology and Society. She plans to continue her research with PKC delta and cellular scaffolding in addition to strengthening community outreach for 3D-IMAGINE.

Because of her strong belief in the potential for blind students to have better access to STEM fields, Gonzales has presented her project to classrooms for the visually impaired, as well as local chapters of the National Federation for the Blind, the Foundation for Blind Children and the Southern Arizona Association for the Visually Impaired. Also, she is president of Ability Counts Tempe — a group of ASU students that works to spread disability awareness on the Tempe campus and throughout the city. She spends hours organizing educational and social events.

Gonzales believes her research at ASU could open doors to fields of study that until now, were effectively closed. “There is a whole group of people whose only barrier to STEM fields might be easier to break than previously believed,” explains Gonzales. “We’re letting them know that this technology exists and that we’re trying to make it available to as many blind people as possible. We want to get through to the national organizations so they can help spread the word,” she says.

To participate in the science classes with tactile images contact Cindy Jespen at cindy.jespen@asu.edu or 480.965.1232. For more information about 3D IMAGINE contact Rogier Windhorst or Debra Baluch at rogier.windhorst@asu.edu or page.baluch@asu.edu

11

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

Many important problems we need to solve as a society are ones that require optimization and speed. For example, when hurricane Rita approached the Gulf Coast in 2005, soon after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Houston residents panicked as they tried to evacuate. The result was traffic jams that stretched for miles and gas stations without gasoline. Designing an optimal plan to evacuate thousands of residents in the hours before a storm makes landfall is not trivial, especially in cities such as Houston that are experiencing rapid growth and development.

Wayne Frasch, a professor in the School of Life Sciences and recipient of the 2012 Faculty Achievement Research Award from the ASU Alumni Association, has been harnessing the power of biology in search of faster and more accurate ways to solve such optimization problems. Using DNA molecules synthesized chemically in the lab, his research team has built a computer that uses the ability of one DNA molecule to bind to its complementary strand as a means of making mathematical computations. Using this approach, scientists have constructed a massively parallel computer that makes thousands of computations simultaneously — in a small vial of liquid.

An organic computer made of DNA? While it seems like science fiction, especially with the increase in the speed of modern computers in recent years, solving complex problems where many parameters must be optimized remains a difficult and relatively slow process. Standard computers can only execute one process at a time. First, they must compute all potential answers. Then, they must compare each answer to every other answer before choosing the best one. Doing these operations one at a time can take a long time,

even for a very fast computer, because the number of potential answers increases dramatically with the size of the problem and number of parameters to be optimized.

With funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Frasch and his team, which included Fusheng Xiong, a faculty research associate, and David Spetzler, a postdoctoral scholar who is now vice president of Discovery Research with Caris Life Sciences, Inc., worked to enable their DNA computer to solve a classic optimization problem known as the “Traveling Salesman Problem.” It requires the salesman to find the shortest path from his home city to a set of cities that he must visit once (and only once) before coming home. This is the same problem that United Postal Service and Federal Express must deal with every day: finding the optimal route for delivering packages, with various constraints on the paths that can be taken, including one-way streets, roads under construction, and constraints on left-hand turns.

Working with 15 cities, the scientists began by assigning each city a unique sequence of single-stranded DNA. Single-stranded DNA sequences representing one-way streets were then designed to link the cities in a directional manner. Binding of the sequences resulted in millions of long DNA strands that each contained an ordered sequence of the cities on one strand and paths on the complimentary strand. Since the problem being computed involved 15 cities, the length of the DNA strands which comprised the correct answer was of a length specific to the sum of each city – with the start city at the beginning and at the end. After permanently linking the cities and paths in each long strand using

an enzyme, the optimal path was revealed — the one with the highest probability of forming and the one present in highest abundance.

Although the use of DNA for computing was first proposed in 1994 by Leonard Adelman, a professor of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern California, many technical impasses had prevented any real progress in using DNA to solve the traveling salesman problem for the next 15 years.

Ultimately, Frasch and his team devised novel, yet relatively simple modifications to the standard molecular biology procedures of electrophoresis, magnetic bead purification, and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to enable them to move past these pitfalls. In fact, the 15-city traveling salesman problem that the team solved in 2009 remains the largest, most complicated problem solved by a DNA computer to date. The problem had 1.3 x 1012 possible solutions and required the input of a total of 226 different initial DNA strands. More recently, the ASU group has developed a new approach that has the potential to cut the time required for the optimal answer identification step from several days to 25 minutes, thereby dramatically increasing the speed of the computer.

It is clear from the work in the Frasch lab that science fiction has become science fact. Such techniques will be able to be applied to a range and variety of important complex optimization problems like delivering packages, evacuating cities and saving lives in the face of an impending hurricane. “We are just at the beginning of what we will be able to do,” says Frasch.

DNA computing: ASU scientist optimizes the future

By VIVIAnE CALLIER

12

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

Illustration b

y Jacob

Sahertian

Years ago, when I was a bachelor living with three college students in Tucson, one roommate announced he was taking an Arizona Natural History class from a professor who had novel ways of presenting insights into evolutionary strategies. Anxious to listen in on such a lecture, I audited his class the following day. The professor, one Charles H. Lowe, Jr., strode into the classroom 10 minutes after the appointed hour, stared out the window, and announced, “The question today is, ‘Why are bluebirds blue?’”

That said, he turned and strode out of the room; the class was dismissed.

In later years, Lowe and I became colleagues and spent hours discussing natural history. I once broached the subject of bluebird coloration, announcing that my answer to his query was simply, because bluebirds liked birds that were bluer than other blue birds. “Well, Dave,” he said, “You are on the right track, but there is more to it than peer selection.”

Once again, silence reigned and the subject was dropped.

These long ago musings returned to me after reading an article in Ibis, a British ornithological journal1. The article’s authors point out that the European robin (Erithacus rubecula) displays rusty red breasts in year-round territorial contests. Both male and female yearling robins had smaller orange breast patches than two-year olds. Female reddishness decreased with age, leading to a pronounced sexual dimorphism in the older birds. As this dimorphism developed, a gray fringe formed around the edge of the breast, providing a frame for a russet-colored badge that was readily discernable to other robins, both in the open and within the forest understory.

American robins, although belonging to a different bird family, also have russet breasts similar to their European cousins. So do both the Eastern and Western Bluebird, which, like the American Robin, are in the same

family. Bluebirds are not just blue. Like many North American birds, these species possess prominent patches of cinnamon, russet or chestnut plumage. Why, I wondered, is this coloration so common and used for territorial displays?

Now this russet coloration, which ranges from rufous to mahogany, is not really red, nor does it contain much in the way of carotenoids, the pigments that give male cardinals and orange orioles their distinctive coloration. Rather, studies at Arizona State University by professor Kevin McGraw and his colleagues have shown that cinnamon hues, whether rust or dark henna, are composed mostly of melanin pigments, namely the lighter reddish or buff-hued phaeomelanin and the darker, brown and black eumelanin2. McGraw and his associates found the richer, darker-brown eumelanin especially present in the breast feathers of breeding male bluebirds and barn swallows and hypothesized that these are sexually selected traits.

decoding robin redbreastBy dAVId E. BROWn

Left: Western blue bird; Photo: iStockphoto Right: Robin; Opposite: Harris’ hawk; Photos: Randall D. Babb

14

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

Left: Western blue bird; Photo: iStockphoto Right: Robin; Opposite: Harris’ hawk; Photos: Randall D. Babb

15

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

1. Grosbeak 2. Montezuma quail 3. Black-bellied tree ducks 4. Gila woodpecker 5. Rufous hummingbird 6. Gambel’s quail 7. Redhead ducks 8. Red-tailed hawk

Photo 1: Kevin McGraw Photos 2-8: Randall D. Babb

1 2 3

4

5

6

7

8

16

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

Unlike the carotenoid’s bright reds, which are primarily confined to male birds, russet plumage, which is due to the pigment pheomelanin, is also widespread in the bird world and can exist in both sexes. Its presence creates colors ranging from the burnt orange found in robin and bluebird breasts to the rich chestnut or cinnamon plumage found in breeding male ruddy ducks and cinnamon teal ducks. Of the 18 orders of birds breeding in the continental United States, 15 contain species that display some gradation of russet coloration.

Russet coloration occurs in predatory species such as the Harris’ and white-tailed hawks as well as prey species such as the Inca and Sonora ground doves. The pigments are found in upland game birds, such as Montezuma quail, and wetland birds, such as the American avocet, and in both migrant and resident birds. Generally, the reddish color is more common in ground dwellers than in water birds, with notable exceptions such as the two ducks mentioned above, as well as the brown pelican and the long-billed curlew — the latter frequenting both upland and wetland habitats.

Cinnamon plumage also appears more often as one heads to the Southwest — extreme examples being the southern nesting male ruddy duck and ruddy quail dove. Subspecies of the northern bobwhite in Mexico are more rufous than most of their U.S. counterparts, including the masked bobwhite. Other examples

include whistling ducks and some hummingbirds. The fact that this coloration occurs sparingly on such arid land species as the rufous-winged and rufous-crowned sparrows would indicate that the tendency for henna may be partially due to Gloger’s Rule3, which states that birds in humid habitats tend to have darker feathers than those in arid areas.

Families within Passeriformes, an order that is the largest and most diverse, and to which the American robin and bluebirds belong, also display a great variety of russet coloration. Examples in the U.S. and Canada vary in having russet coloration, from zero representation in 15 corvid species (crows and jays) to seven of the 11 or 64 percent of the thrushes. The most numerous family of Passeriformes in North America, the Fringilidae, with 77 species of buntings, sparrows and grosbeaks, contains 41 species (53 percent) that have feathers with rusty to chestnut plumage in one location or another.

Rufous colorations vary from obscure patches to virtually the entire bird. Rusty plumage shows up on crowns, napes, collars, wing epaulets, rumps and tails. Sometimes hues are hidden on the underside of the wings until intentionally displayed. In non-predatory species, the breasts, flanks and underparts are favored so as not to attract attention from above. In still other species such as the Harris’ hawk, the coloration is designed to attract attention from almost any angle. The common denominator appears to be

that these color swatches are meant to be shown to others of their kind — used to either recognize a flocking mate or court a potential partner.

Why this color and not another? One consideration may be that these darker pigments are more resistant to bacterial degradation and retain their brightness longer. Unlike the bright red carotenoids, henna may be used more often as an attraction or recognition signal than used to settle aggression contests. While highly recognizable in interactions within species, these earth-toned colorations are also cryptic and avoid the physiological costs of brighter colored plumage. Most of all, it may just be that rufous plumage in the male of the species is loved by females!

So I put before you, in the spirit of my colleague Lowe: The question today is: If bluebirds are blue, why do female bluebirds like burnt orange breasts?

1Roger Jovani, Jesus M. Avilés and Francisco Rodriquez-Sanchez. 2012 Age-related sexual plumage dimorphism and badge framing in the European Robin Erithacus rubecula. Ibis 154 (January):147-154.

2k. J. McGraw, R. J. Safran, and k. Wakamatsu. 2005. How feather colour reflects its melanin content. Functional Ecology 19:816-821.

3Edward H. Burtt, Jr., and J. M. Ichida. 2004. Gloger’s rule, feather-degrading bacateria, and color variation among song sparrows. The Condor 106:681-686.

Left: Masked bobwhite; Photo: Randall D. Babb; Right: detail of Masked bobwhite feathers; Photo: Jacob Mayfield

17

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

Some scientific problems are so complex that only a large team with diverse perspectives can solve them. Sharon Hall, an associate professor in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences and Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability, is tackling one such problem — how to feed the world.

However, her approach to this challenge may surprise you. Hall’s expertise is in biogeochemistry and her research integrates biology, chemistry and geology so she can better understand the interactions between humans and the environment.

“One reason why our current agricultural system is not sustainable is that food production in the U.S. and around the world relies heavily on inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers that don’t necessarily stay where we put them,” Hall says. “There are only a handful of rich

team effort: scientists and students tackle sustainability from many angles

By kELLy dOLEzAL

phosphorus deposits in the world, and many of these are not in the U.S. Our heavy dependence on chemical fertilizers does not lead to a secure or sustainable future for food.”

Hall and fellow School of Life Sciences professor James Elser have assembled a multi-talented team of researchers to look for unique solutions and develop what she calls a “closed-loop, nutrient-efficient food system.”

Roberto Gaxiola, an associate professor in the school, and Charles Sanchez, an agronomist at University of Arizona, are creating genetically engineered, nutrient-efficient crops that grow well in low water and low nutrient conditions. In addition, a group of ASU engineers, including Milt Sommerfeld, Yun Kang, Bruce Rittmann and Paul Westerhoff, are establishing systems to recover left-over nutrients from agricultural runoff or dairy waste. One of these systems uses algae ponds to recover nutrients

in wastewater. Harvested algae can then be transferred back onto agricultural fields as organic fertilizer.

“Technologies are certainly being developed, but getting our society to adopt and use them is a completely different story,” says Hall. She is seeking solutions to environmental problems that work within our social system.

Understanding how modern, urban humans alter their immediate surrounding environments — such as their yards — may seem an unlikely place to start. But Hall and collaborator Kelli Larson, a Senior Sustainability Scientist and associate professor in the School of Sustainability and the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, view individual households as “socio-ecosystems” — the smallest unit of human-environment interaction.

Above Left: From top, Elizabeth Cook and darin Jenke (graduate students) and Miguel Morgan and kara McCabe (undergraduate students) build enclosures to measure the effects of hungry herbivores on desert nitrogen levels. Photo: Michelle Schmoker. Above Right: Sharon Hall, associate professor, School of Life Sciences. Opposite: Michelle Schmoker, an undergraduate researcher, prepares field experiments. Photo: Matthew Camba

19

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

They collect data from individual households about urban plants, soils and microclimate, as well as homeowner attitudes and world-views. Their research is part of a four-year, NSF-funded project that involves six metropolitan areas across the United States: Boston, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Miami, Phoenix and Los Angeles. This work will draw upon ASU’s strength in urban ecology as a part of the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP LTER).

Hall and Larson believe urban yard management can collectively affect the local, regional, and continental environments. Together with their students, they administer social surveys and measure ecological variables such as groundcover and plant community composition in yards. They question residents about lawn type, irrigation practices, and the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Then, they examine how these decisions affect biodiversity, soil fertility, soil microbes, air temperature and gases in the surrounding atmosphere.

Hall says, “We are wondering whether homeowners with similar lifestyle characteristics across diverse cities make more similar yard choices to each other compared to other types of homeowners that may live right next door. In other words, we’re testing whether yard choices are more related to homeowner world-views and demographics — for example, like middle class traditional families with kids, or young urbanites — or to other factors such as income, social norms, soil types or regional climate.”

She and other scientists want to understand how this so-called “urban homogenization” phenomenon alters the surrounding environment at multiple scales. It appears that most urban Americans have similar yard landscaping, regardless of region. In Phoenix, many residents use xeriscapes, which are often rock-covered yards with drought-adapted shrubs. Although these yards appear much like the desert, a closer look

shows the xeriscapes differ greatly from the desert environment and are capable of storing more carbon and nutrients.

Solving complex problems requires that scientists be trained to handle them. The multifaceted nature of Hall’s research can lead to obstacles in mentoring students. “The grand challenges need interdisciplinary scientists, but we don’t expect them to be interdisciplinary from the get go,” says Hall. “The need for a broad understanding of current issues must be balanced with the depth of knowledge necessary for research.”

So, what is the key to successful research and training in her field? “Ultimately, it’s about teaching students to think critically and write effectively,” says Hall. “The way we communicate in science is through presentations and publications.” Hall guides students toward these goals by setting clear expectations for herself and her students.

A document on the Hall lab website called “Expectations for Hall Lab Graduate Students” clearly outlines what students can expect from her, and what she expects of them: “I will give you my absolute commitment to help you achieve your goals. You will communicate regularly with me about your goals and your needs as they develop.” Hall says, “All students come in with a unique knowledge base. My job is just to help them ignite their passions and get better at the science that will lead them to achieving their degree.”

“She wants there to be a conversation so that she and the student can learn from each other,” says Elizabeth Cook, a doctoral student in Hall’s lab. “Dr. Hall definitely has high expectations and doesn’t back down from them, but her expectations are also constantly evolving. She’s really good at asking for feedback.”

Cook’s dissertation research involves studying nitrogen deposition in the desert area outside city limits. “Our

models predicted that nitrogen deposition levels outside Phoenix would be really high, since nitrogen in the atmosphere comes from combustion of fossil fuels and fertilizers, or pollutants. This is what we see in L.A.” However, Cook’s research has shown that nitrogen deposition in the desert outside of the city is actually much lower than expected—an exciting, but perplexing discovery. To see the full picture, a new student was integrated into the project.

Hall employs a “cascade” mentoring system in her lab. After receiving training in research techniques, lab members are expected to mentor new students. In doing so, Hall shows confidence in her students and their abilities, and her students gain a deeper understanding of their field by teaching research methods to others.

Cook mentored Michelle Schmoker, who investigated whether the low nitrogen levels found in the desert areas surrounding Phoenix could be the result of herbivores consuming plants that would otherwise contribute to higher nitrogen levels. Schmoker’s undergraduate honors study yielded an unexpected result: herbivores did contribute to lower nutrient levels at sites outside the city, but not enough to explain the low nitrogen.

“We still haven’t filled in the gap of the nitrogen story,” says Schmoker. She now leads a team of other undergraduates to continue this research project.

“I really enjoy working with young people,” says Hall. “They have this natural energy and drive to make a difference.” Hall’s diverse projects hinge on a biogeochemical focus and she strives to train a new generation of diverse, young minds in this perspective. “I have faith that science needs people with all interests, from all walks of life, with a diversity of perspectives. If we get ideas from different kinds of people into the mix, we can solve these grand challenges.”

20

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

School of Life Sciences honored Max Nickerson, an ASU alumnus, with the Distinguished Alumni Award to recognize a lifetime of achievements in vertebrate zoology and herpetology research. Nickerson received the award Dec. 7, 2012, when he delivered his School of Life Sciences Distinguished Alumnus Lecture “Hellbenders, Habitats, and Health: Challenges of Declining Lotic Habitats.”

For over forty years, Nickerson has studied the populations of endangered Ozark hellbender salamanders in their habitat along the North Fork of the White River in Missouri. His extensive research and collaborations have uncovered links between declining habitat quality and the health and size of salamander populations. Nickerson’s conservation efforts and his contributions of original research have brought him international renown.

“I have to say I am surprised, pleased and honored,” said Nickerson about receiving the award. “I feel very fortunate to have gone to ASU. I owe a lot to this university. They really made a life scientist out of me.”

His career began in 1960 when he took a job managing ASU’s herpetology collection. Anyone who has walked the halls of the university’s Life Sciences A building has probably stopped to gaze at the many reptile exhibits in the collection, just like Nickerson’s daughter Cheryl did while visiting her dad during his doctoral studies.

After earning a doctorate in Zoology from ASU in 1968, Nickerson’s career blossomed. He served as curator for natural history museums, edited major herpetological journals, acted as president of national and international societies, and became an advisor to the BBC and National Geographic, all

ASU alumnus max nickerson receives school of life sciences lifetime achievement award

By GABRIELLE MALO

while producing a continuous stream of original research papers.

Nickerson’s passion for the conservation of life is infectious. He has touched the lives of many people as a devoted teacher and mentor, zoo and museum developer and curator. The most important mentee in his life, his daughter Cheryl, is now a leading microbiologist in the School of Life Sciences and researcher for the university’s Biodesign Institute.

Nickerson is now Curator of Herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History; affiliate professor in the College of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; affiliate professor in the Center for Latin American Studies; and Curator in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Florida.

Max nickerson is recognized for lifetime achievements in vertebrate zoology and herpetology research. Photo: Sandra Leander

21

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

Do you remember your first year in college — how excited and scared you were to finally take steps toward your career, not to mention meet new friends and live away from home? The School of Life Sciences’ Ignite freshmen retreat helps make the college transition a lot of fun. A team challenge course, volleyball, nature hikes, games and yes, even a (NO) Talent Show help ease the pre-college jitters.

Last summer, more than fifty newly admitted biology students left for Ignite just two weeks before the beginning of their first semester at Arizona State University. They spent a weekend with fellow students, mentors, faculty and staff at Camp Shadow Pines in Heber, Arizona in the beautiful White Mountains.

“My Ignite experience was transforming,” says freshman Taylette Nuñez. “I never thought I was going to meet as many people as I did and throughout my first semester, many of the people I talked to actually attended the retreat with me.” Nuñez is majoring in biology with a concentration in genetics, cell and developmental biology.

So, why should freshmen attend Ignite? Retreat organizer Joe Davis, an academic success specialist, believes the experience helps build a strong sense of community by

encouraging relationship building. The idea is to “ignite” students’ first year in college by teaching them new skills that are necessary for a successful beginning.

“While we do focus on team-building, science-based activities and leadership development, this retreat helps the freshman class bond with many people they will spend time with during the next four years,” says Davis. “By having a pre-existing group of potential friends before coming to campus, students will have a better sense of connection with their school and each other.”

“Nights were my absolute favorite because we were able to roam and play games, and this gave me an opportunity to meet some of my closest friends,” says Nunez. “The Ignite retreat gave me a little taste of what it meant to come to college. I’m glad I went because I felt more prepared to tackle whatever came my way during my first months on campus.”

Upper level biology majors serve as mentors. Each is assigned eight to 10 freshmen and charged with encouraging networking, as well as organizing activities, hikes and games.

One mentor, junior Marina Celaya, believes the retreat provides an important bonding experience.

freshmen biology majors ignite their careersBy GABRIELLE MALO

“The retreat allows freshmen to meet and interact with other freshmen who will be in their classes — before they actually come to college,” explains Celaya. “It is such a fun and carefree atmosphere. We did activities during the day and at night we would all gather around the basketball court to play a huge game of Spoons, and then play a camp-wide game of hide-and-go-seek at midnight. We stayed up to all hours just having fun.”

Besides meeting fellow students, campers also interact with professors. Associate professor Shelley Haydel says she believes the camp is important for incoming freshman for two reasons. “First, students can connect with their peers, advisors and faculty members before the semester begins,” shares Haydel. “So when they go to their first class, they already have a few friends instead of finding themselves in a sea of complete strangers. Second, students make new friends with people who share their interests. With all of the team-building activities, I imagine the students develop close friendships. They also get a chance to interact with us in a fun environment, so perhaps they will be more comfortable reaching out to their professors during the school year.”

22

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

To register or learn more, visit: sols.asu.edu/ignite

student awardsKate MacCord, a doctoral student in Manfred Laubichler’s group is studying this school year in Finland at the University of Helsinki’s Institute of Biotechnology on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Estelle Couradeau, postdoctoral researcher in Ferran Garcia-Pichel’s lab, received the prestigious Marie Curie Scholarship from the European Commission to work at ASU and the University of Burgundy for three years.

Marci Baranski, a doctoral candidate in Ann Kinzig’s lab, received a National Security Education Program Boren Fellowship for 2012-13 to work in northwest India researching the impacts of climate change on local agriculture.

Marie Fujitani, an Environmental life sciences doctoral candidate, received the 2013 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship to work in the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Aquaculture Program Office in Washington, D.C.

Jeffrey Ackley, a doctoral candidate in Jianguo Wu’s lab, received an Environmental Protection Agency STAR fellowship totaling $125,000 for three years.

Erik Stout, a first-year neuroscience graduate student, was awarded an NSF fellowship for graduate studies for his research with Irina Beloozerova’s group at the Barrow Neurological Institute.

2012 graduate Arianne Cease, previously a doctoral student with Jon Harrison and James Elser, received $30,000 from an International P.E.O. Scholars Award and the Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Program of the National Science Foundation. Also, she received a Travel Award for Young Scientists from the International Congress of Entomology, XXIV, South Korea and an Honorable Mention for the Biogeosciences Elizabeth Sulzman Award of the Ecological Society of America.

2012 graduate Kirsten Traynor, previously a doctoral student in Gro Amdam’s lab, received a USDA fellowship for her research.

Neng Iong Chan, an environmental life sciences graduate student in James Elser’s lab, won a five-year Macau government scholarship totaling $45,000 for his studies.

Jessica Corman, a graduate student in James Elser’s lab, received an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation Research Award, a Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network Fellowship and a California Lake Management Society Scholarship. Corman also co-edited the book “Phosphorus, Food, and Our Future” with Elser and graduate student Karl Wyant.

Adrienne Zillmann, a doctoral candidate in James Collins’ lab, received a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Michael Bernstein, a doctoral student in the labs of Nancy Grimm and Arnim Wiek, was selected as an intern for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Joshua Gibson, a graduate student in Jürgen Gadau’s lab, received an ARCS Foundation Research Award.

Caitlin Otto, a microbiology graduate student in Shelley Haydel’s lab, received an ARCS Foundation, Phoenix Chapter, Foundation Scholar Award as well as an Arizona Board of Regents Doctoral Research Grant.

Peter Marting, a graduate student with Stephen Pratt’s group, received a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Short-Term Fellowship for the summer of 2012. His field work continues this spring on an ASU-STRI Fellowship.

kate MacCord Estelle Couradeau

Marci Baranski Marie Fujitani

Jeffrey Ackley Erik Stout

Arianne Cease kirsten Traynor

Jessica Cormanneng Iong Chan

Michael Bernstein Joshua Gibson

Peter MartingCaitlin Otto

24

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

Monamie Bhadra, a graduate student in Clark Miller’s group in the Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology Program, was granted an American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship from the University of Chicago to conduct her dissertation research in India.

Catherine May, a first year graduate student in Kenro Kusumi’s lab, was awarded the Graduate College Dean’s Fellowship.

Doctoral candidate Karl Wyant received a Barrett the Honors College Teaching Award, a University Graduate Fellowship from ASU and a Gertrude Claypool Fund National Garden Club Scholarship from the Arizona Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc.

Owen McKenna, an environmental life sciences graduate student in Osvaldo Sala’s lab, received the Graduate & Professional Student Association Graduate Research Grant.

Sarojini Adusumilli, a postdoctoral researcher in Shelley Haydel’s lab, received the 2012 School of Life Sciences Postdoctoral Interdisciplinary Research in the Life Sciences Grant.

Postdoctoral researcher Viviane Callier and graduate students Nicolas Lessios, Heather Kropp and Xiaoli Dong received Graduate Initiative Fellowships for Training awards from School of Life Sciences.

Scott Davies, a graduate student in Pierre Deviche’s lab, and David Shanafelt, a graduate student in Charles Perrings’ lab, were awarded the Facilities Initiative Grant for Grads.

Eric Moody, a graduate student in John Sabo’s lab, won a Best Presentation Involving Crayfish award at the 2012 Society for Freshwater Science meeting in Louisville, Ky.

Anca Delgado, a microbiology graduate student in Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown’s lab, won the Student Paper Competition at the 8th International Conference on Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds in Monterey. She also received the Edward and Linda Birge Graduate Travel Award to present her research at the 112th National Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Francisco, Calif.

Molecular biosciences and biotechnology majors Nisarg Patel and Ryan Muller led an undergraduate synthetic biology team that competed in October at the iGEM Americas West Regional Jamboree at Stanford University. The team won a gold medal and the Best Human Practices Advance award and earned a spot in the international championship event at MIT in November.

Ashleigh Gonzales, a senior in the Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology program working in Debra Baluch’s lab, received a travel award from the American Society for Cell Biology to present her poster at its annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. Gonzales also received an ASU/NASA Space Grant for 2012-13.

Catherine MayMonamie Bhadra

karl Wyant Owen Mckenna

Sarojini Adusumilli Viviane Callier

nicolas Lessios

nisarg Patel

david Shanafelt

Ryan Muller

Scott davies

Anca delgado

Eric Moody

Ashleigh Gonzales

25

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

Ryan Bastle, graduate student in Janet Neisewander’s lab, received a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Travel Award for the 2012 NIDA and Institut de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicale Workshop in New Orleans, La.

Eric Woolf, a master’s student in Adrienne Scheck’s lab, was awarded an ASU GPSA Travel Grant to present his research at the Society for Neuro-Oncology annual meeting in Washington D.C. He also received an AACR-Aflac Scholar-in-Training Award to present at the AACR-SNMMI Joint Conference in State-of-the-Art Molecular Imaging in Cancer Biology and Therapy in San Diego, Calif.

Nathan Pentkowski, a postdoctoral fellow in Janet Neisewander’s lab, received the Julius Axelrod Memorial Travel Award from NIDA to present his research at the Sixth Annual Julius Axelrod Symposium in New Orleans. He also received a NIDA Young Investigator Travel Award for the Serotonin Club Silver Anniversary Meeting in Montpelier, France.

Ted Pavlic, a postdoctoral fellow in Stephen Pratt’s lab, received an award from the North American Section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects to present his research at the 2012 meeting.

Xiaoli Dong, an environmental life sciences graduate student in Nancy Grimm’s lab, was selected for Complex Systems Summer School at the Santa Fe Institute.

Jonathan Badalamenti, a microbiology graduate student in Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown’s lab, was selected to participate in the 2013 American Society for Microbiology Scientific Writing and Publishing Institute in Washington, D.C.

Graduate students Eric Moody, Jessica Corman and Jorge Ramos were awarded a T & E, Inc. Grant of $2,400 for their study of springs in the Cuatro Cienegas basin in Mexico.

Ryan BastleEric Woolf

J. Badalamenti

Jorge Ramos

Ted Pavlic

faculty awardsProfessor Stephen Albert Johnston, in collaboration with ASU’s Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative chief scientist George Poste and Chemistry and Biochemistry professor Neal Woodbury, was awarded a four-year, $30,718,054 contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop the novel diagnostic technology called immunosignaturing.

Foundation Professor Willem Vermaas was awarded $3 million over five years to lead the Integrative Graduate Education Research Training Solar Utilization Network (IGERT-SUN) graduate program.

Professors Stuart J. Newfeld, Yung Chang, Brenda Hogue and Ronald Rutowski were awarded $2.8 million over four years as part of the National Institutes of Health’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development.

Assistant professor Dawn K. Coletta was awarded a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study how DNA methylation contributes to insulin resistance in humans, an underlying feature of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Coletta also received a 2013 ASU Mayo Seed Grant.

Stephen Johnston Willem Vermaas

Ronald Rutowski

Brenda Hogueyung Chang

dawn k. Coletta

26

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

Assistant professor Christos Katsanos was awarded $1.4 million over four years from NIH to quantify -F1-ATPase synthesis in skeletal muscle tissue in obese individuals and examine the effects of increased plasma amino acid concentrations and exercise on the synthesis of -F1-ATPase in muscle tissue in lean and obese individuals. Katsanos also received $570,000 over three years from the American Diabetes Association to study the mechanism by which lipids accumulate in skeletal muscle in insulin-resistant individuals.

Professor Janet Neisewander, in collaboration with Dr. Nora Bizzozero of the University of New Mexico, was awarded $1.3 million over five years from the NIH for the project “Competing roles of microRNAs and RNA-binding proteins in drug addiction,” a study that examines the roles of microRNA miR-495 and HuD protein in the motivation for cocaine.

Kevin Gurney, associate professor, received $121,575 from NASA to improve the current global carbon monitoring system by integrating a new high-resolution global estimate of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions. The new grant is part of a larger NASA-funded collaboration (~$1.5 million) that supports efforts by researchers from ASU, NASA, Colorado State University, Appalachian State University, UCLA, MIT and the University of Colorado to combine multiple monitoring systems at several entry points in the carbon-climate-human system into one, multifunctional carbon-monitoring system.

Professor Ferran Garcia-Pichel was awarded $449,861 from the NSF over three years to advance current understanding of the biochemical boring mechanism used by cyanobacteria for bio-erosion of environmental materials such as limestone. He also received $715,682 from the NSF to examine sunscreen biology in cyanobacteria.

Associate professor Jürgen Liebig received $979,326 from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) over four years to study “The role of epigenetics in the behavior, aging and communication of ants” as part

of a collaboration led by Dr. Danny Reinberg, HHMI and New York University School of Medicine and with other collaborators including Dr. Shelley Berger, University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Claude Desplan, New York University, Dr. Anan Ray, UC Riverside, and Dr. Laurence Zwiebel, Vanderbilt University.

Associate professor Nico Franz received $284,613 over three years from NSF as part of a collaboration to launch the Southwest Collections of Arthropods Network with help from nine additional southwestern institutions. In collaboration with PI/postdoctoral researcher Aaron D. Smith and co-PI Quentin D. Wheeler, Franz was also awarded $458,104 from NSF to create a virtual specimen-based web portal for Eleodes “stink beetles,” carry out field and museum work and update taxonomic and phylogenetic information. Franz also received $55,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service to train students in the systematics of weevils.

Regents’, President’s, and Parents Association Professor Jane Maienschein was awarded $600,000 from the NSF over two years to build a digital History and Philosophy of Science repository and website on biodiversity. In collaboration with the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, the developing digital resource builds on MBL’s current library resources and ASU’s Embryo Project and intersects with the MBL/WHOI Library, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Encyclopedia of Life Project and the Virtual Laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Manfred Laubichler and James Collins are co-PIs on the project, as is Nathan Wilson at the MBL.

President’s Professor Manfred Laubichler was awarded a $416,000 four-year grant from the Mercator Foundation in conjunction with Leuphana University in Germany to launch a global, collaborative, interdisciplinary classroom for undergraduates.

Christos katsanos Janet neisewander

Ferran Garcia-Pichelkevin Gurney

Jürgen Liebig nico Franz

Jane MaienscheinQuentin d. Wheeler

Manfred Laubichler James Collins

27

SOLS 2013

| vo

lum

e 9 N

o. 1

Professor Ronald Rutowski received $400,000 over three years from the NSF to study the interactions among behavior, perception, function and the light environment in visual signaling in the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly.

A two-year, $180,000 grant, “An Extensible Strategy to Integrate Biodiversity Data Repositories and Evolving Research and Outreach Goals at STRI,” was awarded to Nico Franz, David Patterson and Edward Gilbert as part of the ASU-Smithsonian Partnership Program.

Professor Osvaldo E. Sala received $75,000 from National Academies Keck Futures Initiative and $50,000 from the NSF for his research.

A one-year, $65,000 award was made to professor James Collins by the Virginia M. Ullman Foundation to support the development of an innovative, collections-based outreach program at the Arizona Biocollections and Biodiversity Informatics Center. The work will be led by Nico Franz, Melody Basham and David Patterson.

Professor Gro Amdam was awarded $65,000 over two years from Norwegian University of Life Sciences for her research.

Assistant professor Roberto Gaxiola received $44,000 over two years from University of Arizona through an award funded by California Department of Food and Agriculture; and a one-year grant of $10,571 from North Carolina State University, primary sponsor EPA/Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc.

Regents’ Professor and Parents Association Professor James Elser was awarded $49,563 in supplemental funding from the NSF and an additional $8,000 for research experiences for undergraduates.

Associate professor Kevin McGraw received $36,168 over six months from Central Garden & Pet Company and $6,000 from the NSF for research experiences for undergraduates.

Professor Jon Harrison received $11,875 from the NSF for research experiences for undergraduates and $11,750 for research assistantships for high school students.

Associate professor Juliet Stromberg received a one-year $20,200 grant from the Arizona Department of Agriculture.

Associate professor Michael Angilletta received $11,207 in supplemental funding from the NSF.

Professor Rajeev Misra was awarded $9,500 from the School of Life Sciences through the Faculty Initiatives for Effective Development of Multidisciplinary Proposals program.

Edward Gilbert

Osvaldo Sala Melody Basham

david Patterson

Gro Amdam Roberto Gaxiola

kevin McGraw

Juliet StrombergJon Harrison

Michael Angilletta Rajeev Misra

James Elser

28

SOLS

201

3 | v

olu

me

9 N

o. 1

Bert Hölldobler Wayne Frasch

Sudhir kumar Jianguo (Jingle) Wu

Andrew Smith

Sharon Crook

karen S. Anderson

faculty honors Foundation Professor Bert Hölldobler was honored with the Roentgen Medal for his lifetime achievements by Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg at their commencement celebration in 2012. The medal is the highest recognition the university bestows upon scientific scholars.

Regents’ Professor James Elser won the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award of the Association of the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), the society’s highest award for research accomplishments. Elser was also voted President-Elect of ASLO.

Professor Wayne Frasch was named Innovator of the Year in academia during the 2012 Governor’s Celebration of Innovation awards gala. He developed a nanodevice based on the ATP synthase enzyme — capable of detecting bioterrorist agents, diseases and pathogens. AZ Furnace Accelerator chose Frasch’s ASU spin-off company Attometrics for a business accelerator program.

ASU spin-off Health Tell, Inc., founded by professor Stephen Albert Johnston, co-director of Biodesign’s CIM, and professor Neal Woodbury of Chemistry and Biochemistry, won the Governor’s Innovative Startup of the Year Award. Health Tell was recognized for creating diagnostic tools capable of testing a person’s overall immune system health using a single drop of blood.

Professor Stuart J. Newfeld has been elected an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow. Newfeld is recognized for his contributions to the field of molecular genetics via the discovery of Smad tumor suppressor proteins and the elucidation of their function in development and cancer.

Foundation Professor and Biodesign Institute researcher Sudhir Kumar was named Regents’ Professor.

Professor Jianguo Wu received the 2012 Distinguished Service Award by the U.S. chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology for his contributions to advancing the science and practice of landscape

ecology, acting as the organization’s leader and serving as editor of its flagship journal.

Professor Rajeev Misra was recognized for outstanding service as president-elect of the Arizona/Southern Nevada branch of the American Society for Microbiology. Misra also was elected to be Academic Editor of the PLOS ONE scientific journal.

President’s Professor and Parents Association Professor Andrew Smith received a citation of excellence for his work as chair of the Lagomorph Specialist Group at the 2012 International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission Chair’s meeting in Abu Dhabi.

Associate professor Karen S. Anderson was appointed to the National Cancer Institute Cancer Biomarkers Study Section for 2012-16.

Associate professor Sharon Crook was elected member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Systems. She was also appointed to the Neuroscience and Ophthalmic Imaging Technologies Study Section at the Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health.

Page Baluch, research scientist and manager of the W.M. Keck Bioimaging Facility, was elected to a three-year term as executive member of the Women in Cell Biology committee within the American Society for Cell Biology. She also was re-elected to serve as president of the Association for Women in Science’s Central Arizona Chapter.

Professor Nancy Grimm and Emeritus Professor Stuart Fisher were named Fellows of the Ecological Society of America.

President’s Professor Manfred Laubichler was appointed External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute.

Regents’ Professor Stephen Pyne published two books: The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene, co-authored by daughter Lydia Pyne; and Fire: Nature and Culture (Reaktion Books, 2012).

Page Baluch

nancy Grimm Stuart Fisher

Stephen Pyne

Thousands of visitors joined ASU’s School of Life Sciences during Night of the Open Door 2013 — the university’s signature event in the Arizona SciTech Festival.

Graduate students, faculty members and volunteers treated guests to a wide range of free exhibits and activities on native insects, bird coloration, ants and sea turtles, as well as carbon free fuels and microbial life.

Join us on Saturday, March 1, 2014 to share our enthusiasm for life science!

NIGHT OF THEOPEN DOOR

opendoor.asu.edu