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You're receiving this enewsletter as a member of the UM Ecology & Evolutionary Biology enewsletter group. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe . Having trouble viewing this email? View it in your browser . February 2012 Grad news - Crumsey's Climate Science Day adventures on Capitol Hill EEB graduate student Jasmine Crumsey joined nearly 30 other scientists from across the country in Washington, D.C. to brief congressional staff members about climate change research. Read more » Research feature: In bubble-rafting snails, the eggs came first It's "Waterworld" snail style: ocean- dwelling snails that spend most of their lives floating upside down, attached to rafts of mucus bubbles. Scientists have known about the snails' peculiar lifestyle since the 1600s, but they've wondered how the rafting habit evolved. What, exactly, were the step-by-step adaptations along the way? Graduate student Celia Churchill and coauthors believe they've found the answer to that intriguing question. In a cover story published in the Oct. 11 issue of Current Biology, they show that bubble rafting evolved by way of modified egg masses. Read more » Picture perfect Congratulations to our new Honorary Photographer at Large, Susanna Messinger , who came in first place with "A fleet of dragonflies." Watch a slide show of all entries to the 2011 Honorary Photographer at Large Photo Contest. Read more and view photos» Rapid rise in wildfires in Canada? "Like" us on Facebook What's up in EEB Warren Herb Wagner Guest Lecture in Plant Evolution 4:10 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 23, 1200 Chemistry Building. Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, Rutgers University, presents "Cultivated and wild: using single cell genomics to understand algal evolution." Read more » Early Career Scientists Symposium 2012: Biodiversity Informatics 9 a.m., Sunday, March 25, Palmer Commons, Forum Hall Auditorium. Presenters are pursuing cutting-edge approaches to biodiversity sciences that integrate and/or synthesize informatics resources, including genomic/genetic, phylogenetic, morphological, geographic, and ecological datasets and those who are leveraging information from natural history collections. Read more » Science fun fact Porpoising penguins! Penguins leap above the surface of the water while they are swimming. Known as porpoising, this coats their feathers with small bubbles that

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  • You're receiving this enewsletter as a member of the UM Ecology & Evolutionary Biology enewsletter group.Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe. Having trouble viewing this email? View it in your browser .

    February 2012

    Grad news - Crumsey's Climate ScienceDay adventures on Capitol Hill

    EEB graduate studentJasmine Crumsey joinednearly 30 other scientistsfrom across the country inWashington, D.C. to briefcongressional staff membersabout climate changeresearch.

    Read more »

    Research feature: In bubble-rafting snails,the eggs came first

    It's "Waterworld" snail style: ocean-dwelling snails that spend most oftheir lives floating upside down,attached to rafts of mucusbubbles. Scientists have knownabout the snails' peculiar lifestylesince the 1600s, but they'vewondered how the rafting habitevolved. What, exactly, were thestep-by-step adaptations along theway?

    Graduate student Celia Churchill and coauthors believethey've found the answer to that intriguing question. In acover story published in the Oct. 11 issue of CurrentBiology, they show that bubble rafting evolved by way ofmodified egg masses.

    Read more »

    Picture perfectCongratulations to our newHonorary Photographer atLarge, Susanna Messinger,who came in first place with"A fleet of dragonflies."Watch a slide show of allentries to the 2011 HonoraryPhotographer at Large Photo Contest.

    Read more and view photos»

    Rapid rise in wildfires in Canada?

    "Like" us on Facebook

    What's up in EEB

    Warren Herb Wagner GuestLecture in Plant Evolution4:10 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 23, 1200Chemistry Building. Dr. DebashishBhattacharya, Rutgers University,presents "Cultivated and wild: usingsingle cell genomics to understandalgal evolution."

    Read more »

    Early Career ScientistsSymposium 2012:Biodiversity Informatics9 a.m.,Sunday,March 25,PalmerCommons,Forum HallAuditorium.Presentersare pursuingcutting-edgeapproachesto biodiversity sciences that integrateand/or synthesize informaticsresources, including genomic/genetic,phylogenetic, morphological,geographic, and ecological datasetsand those who are leveraginginformation from natural historycollections.

    Read more »

    Science fun fact

    Porpoising penguins!

    Penguins leap above the surface ofthe water while they are swimming.Known as porpoising, this coats theirfeathers with small bubbles that

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  • Ecologists show for first time thresholdvalue for natural wildfiresLarge forest regions inCanada are apparently aboutto experience rapid change.Based on models, scientistscan now show that there arethreshold values for wildfiresjust like there are forepidemics.

    Read more »

    Goldberg wins Sarah Goddard PowerAwardEEB is delighted to announce thatProfessor and Chair Deborah Goldbergis one of the 2012 winners of theprestigious Sarah Goddard PowerAward from the U-M AcademicWomen's Caucus.

    Read more »

    reduce friction, and they reachspeeds of up to 20 mph!

    Read more »

    Alum newsEEB buzz . . .We love to hear about your latestand greatest! Photos are encouraged.Feedback on our e-newsletter iswelcome.

    Send us your news

    Giving oppsWe are currently seeking long-termsupport for various diversity initiatives(PDF) that are underway within EEBthat aim to strengthen and diversifystudents in the biological sciences.

    More info »

    Ecology & Evolutionary Biology2019 Kraus Natural Science Building830 North UniversityAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1048

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    Copyright 2012 The Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

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  • UMEEB

    Jasmine CrumseyPh.D. student

    Nadelhoffer Lab

    Contact information

    University of Michigan1031 Kraus Natural ScienceBuilding830 North UniversityAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1048

    Phone: (734) 763-4461

    Fax: (734) 763-0544

    Email: [email protected]

    AdvisorsKnute Nadelhoffer

    Research interestsTerrestrial ecosystems, biogeochemistry

    Academic backgroundB.S. Biology / Science Education, Albany State University

    UM affiliationDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCollege of Literature, Science, and the Arts

    Related news

    Crumsey awarded Brower FellowshipJasmine Crumsey is the 2013 recipient of theHelen Olsen Brower Memorial Fellowship inEnvironmental Studies from EEB.

    More info »

    On the U-M Gateway: EEBlog of student's worldwidesummer researchFrom howler monkeys in Mexico to true gritencounters with cowboys and snails in the wildwest, EEB graduate students are posting abouttheir summer research adventures.

    U-M Gateway Connect feature

    More info »

    EEB students judge SE Michigan Science FairA handful of EEB graduate students were

    volunteer judges at the 54th annual SoutheastMichigan Science Fair.

    More info »

    Home > Directory > Graduates > Jcrumsey : Jasmine Crumsey

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    Home > News Events > News : On the U-M Gateway: Crumsey's Climate Science Day adventures on Capitol Hill

    EEB news

    On the U-M Gateway: Crumsey's Climate Science Day adventures on CapitolHillThursday, February 02, 2012

    In this article:

    Department of Ecology andEvolutionary Biology

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    EEB graduate student Jasmine Crumsey joined nearly30 other scientists from across the country inWashington, D.C. this week to brief congressional staffmembers about climate change research.

    Crumsey, who works at the U-M Biological Station,was one of 29 scientists who participated inWednesday's second annual Climate Science Day onCapitol Hill. This year's event was sponsored by 13scientific societies and organizations.

    The goals were to expose members of Congress andtheir staffs to accurate climate science from a varietyof experts, to highlight relevant impacts of climatechange, and to establish working relationships with thecongressional offices.

    In addition to studying terrestrial ecology and biochemistry at EEB, Crumsey is pursuing a graduate certificate in sciencetechnology and public policy at the U-M Ford School of Public Policy. In the Ford program, students learn, among otherthings, to analyze the role of science and technology in policymaking.

    Crumsey said Climate Science Day provided a unique opportunity to extend what she's learned and to gain valuable newskills in communicating with policymakers.

    "Communicating the impacts of large-scale environmental changes on natural resources and the complex interactionswithin ecosystems is relevant to my training as an ecologist, as well as my desire to remain active in science policythroughout my professional career," she said.

    On Wednesday, Crumsey and a scientist from Purdue University met with staffers in the offices of seven Michigan andIndiana lawmakers, including Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.; Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; and Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich.

    "It went really well," she said Thursday. "They were gracious and welcoming."

    "We talked to them about the impacts of climate change that we expect to see at the state, regional and national level,"Crumsey said. "For the Midwest, climate scientists expect to see increases in the frequency and intensity of severeweather events, including more frequent heat waves and more intense rains.

    "For agriculture in the region, one prediction is an increase in pests due to increased winter survival resulting from warmerwinters. For the Great Lakes in particular, climate scientists expect to see decreases in water levels and decreases inwinter ice cover."

    For Climate Science Day, each of the sponsoring organizations—which included the American Association for theAdvancement of Science, the American Chemical Society and the American Geophysical Union—selected severalscientists. Crumsey was picked by the National Ecological Observatory Network, known as NEON.

    About 100 visits were made to the offices of members of Congress and to some committee staff members duringWednesday's event, said Joanne Padron Carney, director of the Office of Government Relations at the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science.

    "At the end of the day, our goal was really to establish relationships," Carney said. "And if policymakers and their staffmembers contact these scientists with questions—I've read this research or I saw this opinion, can you give meinformation, can you explain this to me—then I think that is a success," Carney said.

    U-M News Service press release

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  • UMEEB

    Celia ChurchillPh.D. Student

    Contact information

    University of Michigan1013 Museums Building1109 Geddes Ave Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079

    Email: [email protected]

    AdvisorDiarmaid Ó Foighil

    Research interestsMarine invertebrate evolution and systematics

    UM affiliationDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCollege of Literature, Science, and the Arts

    Research highlight"Females floated first in bubble-rafting snails"It's "Waterworld" snail style: ocean-dwelling snails that spend most oftheir lives floating upside down, attached to rafts of mucus bubbles.Scientists have known about the snails' peculiar lifestyle since the1600s, but they've wondered how the rafting habit evolved. What,exactly, were the step-by-step adaptations along the way?

    Graduate student Celia Churchill and coauthors believe they've foundthe answer to that intriguing question. In a cover story published in theOct. 11 issue of Current Biology, they show that bubble raftingevolved by way of modified egg masses. Read more>>

    Related news

    Tie for EEB Outstanding Student Paper AwardEEB graduate students Celia Churchill andWenfeng Qian won the 2012 EEBOutstanding Paper Award.

    More info »

    Churchill awarded UMMZ Tinkle ScholarshipEEB graduate student Celia Churchill has receivedthe Donald W. Tinkle Scholarship from U-MMuseum of Zoology.

    More info »

    Solving mysteries at ID DayThe community presented all manner ofdisparate objects to experts at the U-MMuseum of Natural History when it hosted the

    15th annual ID Day October 9, 2011, includingmoon coral, a rabbit tail and pike weed.

    More info »

    Home > Directory > Graduates > Celiakc : Celia Churchill

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  • UMEEB

    Chris Gough, a researcher atVirginia Commonwealth

    University, girdling a tree atUMBS. Following a very cold

    spring in 2008 (it snowed April13), the team girdled 6,700

    trees in two weeks once theweather warmed.

    Forest carbon uptake recovers from modest tree losses

    A paper titled “Disturbance and the resilience of coupled carbon and nitrogen cycling in anorth temperate forest,” was published Oct. 29, 2011 in the Journal of Geophysical Research– Biogeosciences by Luke Nave, postdoctoral fellow, and colleagues. A recent editor’shighlight from the journal is excerpted here:

    By manipulating an experimental forest at the University of Michigan Biological Station, Naveand colleagues determined how forests' carbon and nitrogen cycles respond to subtledisruptions. In 2008, the authors and their team culled 39 percent of the forest's treepopulation using stem girdling—the process of removing a ring of the tree's bark and starvingit of its nutrient and water supplies. The aim was to accelerate the loss of short-lived treespecies, driving the forest into a more complex state, commonly found in older forests, ratherthan the homogeneous conditions that result from clear-cutting or a forest-clearing fire.

    Initially, the authors found that the forest's carbon uptake declined and soil nitrogenavailability and leaching increased, reminiscent of severe disturbances. However, most forestecosystems are inherently limited by the availability of nitrogen, and the newly liberatedstores were drawn up by the remaining longer-lived trees, producing new leaf area andmitigating the decrease in carbon uptake. The authors suggest that, as the forest structurecontinues to change in the wake of subtle disturbances, the forest's carbon uptake willcontinue to increase.

    "Because we implemented the experimental treatment several years ago, we are gaining thisknowledge a decade or two before most similar forests throughout the region undergo similarsuccessional transition, making this study quite useful for forecasts of regional carbon cyclingand interactions with the climate,” said Nave.

    Co-researchers and co-authors include: Jim Le Moine, UMBS; Professor Knute Nadelhoffer,UMBS director; Chris Vogel, UMBS; and colleagues from Ohio State University, Columbus;Columbia University, New York City; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; VirginiaPolytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia.

    Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, Editors' Highlight

    U-M News Service Future forests video, Sept. 2008 (project initiation)

    Like humans, Polistes fuscatuspaper wasps recognize

    individuals by their unique facialpatterns. This photo shows a

    paper wasp queen on an earlynest. Image credit: Michael

    Sheehan

    Like humans, the paper wasp has a special talent forlearning faces

    Though paper wasps have brains less than a millionth the size of humans', they haveevolved specialized face-learning abilities analogous to the system used by humans,according to a University of Michigan evolutionary biologist and one of her graduatestudents.

    "Wasps and humans have independently evolved similar and very specialized face-learningmechanisms, despite the fact that everything about the way we see and the way our brainsare structured is different," said graduate student Michael Sheehan, who worked withevolutionary biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, onthe face-recognition study. "That's surprising and sort of bizarre."

    The study marks the first time that any insect has demonstrated such a high level ofspecialized visual learning, said Sheehan, lead author of a paper published online in the

    Home > Research : Research Highlights

    Research features 2011

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  • journal Science on Thursday, Dec. 1.

    "The evolutionary flexibility of specialized face learning is striking and suggests thatspecialized cognition may be a widespread adaptation to facilitate complex behavioral taskssuch as individual recognition," they wrote.

    The paper is receiving wide coverage in the media including in Discover Magazine,Nature.com, New Scientist, msnbc.com, and ABC online.

    U-M News Service press releaseCurrently on the U-M Gateway

    3D model of the asymmetricalskull of the archaeocete whale

    Basilosaurus isis, computedfrom CT scans. Note the

    leftward curvature of the midlinesuture of the skull (red line).

    The whole skull is affected by atorsion that is clockwise whenviewed from the head forward

    (symbolized by the swirl).Asymmetry is a newly identifiedarchaeocete characteristic and

    evolved in relation to directionalhearing in water. Image credit:

    Julia M. Fahlke

    Ancient whale skulls and directional hearing: a twistedtale

    Skewed skulls may have helped early whales discriminate the direction of sounds in waterand are not solely, as previously thought, a later adaptation related to echolocation. U-Mresearchers, including Professor Philip Gingerich, report the finding in a paper publishedonline in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences August 22, 2011.

    Asymmetric skulls are a well-known characteristic of the modern whale group known asodontocetes (toothed whales). These whales also have highly modified nasal structures withwhich they produce high-frequency sounds for echolocation – a sort of biological sonar usedto navigate and find food. The other modern whale group, mysticetes (baleen whales), hassymmetrical skulls and does not echolocate.

    These observations led scientists to believe that archaeocetes – the extinct, ancient whalesthat gave rise to all modern whales – had symmetrical skulls, and that asymmetry laterdeveloped in toothed whales in concert with echolocation. But this new analysis ofarchaeocete skulls shows that asymmetry evolved much earlier, as part of a suite of traitslinked to directional hearing in water.

    "This means that the initial asymmetry in whales is not related to echolocation," said U-Mpostdoctoral fellow Julia Fahlke, who is working with Gingerich, an internationally recognizedauthority on whale evolution, at the U-M Museum of Paleontology.

    Fahlke didn't have to go far to explore the idea that maybe archaeocete skulls really wereasymmetrical; the U-M Museum of Paleontology houses one of the world's largest and mostcomplete archaeocete fossil collections. Fahlke began examining archaeocete skulls, and toher astonishment, "they all showed the same kind of asymmetry---a leftward bend when youlook at them from the top down," she said.

    U-M News Service press release

    Current Biology cover, Oct. 11,2011. Research by EEB

    graduate student CeliaChurchill, working under the

    direction of Professor DiarmaidÓ Foighil.

    In bubble-rafting snails, the eggs came first

    It's "Waterworld" snail style: ocean-dwelling snails that spend most of their lives floatingupside down, attached to rafts of mucus bubbles. Scientists have known about the snails'peculiar lifestyle since the 1600s, but they've wondered how the rafting habit evolved. What,exactly, were the step-by-step adaptations along the way?

    Graduate student Celia Churchill and coauthors believe they've found the answer to thatintriguing question. In a cover story published in the Oct. 11 issue of Current Biology, theyshow that bubble rafting evolved by way of modified egg masses.

    The bubble-rafting snails, members of the family Janthinidae, secrete mucus from their "foot,"a broad, muscular organ at the base of the snail's body. But instead of using slime to getaround or to communicate chemically, as other types of snails do, they trap air inside quick-setting mucus to make bubbles that glom together and form rafts on which the snails spendthe rest of their lives.

    "We had a pretty good idea that that janthinids evolved from snails that live on the sea floor,"Churchill said. The question was, which specific group of snails gave rise to the janthinids,and how did the janthinid lineage make the transition from bottom dwellers to surfacesurfers?

  • U-M News Service press releaseCurrently on the U-M Gateway As seen in ScienceNOW

    Culture stained to make cellwalls and nuclei visible. The

    swellings contain nuclei and arethought to be similar to

    clamydospores -- thick-walled,asexual resting spores of

    certain fungi. White bar = 10microns. Image credit: Timothy

    James

    Hidden soil fungus, now revealed, is in a class all its own

    A type of fungus that's been lurking underground for millions of years, previously known toscience only through its DNA, has been cultured, photographed, named and assigned a placeon the tree of life.

    Researchers say it represents an entirely new class of fungi: the Archaeorhizomycetes. Likethe discovery of a weird type of aquatic fungus that made headlines a few months ago, thisfinding offers a glimpse at the rich diversity of microorganisms that share our world butremain hidden from view.

    The fungal phenomenon, brought to light by Professor Timothy James and fellow researchersat the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Imperial College London and RoyalBotanic Gardens and the University of Aberdeen, is described in the Aug. 12 issue of thejournal Science.

    Although unseen until recently, the fungus was known to be extremely common in soil. Itspresence was detected in studies of environmental DNA – genetic material from a livingorganism that is detected in bulk environmental samples, such as samples of the soil orwater in which the organism lives.

    "You couldn't really sample the soil without finding evidence of it," said James, a U-Massistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and an assistant curator at theuniversity's Herbarium. "So people really wanted to know what it looks like."

    U-M News Service press release

    A view of Choccolocco Creek,Talledega County, Alabama,

    where a surviving population ofthe wicker ancylid limpet

    Rhodacmea filosa (insert, not toscale), was recently

    rediscovered.

    Mass extinction victim survives! Snail long thought extinct,isn't

    Think "mass extinction" and you probably envision dinosaurs dropping dead in the long-agopast or exotic tropical creatures being wiped out when their rainforest habitats are decimated.But a major mass extinction took place right here in North America in the first half of the 20thcentury, when 47 species of mollusk disappeared after the watershed in which they lived wasdammed.

    Now, a population of one of those species—a freshwater limpet last seen more than 60years ago and presumed extinct—has been found in a tributary of the heavily dammedCoosa River in Alabama's Mobile River Basin. Researchers from the University of Michigan,including Professor Diarmaid Ó Foighil, among others, reported the rediscovery May 31,2011 in the online, open-access journal PLoS One.

    The story of Rhodacmea filosa's disappearance and reappearance is both a conservationsuccess story and a cautionary tale for other parts of the world where rivers are beingdammed, said Ó Foighil, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and a curator at theU-M Museum of Zoology. It's also an example of how museum specimens collectedgenerations ago can inform scientists of today.

    Working with Ó Foighil from the U-M Museum of Zoology were John Burch, professoremeritus; Jingchun Li, graduate student; and Taehwan Lee; collection coordinator.

    U-M News Service press release

    Probe human diseases in yeast? Possibly, protein studysuggests

    The molecular-level workings of proteins are surprisingly similar across a wide range oforganisms, from humans to fungi and plants, research by Professor Jianzhi "George" Zhangand colleagues suggests.

  • Fraction of human PPIsexpected to be conserved in

    various widely used modelorganisms based on previouslyestimated divergence times (9)

    and our estimated rate of PPIevolution.

    Qian W et. al. PNAS 2011;108:8725:8730

    This finding raises the possibility of using much simpler organisms, such as yeast, to studythe mechanisms underlying human disease. The study was published online in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of May 9, 2011.

    Most previous studies revealed only changes in protein sequence. What about changes inprotein function? Those are more difficult to measure and compare, said Zhang, because ofthe wide variety of roles proteins perform. However, he and his coauthors came up with theidea of using interactions between pairs of proteins, known as protein-protein interactions orPPI, as an index of protein function that could be used to make comparisons among speciesand measure the rate of protein function evolution.

    "Compared to sequence evolution, there's about a one thousand-fold difference," Zhangsaid. "That means that on average, it requires about one thousand amino acid changes in aprotein to have one change in a protein-protein interaction."

    "The corresponding proteins participate in very different physiological processes, yet, if themolecular functions of the proteins are conserved, you could still use plants or yeast tounderstand the molecular mechanisms involved in human disease, to see what molecularcellular processes are affected when these proteins malfunction," Zhang said.

    Zhang's coauthors on the paper are graduate student Wenfeng Qian; former graduatestudent Xionglei He; former undergraduate student Edwin Chan; and visiting scholarHuailiang Xu of Sichuan Agricultural University in Sichuan, China. The research wassupported by the National Institutes of Health.

    U-M News Service press release

    Current Biology cover, April 26,2011, Cooley et al.:

    "Gene Duplication in MimulusUnderlies Parallel Floral

    Evolution via Independent trans-Regulatory

    Changes." Image credit: ArielleCooley

    Evolution repeated itself at the molecular level

    Sometimes evolution appears to repeat itself, giving rise to traits that look similar but haveevolved independently. By testing whether these "parallel" traits were achieved using thesame or different genetic and molecular mechanisms, researchers can begin to understandwhether evolution is predictable at the molecular level.

    Arielle Cooley, EEB postdoctoral fellow, and her colleagues show that the parallel evolutionof petal pigmentation, in two species of South American monkeyflowers (Mimulus), occurredusing separate yet strikingly similar underlying mechanisms. In both cases, the genesrequired to make pigment have been recently "switched on" in the petals. In both cases, the"switch" is a single genomic region containing multiple, recently duplicated regulatory genescalled R2R3 MYBs. Interestingly, they found that the two "switch" regions (one responsiblefor flower color in Mimulus luteus var. variegatus, the other for flower color in Mimuluscupreus) are themselves related through duplication. The authors conclude that in this caseevolution has repeated itself with strong consistency at the molecular level.

    Duplication has enabled that repetition to occur using two independent but functionally similarloci, highlighting the importance of genomic complexity to the evolutionary process.

    The paper was the cover story in Current Biology’s April 26, 2011 issue.

    Streams contain a variety oftypes of algae that remove

    pollutants from the water. This

    Biodiversity improves water quality in streams through adivision of labor

    Biologically diverse streams are better at cleaning up pollutants than less rich waterways,and a University of Michigan ecologist says he has uncovered the long-sought mechanismthat explains why this is so.

    Professor Bradley Cardinale used 150 miniature model streams, which use recirculatingwater in flumes to mimic the variety of flow conditions found in natural streams. He grewbetween one and eight species of algae in each of the mini-streams, then measured each

  • microscope image showsseveral species of algae similarto those used in the Universityof Michigan biodiversity study.Image credit: Danuta Bennett

    algae community's ability to soak up nitrate, a nitrogen compound that is a nutrient pollutantof global concern.

    He found that nitrate uptake increased linearly with species richness. On average, the eight-species mix removed nitrate 4.5 times faster than a single species of algae grown alone.Cardinale reports his findings in the April 7 edition of the journal Nature.

    "The primary implication of this paper is that naturally diverse habitats are pretty good atcleaning up the pollutants we dump into the environment, and loss of biodiversity throughspecies extinctions could be compromising the ability of the planet to clean up after us," saidCardinale, an assistant professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environmentand the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

    "One of the obvious implications of this study is that if we want to enhance water quality inplaces like the Chesapeake Bay watershed or around the Great Lakes, then conservingnatural biodiversity in our streams will have the added benefit of helping to clean up theselarger bodies of water," Cardinale said.

    The study was widely covered in the media including by Reuters, Science News magazine,Voice of America, and futurity.org.

    U-M News Service press release

    NSF webcast and article

    Image: top view of the pair ofmites that were cautht in

    midcopulation for all time by adrop of tree resin,

    Image credit: EkaterinaSidorchuk

    Mating mites trapped in amber reveal sex role reversal

    In the mating game, some female mites are mightier than their mates, new research at theUniversity of Michigan and the Russian Academy of Sciences suggests. The evidencecomes, in part, from 40 million-year-old mating mites preserved in Baltic amber.

    In a paper published March 1, 2011 in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society,researchers Pavel Klimov and Ekaterina Sidorchuk describe an extinct mite species in whichthe traditional sex roles were reversed.

    "In this species, it is the female who has partial or complete control of mating," said Klimov,an associate research scientist at the U-M Museum of Zoology. "This is in contrast to thepresent-day reproductive behavior of many mite species where almost all aspects ofcopulation are controlled by males."

    In mites, as in other animals including humans, the battle of the sexes has been ragingthroughout evolutionary history. The story was extensively covered in the media including onMSNBC News and The Discovery Channel.

    U-M News Service press release

    Image: The common milkweed(Asclepias syriaca) being eaten

    by a monarch caterpillar(Danaus plexippus)

    Image credit: Rachel Vannette

    Rising C02 may reroute evolution

    Rising carbon dioxide levels associated with global warming may affect interactions betweenplants and the insects that eat them, altering the course of plant evolution, research by EEBgraduate student Rachel Vannette and Professor Mark Hunter suggests.

    The research focused on the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on common milkweed,Asclepias syriaca. Milkweed is one of many plants that produce toxic or bitter chemicalcompounds to protect themselves from being eaten by insects. These chemical defenses arethe result of a long history of interactions between the plants and insects such as monarchcaterpillars that feed on them.

    Plant defenses -- and insect eating patterns -- also respond to environmental factors such asrising carbon dioxide. This suggests that elevated carbon dioxide could affect plant evolutionby altering the "selection pressure" that plant-eating insects exert on plants.

    Selection pressure, the driving force of evolution, induces changes in the genetic compositionof a population. It works like this: if insects inflict too much damage on plants, the plants can'treproduce as successfully. This sets up a situation in which any plants that, by chance, haveinherited insect-deterring traits are at an advantage. Because of that advantage, such traits

  • are likely to spread through the population, urged on by "pressure" from the insects.

    Vannette and Hunter investigated whether different genetic "families" of the commonmilkweed from a single population in Northern Michigan would respond differently toincreasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and if so, how those responses mightaffect the plants' chances of being eaten by insects.

    The findings were the cover story in the March issue of Global Change Biology.

    U-M News Service press release

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    Susanna MessingerPh.D. student

    Contact information

    University of Michigan2004A Kraus Natural ScienceBuilding830 North UniversityAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1048

    Phone: (734) 615-4194

    Email: [email protected]

    AdvisorAnnette Ostling

    Fields of studyCommunity evolution and ecology, theoretical biology

    Research interestsMy current dissertation research seeks to unravel the evolutionaryeffects of spatial structure on species interactions. It is well known thatinteractions between species are often mediated by factors outside ofthe characteristics of the species themselves. An important thoughoften ignored example is the spatial distribution of the individualorganisms. I focus on the theory of spatial effects on predatorevolution, specifically pathogens (e.g. Hepatitis A) and true predators(e.g. lions). Overall, in addition to improving our understanding of thestructure and composition of complex communities, this research hasimplications for understanding emerging infectious diseases. Thus, thepotential applied benefits of this research range from improvedconservation and preservation of precious ecological resources tobetter control of human disease and agricultural pests.

    Academic backgroundM.S. Biology, Utah State UniversityB.S. Biology, Utah State University

    UM affiliationDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCollege of Literature, Science, and the Arts

    Related news

    Messinger lands Yale postdocRecent EEB graduate, Dr. Susanna Messinger,accepted a Gaylord Donnelley PostdoctoralEnvironmental Fellowship through the Yale Institutefor Biospheric Studies.

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    Picture perfectCongratulations to our newHonorary Photographer atLarge, Susanna Messinger,who came in first place with"A fleet of dragonflies."

    More info »

    Inspiring girls in science and mathProfessor Annette Ostling and graduate

    Home > Directory > Graduates > Susmess : Susanna Messinger

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  • student Susanna Messinger worked with asmall group of seventh and eighth gradegirls for a week this summer as part of anew ecology focus group for a U-M WISE-GISE summer camp.

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    Home > News Events > News : Picture perfect

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    Picture perfectMonday, December 12, 2011

    In this article:

    Cable, Rachel; Dobkowski, Jason; Gould, Alison; Messinger, Susanna

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    Honorary Photographer at Large PhotoContest winners

    Congratulations to our new HonoraryPhotographer at Large, Susanna Messinger,who came in first place with "A fleet ofdragonflies."

    Second place goes to Alison Gould for"Gorgonian.” Third place goes to KevinBakker for “Sunset on the Okavango Delta,Botswana” Honorable mentions go to RachelCable for “Geladas in flight,” JasonDobkowski for “Sleepy kit” and Kevin Bakkerfor “Lilac breasted-Roller, Kalahari Desert.”

    Messinger receives the honorary title for theyear of “Photographer at Large” in memory ofDavid Bay who was the self-described“photographer at large” for EEB and itspredecessor departments for 34 years. Hetouched the lives of hundreds of faculty,students and staff with his humor, goodnature and expertise.

    Congratulations to all of our winningphotographers and thank you to everyonewho submitted a photo and/or voted in thecontest. As usual, there were so manybeautiful photos that voting was difficult. Thephoto contest will return next fall. All of thephotos can be viewed here.

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    Home > News Events > Events : Thursday seminar: Warren Herb Wagner Guest Lecture in Plant Evolution: Cultivated and wild: using single cellgenomics to understand algal evolution: Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, Rutgers University

    EEB events: Thursday seminar: Warren Herb Wagner Guest Lecture inPlant Evolution: Cultivated and wild: using single cell genomics tounderstand algal evolution: Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, RutgersUniversity

    Department of Ecology andEvolutionary Biology

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    Debashish Bhattacharya, Professor, Department of Ecology,Evolution, and Natural Resources and the Institute of Marineand Coastal Science at Rutgers University

    AbstractBhattacharya started his research work in marine ecology andhas over the years shifted his lab’s interests to genomics andbioinformatics. His group studies endosymbiosis, single cellgenomics, phylogenomics, harmful algal blooms, with a focus ondinoflagellates, and more recently algal biofuels. Models forresearch include Chlamydomonas, the photosynthetic amoebaPaulinella that has an independent plastid origin, and theglaucophyte alga Cyanophora paradoxa for which his group hasrecently completed a genome sequence.

    In this talk, Bhattacharya will present work in his lab using a potentially transformational approach tomarine genomics and ecology referred to as single cell genomics (SCG). Although relatively wellestablished with prokaryotes, SCG has only recently been applied to the more complex genomes ofeukaryotes. Working with collaborators at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science, SCG methodswere used to generate draft genome assemblies from individual picobiliphyte (bacterial-sized planktonicprotists) cells captured in the ocean. In contrast with the recent description of this phylum asphotosynthetic, no evidence was found of plastid DNA nor of nuclear-encoded plastid-targeted proteins,which suggests that these picobiliphytes are heterotrophs. Genome data from one cell were dominatedby sequences from a widespread single-stranded DNA virus, which was absent from the other two cells.These latter two cells howevercontained non-eukaryote DNAderived from marineBacteroidetes and large DNAviruses that presumably are preyitems. Therefore, our shotgunsequencing approach touncultured marine protistsrevealed distinct interactions ofindividual cells. Generally, SCGoffers the possibilityto gainaccess not only to the nativeDNA of cells but also to theDNAs of prey, symbionts, andpathogens associated with eachcell. This seminar will alsodiscuss SCG work with thePaulinella model that has begunto uncover the connectionsbetween phagotrophy, horizontalgene transfer (HGT), and primary plastid endosymbiosis. Ultimately, it may be possible to reconstructHGT events at the level of individual cells and populations in nature.

    Host: Professor Yin-Long Qiu

    3:15 p.m., preseminar reception in Room 2060 Kraus Natural Science Building

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  • Start Time: 2/23/2012 4:10 pmLocation: 1200 ChemistryWebsite: http://dblab.rutgers.edu/home/index.phpContact: [email protected]

    To view all upcoming events, please click here.

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    Image: A picobiliphyte and its DNAs, credit Susanne Ruemmele

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    Home > News Events > News : Rapid rise in wildfires in Canada? Ecologists show for first time threshold value for natural wildfires

    EEB news

    Rapid rise in wildfires in Canada? Ecologists show for first time thresholdvalue for natural wildfiresMonday, January 09, 2012

    In this article:

    Pascual, Mercedes

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    Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about toexperience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can nowshow that there are threshold values for wildfires just like thereare for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparentlyapproaching this threshold value and may in future exceed itdue to climate change.

    As a result both the area burnt down annually and the averagesize of the fires would increase, according to ProfessorMercedes Pascual, Richard Zinck, former visiting researchinvestigator, and their colleague at the Helmholtz Centre forEnvironmental Research (UFZ), Volker Grimm. Their findingswere published in the December issue of the journal TheAmerican Naturalist. The strategies for combating wildfires in large parts of Canada should therefore be reconsidered.

    Small changes in the fire propagation parameters have a great impact on the size of the fires. Gradual changes, such asthose which can be expected due to climate change, can therefore result in an abrupt and sharp increase in the size of thefires.

    The scientists were also interested in the parallels with disease propagation. Prevention strategies, which reducecombustible material, are in a way similar to the vaccinations which are used against the spread of diseases such as themeasles. Here too there is a threshold value above which a disease spreads and below which it falls. Other modelers fromthe UFZ were therefore able to turn this theoretical threshold value into a practical value. With foxes it was shown that only60 per cent had to be vaccinated against rabies in order to successfully combat the disease. The scientists therefore hopeto find out more in future studies which cover both disciplines.

    The research was widely covered by the media. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ press release

    Photo: © skylight, Fotolia.com

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  • UMEEB

    Deborah GoldbergElzada U. Clover CollegiateProfessor and Chair

    Ph.D., Ecology and EvolutionaryBiology, University of Arizona,1980

    Contact information

    University of Michigan2019 / 1056 Kraus Natural ScienceBuilding830 North UniversityAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1048

    Phone: (734) 615-4912

    Fax: (734) 763-0544

    Email: [email protected]

    Fields of studyCommunity ecology, plant ecology

    Academic backgroundDeborah Goldberg received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1975 andher Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1980, was a postdoctoralfellow at the Kellogg Biological Station of Michigan State Universityfrom 1980-1983, and has been on the faculty at the University ofMichigan since 1983. She is currently professor and chair of theDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and served as theinterim director of the University Herbarium in 2002-3. She has alsoheld appointments as a visiting faculty member at the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem, the University of New Mexico, and theBlaustein Institute for Desert Research at Ben Gurion University inIsrael. She has served or is serving on the editorial boards of Ecologyand Ecological Monographs, the American Naturalist, AmericanMidland Naturalist, Journal of Vegetation Science, ConservationEcology, and Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution, andSystematics, as well as the Advisory Council of the InternationalAssociation of Vegetation Science and the Science Advisory Board ofthe National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

    Graduate studentsSerge Farinas and John Guittar

    Postdoctoral fellowsAi Wen, Kenneth Elgersma

    UM affiliationDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

    Related news

    Passing on the chair baton from Goldberg toVandermeerAfter a successful 12 years as EEB chair,Professor Deborah Goldberg has officiallypassed the baton to Professor JohnVandermeer for the 2013-2014 academicyear.

    More info »

    Duffy named ESA Early Career FellowProfessor Meghan Duffy has been named an EarlyCareer Fellow of the Ecological Society of America.

    More info »

    Home > Directory > Faculty > Degold : Deborah Goldberg

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  • Elgersma awarded U-M Water Center research grantDr. Kenneth Elgersma has been awarded a$50,000 research grant from U-M’s new WaterCenter to support Great Lakes restoration andprotection efforts.

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    Home > News Events > News : Goldberg wins Sarah Goddard Power Award

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    Goldberg wins Sarah Goddard Power AwardFriday, February 03, 2012

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    EEB is delighted to announce that Professor and Chair Deborah Goldberg is one of the2012 winners of the prestigious Sarah Goddard Power Award from the U-M AcademicWomen's Caucus. Goldberg is an internationally recognized scientist in plant ecology. Shehas published two books and more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She isparticularly well known for her studies of plant community dynamics, structure and function.

    The award will be presented to Goldberg at a ceremony at 4 p.m., Wednesday, February 15,2012 at the Michigan League. The award was established in memory of Sarah GoddardPower, a former regent who was a strong advocate for women within the University ofMichigan. She was inducted into the Michigan Hall of Fame in 1988 for her civil rightsaccomplishments. The award honors faculty and senior administrative staff who have madesignificant contributions to the betterment of women at U-M and globally throughdistinguished leadership, scholarship or other activities related to their professions.

    Dr. Radka Wildova, one of Goldberg’s former postdoctoral fellows, who is currently a visiting scientist, Cary Institute ofEcosystem Studies, states in a supporting letter, “Her impact has been so widespread that it is now almost impossible tofind a scholarly paper on plant competition that does not reference the approach that she pioneered."

    As further noted by Wildova, “Deborah has been tireless and enthusiastic in her effort to encourage young femalescientists and graduate students to pursue their dream careers.”

    Betsy Foxman, Hunein F. and Hilda Maassab Professor of Epidemiology, wrote in her letter of nomination, “Scientificachievements aside, Dr. Goldberg takes advantage of every opportunity to use her scientific stature to increaseopportunities for women scientists in her department, at Michigan, and worldwide. During her tenure as chair of EEB, theproportion of women faculty has increased from 17 to 27 percent. Harder to tabulate is the influence of Dr. Goldberg’sattention to issues of gender and ethnic diversity during her service on various committees and boards.”

    According to Foxman’s letter, Goldberg'sremarkable commitment to service is evidentin over two pages of her curriculum vitaefilled with the names of editorial boards, andinternational, national, university anddepartmental committees. Most notable is theEcological Society of America, where shehas served continuously in some capacitysince 1985 (currently as vice president forscience) as well as serving on the editorialboards of eight of the most prestigiousjournals in ecology.

    “To put it succinctly: Dr. Goldberg makesthings happen,” Foxman continued. “Sheacted as interim chair of EEB during thedifficult separation of biology into twodepartments, then again as interim followingthe short service of an externally appointed

    chair, and was ultimately appointed as chair. As chair, Dr. Goldberg transformed the department culture to one thatcelebrates diversity, collegiality, and collaboration.”

    Goldberg established a standing departmental committee on diversity, and was instrumental in establishing the FrontiersMaster’s Program in EEB, which is designed to attract students from nontraditional backgrounds into biology and preparethem for top-ranked Ph.D. programs. She served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Women’sIssues at U-M for four years, and during that time, helped promote the issue of parental leave for graduate students whoare new parents. Goldberg is a current member of STRIDE, a committee that provides information and advice about

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    Goldberg, Deborah

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    practices that will maximize the likelihood that diverse, well-qualified candidates for faculty positions will be identified, and,if selected for offers, recruited, retained, and promoted at U-M.

    “Dr. Goldberg is a devoted mentor. She not only models how to balance being a successful scientist, department chair,faculty member, and mother, but also spends countless hours helping others who are trying to do so.”

    As noted by George W. Kling, Robert G. Wetzel Professor, Goldberg helps women in science with “dedication, energy, andfervor.”

    As one of the first women at U-M to chair a science department, Goldberg reaches out to other women faculty, offeringadvice and counsel based on her experiences. Nancy Love, associate dean for academic programs and initiatives atRackham and former department chair in civil and environmental engineering, wrote, “Dr. Goldberg has served as a usefulsounding board, a source of sage advice, and one who has helped connect me with possible research collaborators as Ihave worked to get my research program off the ground at U-M while learning the ropes as department chair."

    Pamela Raymond, Stephen S. Easter Collegiate Professor and chair of the Department of Molecular, Cellular, andDevelopmental Biology, wrote, “I would have had a much more difficult time surviving my first year as chair without herwise counsel and support."

    The Academic Women's Caucus was founded in 1975 when a group of academic women gathered to exchange informationand investigate and resolve problems that academic women were facing. This dynamic group works to promote women inthe academy through programming, networking and the presentation of the Sarah Goddard Power Award.

    The Academic Women's Caucus continues to focus on many of the same tenure and salary equity issues it did in 1975.This committed group of women from diverse academic backgrounds continues to support all academic women, junior andsenior alike, to help them develop and achieve their goals.

  • UMEEB

    Watch Bald Eagles in their nest and eaglets hatching in spring!The Decorah Bald Eagles video project began when the first camera was installed in2009.The eagle’s next is about 80 feet high, six feet across, five feet deep and weighs closeto 1,367 pounds. The eagles built the nest in 2007. Their previous nest nearby fell when awindstorm broke one of the supporting branches.

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    Porpoising penguins and plenty more!Did you ever want to know more about the waddling, flightless seabirds who appear to bedressed to the nines in handsome tuxedos? According to about.com, penguins are some ofthe most recognizable and beloved birds in the world, and they are also some of the mostunique. Here are some fun penguin facts from about.com and amazing photos from KevinBakker, University of Michigan research lab technician in the Department of Ecology andEvolutionary Biology.

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    We're not saying those mushrooms growing in your yard areyour second cousins once removed, but ... fungi are closerthan you think!Here's some dinner conversation for tonight, you can start with something like this, "HeyDad, did you know you are more closely related to that mushroom on your plate than thatmushroom is to that piece of broccoli?!" If he doesn't get too mad, you can go on to explain.

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    Walking bats!Bats are the only mammals that can fly. Not only that, did you know that some bats walktoo? Of the 1,100 bat species known today, the lesser short-tailed bat and the Americancommon vampire bat (the only mammals that feed entirely on blood!) are the only two knownto walk on the ground. Watch a video of the lesser short-tailed bats walk, climb and hunt.

    The recent discovery of fossils of an extinct walking bat in northwestern Queensland,Australia, suggests that today's lesser short-tailed bats descended from 20-million-year-oldAustralian relatives.

    Read more from National Geographic News

    Home > News Events : Science Fun Facts

    Science fun facts

    Send your fun fact ideas to [email protected] and we'll research as needed and post them here. Please include your name (asyou'd like it to appear) and city, state and/or country. Submissions may be edited. Thank you to our contributors!

    The EEB fun facts page was in the news! See the Ann Arbor News article.

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  • Chimp plans stone attacks on zoo visitorsA male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoovisitors, according to researchers. Keepers at Furuvik Zoo discovered that the chimpcollected and stored stones that he would later launch toward onlookers. (No one wasinjured.) Also, the chimp learned to recognize how and when parts of his concrete enclosurecould be pulled apart to make further projectiles.

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    Zhi Wang(Ph.D. EEB 2010)

    Zhi Wang is an assistant professor at Arizona State University. He is teaching undergraduategenetics, and some graduate level genomics courses. “My major research area is computationalgenomics and evolutionary medicine, including network biology, and cancer genomics,” Wang said.Wang's advisor at U-M was Professor Jianzhi Zhang.

    Javier Ruiz(Ph.D. EEB 2008)

    Javier Ruiz is director of the Biodiversity Project, Nicaragua, a research initiative conductingresearch in Eastern Nicaragua, and a visiting scholar at Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University(2008 to present).

    Ruiz is collaborating with Professor John Vandermeer, U-M EEB, and Dr. Íñigo Granzow-de laCerda (University of Barcelona, Spain, a former assistant research scientist at U-M EEB) on thestudy of the regenerating hurricane forests of Eastern Nicaragua.

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    Undine Jost Zengel(B.Sc. Biology 1984)

    We heard from Undine Jost Zengel who wrote this about an article on the Museum of Zoology movein the September 2012 EEB enewsletter: “Thank you so much for this newsletter! The article onmoving the collection is particularly interesting to me as my student job was to check both the fluidand bone collections against the old volumes of data. I also worked on numbering bat bones (theyhave a lot, and very tiny!) as a student and spent many, many hours in the field museum.”

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    Ryan Bebej(Ph.D. EEB 2011)

    Ryan Bebej accepted a position as assistant professor in the Biology Department at his alma mater,Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. He’ll be teaching courses in anatomy, physiology, andevolution beginning in the fall of 2012. “I plan to continue collaborating with folks in the Museum ofPaleontology at U-M and will be getting undergraduate students at Calvin involved in those researchprojects,” Bebej said.

    Home > Alumni : Alumni News

    EEB buzz -- alumni news

    Send your news to [email protected]. We're interested in where you're working, your contact information, newpublications, awards, honors. If you have a good story to tell, we'd like to hear your latest adventures. We'll publish some of thisinformation on our website. Don't forget photos!

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    Archived alumni newsArchive 2009 - 2011

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  • Aley Joseph(M.S. EEB 2010, M.P.H. Epidemiology 2011)

    Aley Joseph graduated from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in December 2011(MPH Epidemiology). She was hired as an epidemiologist in January 2012 for the California RuralIndian Health Board, a health research and consulting company that was founded by and servesrural Native American tribes in California.

    “I am coordinating an NIH-funded dental health intervention study right now. It has been great so far,"said Joseph.

    The California Rural Indian Health Board was formed to provide a central focal point in the Indianhealth field in California for planning, advocacy, funding, training, technical assistance, coordination,fundraising, education, development and for the purpose of promoting unity and formulating commonpolicy on Indian health care issues.

    Alumnus feature on Sophia Holley Ellis(B.A. Biology and German 1949, M.S. Botany 1950, M.A. German 1964)

    Sophia Holley Ellis retired in June 2006 after 56 years as a biology and German teacher in theDetroit Public Schools. Over the years, she has privately funded several students’ college education.Now, through a $25,000 gift creating the Sophia Holley Ellis Scholarship endowment, Ellis will extendher support to students with financial need in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts – withpriority given to students from the Detroit Public Schools. The scholarship was established in June2009 with the first one awarded during academic year 2011-2012.

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    Prosanta Chakrabarty(Ph.D. EEB 2006)

    Prosanta Chakrabarty recently wrote a book called, "A Guide to Academia: Getting into andsurviving grad school, postdocs and a research job," published by Wiley. It is now available onAmazon.

    “I started writing the book as a little side project without much intention of it being anything but a littlepamphlet reference to give to undergrads and grad students,” Chakrabarty said. “I wanted to put allthe advice I was given by lots of good people (mostly at Michigan) onto paper. I had about 50 or sopages when I was approached by an editor for Wiley at a scientific conference who wanted to knowif I had any ideas for books. (He sought me out because of some of the press I was getting duringthe oil spill in Louisiana.)

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    Mindy (Greenblatt) Streem(B.S. Biology 2001, B.M.A. Voice Performance 2001, M.S. RackhamOrthodontics)

    After her graduation from the University of Michigan, Mindy Streem attended the Harvard School ofDental Medicine and graduated with a D.M.D. in 2005. She then returned to U-M for her residency inorthodontics through the Rackham Graduate School. In 2008, she got her M.S. in orthodontics fromRackham. Since that time, she moved to Solon, Ohio, where she started an orthodontic practicecalled Streem Orthodontics. She lives in Solon with her husband, Jason, (a 2005 graduate of U-MDental School and a periodontist), and her son, Sam, who was born in October 2010. She is duewith her second child in July 2012. (email)

  • Richard T. Hanlin(Ph.D. Botany/Mycology 1961)

    After completing his doctoral dissertation in August 1960, Richard Hanlin, professor emeritus,accepted a position as mycologist in the Department of Plant Pathology of the Georgia ExperimentStation in Griffin, a unit of the University of Georgia College of Agriculture. Hanlin conductedresearch on plant pathogenic ascomycetes. In 1967, he moved to the main campus in Athens andadded teaching and mentoring graduate students to his research duties. Later in his career, hedeveloped collaborative research projects in Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and other countries. Hanlinretired in June 2001 after 41 years' service. Since that time he has continued to work as a volunteerin the Mycological Herbarium of the Georgia Museum of Natural History and he regularly attends theMycological Society of America meetings.

    Maggie Morris(B.S. Biology 1995)

    Maggie Morris received a Junior Faculty Award from the American Diabetes Association for her grantentitled "The role of macrophage 12/15-lipoxygenase in the innate autoimmune responses of type 1diabetes" in the summer of 2011. “I received this news just one week before the birth of our seconddaughter,” said Morris. “It's been an exciting summer for me, to say the least! All the best as you leadthe EEB into its second decade!” she wrote to Professor and Chair Deborah Goldberg.

    Dr. Morris is an assistant professor of research in the Department of Internal Medicine at EasternVirginia Medical School.

    Jonathan Nelson Wu(M.S. Biology 1990)

    Jonathan Nelson Wu is assistant dean for academic programs at Temple University, Japan Campus.He teaches introductory courses in biology and mathematics.

    Gail L. McCormick(B.S. Biology/EEB concentration 2010, B.T.A. Theatre Arts)

    Gail McCormick is a Ph.D. candidate in the ecology program at Penn State. She also has anunusual artistic flair for paper cutting and all things paper.

    According to a blog post on All Things Paper by Ann Martin, McCormick began making collage-likebirthday cards while in college and was hooked. This led to more complex designs. “I think it's prettyincredible Gail can capture so much expression by layering cut pieces of paper,” writes Martin.

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    David Alonso(former postdoctoral fellow with Professor Mercedes Pascual)

    Dr. David Alonso, former postdoctoral fellow in Professor Mercedes Pascual’s lab, was awarded aRamon y Cajal Fellowship from the Spanish Government in 2010. Alonso is an assistant researchprofessor at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB), part of the Spanish Institution ofScientific Research (CSIC). He moved back to Spain in July 2011 to start the five-year position. TheCSIC has several ecology centers across Spain; the Biological Station of Donana in Sevilla is bestknown worldwide. “Blanes is a smaller center with potential to grow,” he said. “I am looking forwardto contributing to the findings and research of this center.”

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  • Judith Bronstein(M.S. EEB 1981, Ph.D. EEB 1986)

    Dr. Judith Bronstein has been selected as a University Distinguished Professor in the Department ofEcology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. This is the highest honor awarded bythe university to faculty members with outstanding records of creative scholarship and exceptionalcontributions to teaching, advising and mentoring of undergraduate students. Bronstein’s Ph.D.dissertation was titled “Coevolution and constraints in a neotropical fig-pollinator wasp mutualism.”Her advisor was Professor Beverly Rathcke.

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    Education Stage Program Description

    INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

    UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANDEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

    Undergraduate:1st - 2nd year

    ED-QUE2ST-

    Undergraduate:3rd- 4th year

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    Enhancing Diversity, Qual-ity, and Understanding the

    Ecological and Evolutionary Sciences for Tomorrow

    umich.eduUM EEB ecology & evolution eNews February 2011University of Michigan - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - Jasmine CrumseyEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan: NewsUniversity of Michigan - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - Celia ChurchillEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of MichiganUniversity of Michigan - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - Susanna MessingerEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan: NewsEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan: Events: Thursday seminar: Warren Herb Wagner Guest Lecture in Plant Evolution: Cultivated and wild: using single cell genomics to understand algal evolution: Dr. Debashish Bhattacharya, Rutgers UniversityEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan: NewsUniversity of Michigan - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - Deborah GoldbergEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan: NewsEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of MichiganEcology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michiganhttp://www.lsa.umich.edu/eeb/documents/diversity_programs_01-11.pdf

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