Publications and presentations by faculty and students
H&S Educational Grant Initiative recipients in the department during the fall semester are: § Sofia Windstam, “Hands-on Projects in Biology Class” § Ed Cluett, “Role of rab proteins in cholesterol trafficking”
Philip Feinberg has been awarded Bernard Family Research Fund has been granted. The award will be used to defray a portion of the travel expenses for Phil’s attendance at the Society for Neuroscience meetings in Chicago on Oct 19-21 where he will present his research in a poster entitled: Molecular analysis of NOS mRNA expression in the guinea pig intrinsic cardiac plexus”. The work has been conducted under Jean Hardwick.
Allison Girasole has been awarded a Bernard Scholarship. This scholarship is to awarded to juniors and seniors in the biological science program based on financial need and good academic standing. The award is made possible by a generous donation from John M. Bernard, a professor of Biology for many years at Ithaca College who retired in 1999.
Noelle Litra ('11) is this year's recipient of the Biology Department’s George A. Gonzalez-Gallardo Scholarship. This scholarship was established in memory of George A. Gonzalez-Gallardo, a 1979 graduate. Recipients must demonstrate high academic achievement. Noell more than meets these criteria with an outstanding academic record and class standing.
David Seidorf (Biology ’10) is this year's recipient of the Jason Dickens Memorial Award. This award is given in honor of Jason Dickens, who was an Ithaca College Biology major. Jason hoped to attend medical school and to use his talents to serve society as a physician. Tragically he was the victim of a boating accident in the summer of 1998.
The Bernard Family Undergraduate Research Fund was established to support undergraduate research in biology. It provides stipends for summer research, funding for student travel to meetings and as needed, supplies and equipment necessary for students to carry out their projects. Recipients included:
Congratulations to those inducted into TriBeta! TriBeta has evolved to become a nationally recognized professional honor society whose purposes are to promote scholarship in the biological sciences, growth in biological knowledge and to encourage research. View the pdf of the photos here.
Brian Felschow
Matt Zeitler
Phil Feinberg
Ally Girasole
Lauren Houdek
Noah Mishkin
Cole Lechleiter
Andrew Bradshaw
Phi Kappa Phi inductees must be of good character and possess notable academic achievements. To qualify for membership, juniors must be in the upper 5 percent of their class and maintain a 3.7 grade point average; seniors must maintain a 3.6 grade point average and be in the upper 10 percent of their graduating class; graduate and professional students must rank in the upper 10 percent of all graduate and professional students currently enrolled and have been registered for at least two semesters. The seniors inducted this year have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.8 or better; the juniors, 3.8 or better and the graduate students, 3.9 or better.
The Biology and Biochemistry student inductees are:
Students and Faculty Inducted into Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Ten students and four faculty members were inducted into Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, on April 29. The students and faculty were elected to membership because of their research achievements or potential. The following are from the Biology Department and Biochemistry program:
Students, their majors, and faculty sponsors:
Faculty member:
Leann Kanda
Susan Swensen is one of the five recipients of the 2008-9 Faculty Excellence Awards. New criteria this year emphasized exceptional performance in all areas of the faculty role, including teaching, scholarship, and service. This year's award recipients are recognized for a wide variety of accomplishments, such as innovative teaching, significant scholarly achievements, exemplary service, and demonstrated support for key College values and initiatives.
Anne Stork has been awarded the School of Humanities and Sciences Awards Experiential Learning Curriculum Enhancement Grant. This grant is awarded to enhance courses.
Course: Environmental Science II Research/Service Learning Models
Goal: to develop a new course, Environmental Science II: Science and Technology, that will be part of the Core Curriculum of the Environmental Studies Program. This course will incorporate experiential learning content through a sustainability pilot project laboratory module (lasting four weeks) and a hands-on service learning assignment to be integrated with course content. I will enhance the laboratory module (used in a previous course) to insure that students make stronger connections between their individual projects and course content. I will devise the service learning assignment, which will last throughout the semester, to help students recognize how knowledge learned in the classroom can be applied to solve real world issues; I will require students to develop a contract with the host organization and to develop a project that incorporates mutual benefits and reflection on learning to meet this outcome.
Congratulations to the top 5 scorers on the recent Majors Field Test! They each received a gift card.
Leann Kanda has received a summer research grant from the Provost's Office at Ithaca College. Her project is titled, "Movement ecology in muskrat: The influence of personalities, social interactions, and predators". Leann and her research students will be radio-tracking muskrat to observe individual variation in exploratory and dispersal movements. Animal movements in the field will be compared to their movements in captive tests. By also tracking mink, the predator of the muskrat, the Kanda research lab will observe the spatial component of the predator-prey interactions.
As announced on Intercom, the National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of approximately $150,000 to four faculty members in the School of Humanities and Sciences for their project, entitled "Multidisciplinary Sustainability Modules: Integrating STEM Courses".
The proposed project will create a framework for incorporating multidisciplinary projects in scientific education. Specifically, the project will focus on the rich set of problems encountered in sustainability in order to formulate how they can be tackled by students from different disciplines working collectively, iteratively, but not necessarily simultaneously, over a set of online tools for exchanging data, code, reports, and expertise. This award is effective June 1, 2009, and expires May 31, 2012.
Congratulations to the first year student Dean's List recipients:
Nicole Johnson is this winner of the Fred Kastenbaum Pre-Health Award for Fall 2008. Major: Biology, Minor: Physics, Year: Junior. Nicole grew up in a very small town in Pennsylvania called Little Meadows. She lives there with her mom, dad, little brother, grandmother, and pet St. Bernard. Since she was young she has always been interested in some aspect of medicine. For the longest time she wanted to be a vet, but once she realized that she would have to euthanize the animals, she changed my mind. Since then she has been interested in how the human body works. This interest sparked her career goal of today, which is to practice medicine while conducting research to further our knowledge of the human body.
Recipients of the Peggy R. Williams Award for Academic and Community Leadership include two BIOLOGY students. The students are among a select group of students at Ithaca College that have demonstrated outstanding performance in both academic and nonacademic endeavors during their years here. The individuals have been selected to be listed among the finest students in the nation!
Caitlin Baran (Biochemistry December ’08) was one of 16 applicants to be selected for a summer research experience at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland in the summer of 2008. Caitlin was the only applicant from the United States selected for this program.
Zach Cava and Lauren Houdek have been awarded a Bernard Scholarship. This scholarship is to awarded to juniors and seniors in the biological science program based on financial need and good academic standing. The award is made possible by a generous donation from John M. Bernard, a professor of Biology for many years at Ithaca College who retired in 1999.
Jason Hamilton and his colleagues' work is reported in "Sustaining a sustainable education" in the Ithaca Times newspaper. They have recently submitted a proposal to found New Roots School, a charter school in Ithaca. The goal is to create a sustainability-based high school, in which students are taught through integration of theories and practices of sustainable education. If accepted, the school will open in September 2009 with an anticipated 50 ninth and 50 tenth grade students. View the full Ithaca Times story here.
Jean Hardwick received a grant from the Provost to help support attendance to the Undergraduate Neuroscience Education conference in St. Paul, MN this summer.
Johanna Baker is the proud recipient of Challenge Industries’ Anniversary Award. It was given to her in
recognition of her 20 years of service and outstanding employment success in their agency. Of those 20 years, she has had continuous service in the Biology and Psychology Departments.
