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Academic Calendar

August 30: First Day of Classes for Fall

September 6: Labor Day Holiday

September 13: Last Day of Schedule Adjustment for Fall

October 7: Faculty/Staff Convocation

November 8: Last Day to Drop with a W

December 10: Last Day of Classes for Fall

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 Upcoming Events

If you are interested in learning more about supporting the College of Life Sciences, please contact Bruce Shatswell, Assistant Dean for Development and Corporate Relations, bashatswell@umd.edu, 301-405-0295.

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Dr. Earlene Armstrong, Entomology, is featured in two articles about the third annual Insect Summer Camp (Gazette Newspapers July 22 and Washington Post July 24 ). Enrollment in the camp she originated has grown from 17 to 120 since its inception.

Dr. Michael Doyle, Chemistry and Biochemistry, received a 1-year, $44,500 grant from NIH for “Mentoring for the Future in Academic Chemistry.”

Dr. Margaret Palmer, Entomology and Biology, is quoted in a July 11 Washington Times article about the invasion by bear and deer into urban areas. The story references Palmer et al.’s May 28 Science paper, “Ecology for a crowded planet” (Science 304 (28 May 2004): 1251-1252), which calls for a new approach to how people think about conserving wildlife. She says that “traditional ecology has focused on nature without humans and viewed humans as only destroying or damaging nature.” Preservationists “cannot save nature just to save nature any more," she says, but rather need to start accepting humans as part of wildlife.

Dr. Arthur Popper, Biology, gave a keynote talk at the Third International Symposium on Fish Otolith Research and Application in mid-July in Townsville, Australia. Dr. Popper's talk was titled "Sciaenid Fishes: A 'Model' System for Studies of Fish Otolith Organ Structure and Function."

Dr. Michael Raupp, Entomology, received a 2-year, $40,700 grant from the USDA for “Efficacy of Systemic Insecticides and an Insect Growth Regulator to Control Armored Scales on Eastern Hemlock, Tsuga canadensis” and a 1-year, $7,000 grant from the Tree Research & Education Endowment Fund for “Do Eradication Programs for Exotic
Wood Borers Result in Mite Outbreaks?” Also, Dr. Raupp comments on the aftermath of the cicada invasion of May and June in a July 6 USA Today article, a July 9 Washington Post article, and in a CNN.com story July 10. But Dr. Raupp studies more than cicadas; he and his colleagues surveyed the problems of 30,000 landscape plants in a July 16 South Jersey Courier Post article.

Dr. Steven Rokita, Chemistry and Biochemistry, received a 2-year, $80,000 grant from the American Chemical Society for “Criteria for Efficient Transfer of Excess Electrons.”

Dr. Paula Shrewsbury, Entomology, received a 2-year, $7,000 grant from Maryland Nurserymen's Association Horticultural Research Foundation, Inc. for “Efficacy and Cost Comparison of Low Toxicity Pesticides for Controlling Potato Leafhopper in Maryland Nurseries.”

Dr. Barbara Thorne, Entomology, received a 3-year, $375,000 grant from NSF for “Intraspecific Interactions Among Dampwood Termite Colonies Nesting Within a Limited Resource: Implications for the Evolution of Eusociality in Isoptera.” In previous studies, Dr. Thorne and her lab group demonstrated that inevitable meetings between termite families living within the same piece of wood result in assassination of some reproductives, merging of remaining populations of the two colonies, and differentiation of some helpers into new reproductives. In this research, Thorne will continue to explore whether this competitive circumstance provides a missing link in explaining how offspring helpers would have opportunities to inherit their parents’ nest resources. The same context of battles between neighboring colonies frequently produces reproductive soldiers, a highly unusual termite caste that can be aggressive during intercolony fights and therefore appears to be a precursor to modern, sterile soldier termites. Experimental manipulations and molecular genetic tools will be used to more precisely understand the origin of specialized termite castes and underlying dynamics that favored the evolution of their complex societies.

Research conducted by Dr. Sarah Tishkoff, Biology, and Dr. Brian Verrelli, a former postdoc in Dr. Tishkoff’s lab, is highlighted in a July 14 Scientific American article. The article summarizes their study as follows: "Eight percent of men experience red-green color blindness, which results from mutations in genes that code for light-sensitive pigments. But a new study suggests that even men who aren't color blind may see the world differently than women do, thanks to natural selection." The study was also reported in Europe Intelligence Wire (Medical Device Link) July 8. The research will appear in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Dr. William Walters, Chemistry and Biochemistry, will serve on the Academic Planning Advisory Committee (APAC) for the next three years. According to the APAC web site, faculty are chosen for APAC "for their judgment, commitment to the campus, scholarship, and teaching accomplishments and should represent a diversity of disciplines, experience, and perspectives.”

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Laura Craig, a graduate assistant in Biology, and Dr. Kaci Thompson, instructor in Biology and the College’s Director of Undergraduate Research and Internship Programs, are featured in a July 8 Gazette Newspapers article about the Maryland Science Explorers program. As “science detectives,” middle school students use scientific techniques such as fingerprinting, hair and fiber analysis, handwriting interpretation and forensic anthropology to help solve mock crimes.

Deborah Finke, an Entomology graduate student, and her advisor, Dr. Robert Denno, Entomology, received a 2-year, $9,000 grant from NSF for her dissertation research, “The Mediating Effects of Food Web Structure and Habitat Complexity on the Occurrence of Terrestrial Trophic Cascades.”

Christina Kennedy, a second-year BEES student, received a $24,000 graduate fellowship from NASA, renewable for up to three years, to study “Impacts of Land Cover and Land Use Change on Bird Communities of the Mayan Forests of the Southern Yucatan Peninsula.” Christina is jointly advised by Dr. William Fagan, Biology, and Dr. Ruth DeFries, Geography.

Departmental Awards

Distinguished Teaching Assistants: Entomology and CBMG

Congratulations to the following graduate students in the Departments of Entomology and Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, who have been named Distinguished Teaching Assistants for 2004 by the Center for Teaching Excellence:

Biology Awards

Seth Coleman won the Department of Biology’s "Outstanding Research Award" for 2004. Seth, a doctoral candidate in the lab of Dr. Gerald Borgia, studies the development of male display traits in satin bowerbirds. His research team published a paper in April in Nature (“Variable female preferences drive complex male displays” (Nature 428: 742-745, April 2004), and he was interviewed by the media regarding those findings. (For more information, see article in May 2004 newsletter.)

Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics

The following graduate students received CBMG awards for meritorious contributions in summer 2004:

Chemistry and Biochemistry

See article in the July newsletter for graduate student awards in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

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