Department of

Biological Sciences

Eastern Illinois University

Spring 2014

BioBriefsBioBriefs

Annual Spring Picnic May 3, 2014 Please join the Biological Sciences faculty, staff, annuitants, and your fellow alums for our 3rd Annual Spring Alumni Picnic on May 3rd at 11:30 am at the Campus Pond Pavilion. Lunch served at noon.

Come catch up with your professors, emeritus faculty, colleagues & fellow alumni while also visiting with our retiring faculty members: Kip McGilliard, Andy Methven, Henry Owen and Nancy Coutant

Activities Include:

Student Tug O’ War Activities for Kids

Networking & more….

PLEASE RSVP

American Association for the Advancement of Science 2014 (AAAS)

Eiu biological sciences represented at

Several students received honorable mention at the 2014 AAAS Stu-dent Poster Competition for best poster presentations at the national AAAS conference held in Chicago, IL in February 2014. Honorable mention in the category of Brain and Behavior was shared by Eric Hendricks (graduate student co-mentored by Michael Menze and Brit-to Nathan) and Austin Tofte (Menze mentee). From the Thomas Canam Lab, receiving Honorable Mention in the category of Science in Society were Erin Tuegel (graduate student), Sunil Thapa (graduate student in the Sustainable Energy Program) and Michael Bilek (undergraduate student). This conference is heavily populated with students from Ivy League universities, making this recognition even more impressive. These students will be announced in an upcoming is-sue of Science Magazine. A memorable moment for Blake Stokich (undergraduate honors student) was when he was asked how it could it be that he is presenting his novel cell-preservation method at the meeting without having a patent filed.

STUDENT RESEARCH IS A PRIORITY

R. to L. Michael Bilek, Sunil Thapa,

Blake Stokich, Eric Hendricks

Visit Our Website! Click on the “Why choose EIU” link to

view short videos highlighting student research/internship activities in BIO

Let Us Know What You’re Up To!

Create or update your BIO Alumni Profile

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RECEIVES 2014

INTEGRATIVE LEARNING AWARD

The accomplishments of the Biological Sciences Department have been acknowledged by Provost Lord

again this year. The Department has received the Integrative Learning Award under the category of

“Making High Impact Experiences Central and Integrative within a Degree Program.”

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BIO FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

Dr. Britto Nathan was the recipient of the 2013 Dean's

Award of Excellence in Summer Research and Creative

Activity at EIU.

Dr. Gary Bulla was the recipient of the 2013 Dean's Award

of Excellence in Fall Research and Creative Activity at EIU

Bio faculty received 5 Summer and 6 Fall research awards

from EIU's Council for Faculty Research.

Dr. Andrew Methven was the recipient of the 2013 Luis

Clay Mendez Distinguished Service Award from EIU.

Dr. Kip McGilliard was the Grand Marshal of the EIU 2013

Homecoming parade.

Dr. Stephen Mullin was named Chief Editor of the Journal

Herpetologica, the most cited journal in the discipline. Steve’s research efforts were also highlighted by on-site

interview for the BBC series “Nature” regarding his work

with brownsnake population monitoring at Fox Ridge State

Park.

Dr. Britto Nathan is the recipient of the 2014 College of

Sciences Lawrence A. Ringenberg Award.

Sarah Huck Tracks Catfish The Rob Colombo lab has recently been featured in the Mattoon Journal Gazette-Times Courier as well as the Daily Eastern News, high-lighting the work of Sarah Huck and the catfish tracking project along the Wabash River. Huck surgically im-plants a transmitter into each fish, and is able to get a complete look into a vari-ety of aspects of a catfish’s life. The collected data

gives insight into flathead catfish movement and habi-tat throughout the year. Ad-ditionally, each fish receives a Floy tag in its dorsal fin which gives it an identifica-tion number and contact information for the re-

searcher. Fishermen may harvest the catfish, but Sarah requests that if the fish is harvested, that the tag number be sent back along with the reusa-ble transmitter which helps continue the research. Sarah is a recent graduate from the Masters pro-gram in Biological Sciences and is now a research assistant with Dr. Colombo. Click for complete feature from EIU 360

AFS Annual Meeting Awards Manisha Pant was one of four recipients of the 2014 Larimore Student Research Grant from the Illinois Chapter of the Ameri-can Fisheries Society (IL AFS). Vaskar Nepal was the recipient

of 2013 "Lewis L. Osborne Student Paper Award" at the Annual meet-ing of the Illinois American Fisheries Society and he was presented with

the plaque award during 2014 an-nual meeting. Sharon Rayford re-ceived the Joan Duffy Student Travel Award to attend the 2014 Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference, a joint honor given by the Illinois Chapter of the American Fisheries Society and the North Central Division of

the American Fisheries Division.

AUSTRIA TRIP

Eric Hendricks trav-

eled with mentor Dr.

Michael Menze to

Innsbruck, Austria in

the Fall of 2013 to

present his research

at the Mitochondrial

Physiology (MiP)

Conference. Hendricks’ research focuses on the bioen-

ergetics of Alzheimer’s Disease using a mouse model.

Eric said this conference was attended by some of the

greatest minds in this field of science, including Sir John

Walker who received a Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work

on the mitochondrial ATP synthase. Eric said he was

grateful to represent EIU and show the world our excel-

lence in research by presenting his scientific work.