Letter From The Chair UA Conservation Biology Society Re-IMAGINE Life
Graduate Student Summer Research Biology Outreach
Retirement of Dr. Stephen Secor New Greenhouse Enhances Plant Research Gregory Starr named Alabama Water Institute Distinguished Faculty Fellow
Former Graduate Student Spotlight: Dr. Nathan Whelan Raising the Biology Research Profile New Faculty Spotlight Celebrating Scholarship
Department of Biological Sciences Main Office -1325 Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) (205) 348-1807 bscacademics@ua.edu Box 870344
The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL 3548-0344
Arboretum
4801 Arboretum Way Tuscaloosa, AL 35404 (205) 553-3278 arbor@ua.edu
Tanglewood Biological Station
496 Tanglewood Road Akron, AL 35441 (205) 348-3227 jalampley@ua.edu
I am delighted to share news about the recent expansion of our departmental research foci. Last year our proposal for a cluster faculty hire in Neurosciences was enthusiastically approved by the College and the Provost. We conducted an extensive search, and this Fall we welcomed our first new neuroscience faculty member. Dr. Atulya Iyengar joined UA from the University of Iowa where he was a post-doctoral researcher. His research focuses on identifying key genetic and physiological processes that promote resilient motor circuit function. In the Spring, Dr. Nicole Ackermans will join us from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York where she is a post-doctoral researcher investigating traumatic brain injury (TBI) in headbutting animals as a model for chronic TBI in humans. We will continue to expand our neuroscience group with another faculty hire this year. We are truly excited about the contributions that this group of faculty will bring to our research and education mission. This Fall we also welcomed Dr. Steven Thomas as our new Bishop Professor in Aquatic Biology. Dr. Thomas is a prominent aquatic scientist joining us from the University of Nebraska where he was a professor in the School of Natural Resources. Dr. Thomas is currently serving as the president of the Society for Freshwater Science, which is the largest international organization that promotes further understanding of freshwater ecosystems and ecosystems at the interface between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Dr. Terry McGinn will join us in the Spring from Nebraska Wesleyan University where she was an associate professor and department chair. Dr. McGinn’s research experience is in microbiology and virology, and she has extensive teaching experience in the fields of microbiology and molecular and cellular biology. Dr. John Finger joined the Department as an assistant professor. Dr. Finger was previously at Auburn University with expertise in environmental toxicology and immunotoxicology. His research focuses on how anthropogenic stressors impact the physiology of turtles and alligators. Dr. Jayne Lampley also joined us as an assistant professor and will take the helm at the Arboretum as its Director. Dr. Lampley was most recently investigating habitat and land-use change utilizing NASA earth observations to inform conservation efforts. Her research focuses on the evolutionary history, distribution, and chemistry of native herbaceous plants. In her role as the Director, Dr. Lampley plans to expand research and community engagement at the Arboretum in the coming years. Learn more about opportunities at the Arboretum by visiting their website (arboretum.ua.edu).
This past year we had several faculty who were recognized for their contributions and achievements. Dr. Laura Reed was recognized as the thirty-first winner of the Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor award the university’s highest distinction given to a faculty member in recognition for their exceptional work. Dr. Michael McKain received the 2022 Outstanding Commitment to Teaching award from the University of Alabama National Alumni Association. Dr. Kaleb Heinrich was selected as a Distinguished Teaching Fellow in the College of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Matthew Jenny received the Outstanding Commitment to Students award, presented by the Leadership Board of the College of Arts & Sciences, for service in the advancement of students beyond the classroom. Dr. Gregory Starr was selected as the 2022 Distinguished Alabama Water Institute Faculty Fellow in recognition for outstanding contributions to research and education programs that significantly advance UA’s interdisciplinary water-related communities of science. We are so proud of our colleagues and their achievements!
Our faculty also had an exceptional year with funding from multiple federal and state agencies. Dr. Kaleb Heinrich and his collaborators
at Portland State University, Oregon State University, Georgia State University, and University of California, Irvine received a $2,883,565 award from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program of the National Science Foundation. This award titled Evolving the culture of biology: promoting graduate teaching assistant professional development to foster inclusion, efficacy, and evidencebased practices focuses on developing new training approaches for graduate teaching assistants to engage in intentional, inclusive, evidence-based teaching practices in Biology. Dr. Lukasz Ciesla is lead investigator on a recent National Institute of Health award. His team, including UA researchers Dr. Chtarbanova-Rudloff and Dr. Maitra, will be testing the effectiveness of dietary supplements developed by their colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University for ameliorating acute and age-related neuroinflammation. Dr. Julie Olson was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency to trace biological contaminants in the Mobile Basin. Dr. Kenneth Hoadley received funding from the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) to establish Mobile Bay as one of the sites used for monitoring the occurrences of harmful algal blooms. Dr. Kevin Kocot, along with his collaborators, was funded by the Alabama Center of Excellence to develop a framework to use meiofaunal communities as indicators of short-term disturbances and long-term changing environmental conditions along the Alabama coast. Whether biomedical or environmental research in and around Alabama or across the globe our faculty are conducting impactful research and providing opportunities for our undergraduate students to engage in laboratory research, and our graduate students to pursue research that will lead to their degrees.
Together with the College of Arts & Sciences, the Department made significant investments in our research infrastructure. We acquired a multiphoton confocal microscope that will provide new research opportunities in neuroscience within the Department and at UA. We also funded the construction of a 3,700 sq ft research greenhouse at the UA Arboretum. The facility is split into three equally sized bays to allow for a diversity in growing conditions. In its first year of operation, the greenhouse has already supported the dissertations of three Ph.D. students and theses of two M.S. students. We look forward to expanding this infrastructure and growing our Botany and Plant Ecology research group within the coming years. If you are visiting Tuscaloosa, we will be happy to arrange a tour for you to see the diversity of research and some of the unique plants at the facility.
We are also continuing to expand our engagement with the greater Tuscaloosa community and throughout the state of Alabama. In Fall 2019 our graduate students formed the Conservation Biology Society with the goal of promoting grassroots movements for local conservation efforts and I am truly impressed with their dedication. They have led several biodiversity surveys in and across northern Alabama, and with the help of the community, they have organized efforts that led to the removal of significant amounts of debris from the nearby ecosystems. Students in our Biology Outreach course continue to create hands-on science lessons that they teach to local K-12 students. During the spring 2022 semester, 28 students served 224 community service hours by teaching 140 K-12 students at the Boys & Girls Clubs of West Alabama. We continue our work with students so that they can become effective science communicators and to expose students to various careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
This past summer we welcomed the first cohort of undergraduate students as part of Re-IMAGiNE (Integrating Mechanisms of Adaptation with Genes in Networks and across Environments) Life: an NSF Funded Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), led by Dr. Julie
Olson and Dr. Michael McKain. This NSF-REU award provided funding for a cohort of 10 students to our join our Department in various research labs over a 10-week period. We will bring in two additional cohorts for the next two summers. With our commitment to providing students with access to cutting-edge research in STEM fields and beyond, Dr. Olson and Dr. McKain are providing amazing opportunities to improve undergraduate research experiences in our Department.
The Department of Biological Sciences has benefited from the record-breaking freshman enrollment UA has experienced. This resulted in the largest number of incoming students enrolling in our freshman introductory biology course for majors. In the fall of 2021, the Department of Biological Sciences experienced a 12.5% increase in enrollment for our BSC 114, Principles of Biology I, course.
During the 2021-2022 academic year, the Department supported 1,928 undergraduate majors and 119 graduate students, while also awarding 295 bachelor’s degrees, 20 master’s degrees and 4 doctoral degrees. During this time, the Department also supported 692 undergraduate minors from our five different minor’s programs and awarded 165 minors to graduating seniors. This fall also marks a record enrollment with 8,542 students, a more than 2% increase from last year. Many of these students will benefit from your generosity and support of our scholarship funds. If you are interested in supporting our students by contributing to these funds, please contact me by email at bmortazavi@ ua.edu or by phone at 205-348-9810. Finally, we are always happy to engage with prospective students, current students, and alumni! If you are considering becoming an undergraduate or a graduate student or are interested in learning about what we are doing in the department, I encourage you to visit our website (bsc.ua.edu), send me an email, or give me a call. I am always excited to share what is happening in our Department, and I would love to hear from you!
BEHZAD MORTAZAVI Professor and Department Chair Department of Biological Sciences
“To prevent the worst-case scenario of climate change and the biodiversity crisis we need sweeping change at the highest levels, but we as individuals also need to wake up to the power we wield as members of the ecological community of Earth. The power of the individual cannot be ignored, and our group continues to pursue grassroots, local action that will ultimately precipitate the high-level changes we need.” – Tom Franzem, Ph.D. student and founding president of the UA Conservation Biology Society.
A graduate student-led organization, the Conservation Biology Society (CBS) was founded in Fall 2019. Not only does the CBS focus on discussing and disseminating conservation relevant information, but they also pursue grassroots movements to promote local conservation efforts. While the CBS was originally founded as a weekly paper discussion group, members soon realized they shared a desire to engage in local activism, advocacy, and service. This led to CBS becoming an officially recognized UA student organization in 2020.
When asked about the goal of CBS, Tom said, “…to provide people with a place to learn about and discuss topics related to conservation and ecology, and engage with local government, conservation organizations, and student groups in outreach, advocacy, and service. We, as a group, are trying to do what we can to help local biodiversity, educate people about why biodiversity matters, and promote ecologically-sustainable attitudes and habits.”
Current president and Ph.D. student Kevin Shaw also spoke to the importance of educating early-career scientists about methods for studying biodiversity, in addition to documenting biodiversity itself. “…[events held and shared by CBS] provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to learn from their peers and experience organismal sampling methods beyond those that they may be familiar with. These are absolutely opportunities to add skills that are advantageous in careers in biology.”
Not only does CBS support undergraduate and graduate students, but the organization also supports our local community with efforts such as engaging in regular litter cleanups – two cleanups in March and April 2022 alone resulted in the removal of over 740 pounds of litter from roadways around Tuscaloosa! Group members also have the chance to engage in a multitude of outreach and education opportunities with other UA student groups, including writing letters to local government to promote local conservation action and participating in community-science biodiversity monitoring efforts that generate numerous observations. “Most recently, we’ve begun a compost drop-off service at the UA Arboretum that we hope to scale-up in the coming academic year,” said Kevin.
If you have a passion for spreading awareness about conservation and being ecologically conscious in day-to-day life or share the common goal of working to negate some of the influence modern society has on our natural world, check out CBS on social media (UA Conservation Biology Society on Facebook and @uaconservation on Twitter) to see what they are up to and how you can help. ■
Undergraduate research exposure is an important component of a student’s educational development and often the experience that stimulates scientific intrigue leading to a career in STEM. With our commitment to exposing students to cutting-edge research in STEM fields and beyond, our faculty are constantly seeking opportunities to enhance undergraduate research experiences. Professor Julie Olson and Assistant Professor Michael McKain recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for a summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. REUs provide opportunities for students from different regions to participate in summer research experiences at universities around the country with specialty focus areas.
This REU Site award for $420,873 will support the training of 10 students over 10 weeks during the summers of 2022 – 2024. A total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities or from under-represented groups, will be trained in the program. “This REU program provides research opportunities for students who might otherwise not have this experience and hopefully allows them to share in the excitement of scientific discovery,” said Dr. Olson. Students learn to conduct research under the guidance of faculty mentors with hands on involvement in one of the mentor’s research projects and present their results via a poster at the end of the experience. Some students also have the opportunity to present the results of their work at scientific conferences and contribute to peer-reviewed publications.
“Our faculty embraced the chance to share their research with the REU students and the students have been enjoying learning new techniques, gaining professional development skills, and meeting new people,” said Dr. Olson.
The theme of this REU Site is Re-IMAGiNE Life, Exploring Function through Adaptation, and it is geared toward providing students an opportunity to explore the diversity of adaptive strategies found across the tree of life, with additional focus on the network/networking part as the theme for the student professional development. Projects will explore how organisms adapt to biological and environmental stress
in fields ranging from freshwater ecology to medical microbiology to evolutionary genomics. Participants will explore all aspects of research, including literature review, research ethics training, experimental design, lab and/or field-based experimentation, data analysis, and presentation of results.
Aside from the direct scientific research experience, other important career skills are developed through seminars demonstrating novel research, field trips to Alabama research centers, and professional development activities promoting diverse science careers.
“As a first-generation woman of color interested in pursuing the STEM field, this REU program has allowed me to gain hands-on experience towards a career in ecological conservation,” said student participant Maryam Fields.
More information on the BSC REU program can be found on our website: bsc.ua.edu/degree-programs/undergraduate-studies/reuprogram. ■
For many members of the Department of Biological Sciences, summer is one of the most productive times of the year for research. Thanks to generous support of donors to the Department, we have several endowed research awards and summer fellowships that recognize talented and hard-working students and help support their research expenses or relieve them from summer teaching duties, enabling them to travel for field work or focus on experiments in the lab.
This summer, Biology Ph.D. candidates Aurora Giorgi and Matteo Monti conducted field- and laboratory-based research at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, FL. Both received support from the Department through the Bishop-Stackman Marine Science Endowed Scholarship and the Carolyn Lawless and Janice Elizabeth Innes Research Award in Marine Sciences on top of prestigious Link Fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution.
Aurora investigated whether coral larval settlement is mediated by intrinsic factors (physical or chemical characteristics of crustose coralline algae (CCA) on which coral larvae settle), by extrinsic factors (metabolites produced by the surface microbial community of the CCA) or an interaction of both. To that end, she worked with two common algal species found in the Florida Keys and tested their ability to induce settlement of coral larvae before and after antibiotic treatment aimed at reducing the bacterial community living on the algal surface. When the larvae responded positively to CCA, algal chemical extracts were
tested to identify the compounds responsible for settlement. Overall, Aurora discovered that larval response to CCA is species specific: one CCA species was shown to be an excellent substrate with or without its associated bacterial community while the other had significantly decreased larval settlement when the bacteria were reduced with antibiotics.
Lastly, among 100 bacterial strains isolated from the surface of the CCA one species remarkably stood out as it was able to induce 70% larval settlement!
Matteo’s work focused on exploring the mechanisms responsible for the success of octocorals in the Caribbean, with emphasis on their resistance to diseases that have significantly reduced the cover of other corals. He explored the ability of octocoral-derived natural products to inhibit a suite of bacteria possibly implicated in causing the worst coral disease documented so far in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic: Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). Chemical extracts of four widespread octocorals were tested against a suite of pathogenic bacteria, demonstrating the production of antimicrobial compounds by octocorals that fight these pathogens. Subsequently, he performed experiments to identify the antimicrobial chemical compounds in two species of octocorals. Overall, Matteo’s results provide possible explanations for the resistance of octocorals to SCTLD and contribute to the body of knowledge explaining the success of octocorals in the Caribbean reefs.
Sontosh Deb was the recipient of a Graduate Summer Research Fellowship in Ecology and Evolution. This summer, Sontosh stayed in Tuscaloosa where he conducted a study addressing the underlying genetic mechanisms associated with the origins of flooding tolerance in maize (corn) relatives. To do this, he designed a greenhouse experiment using one flooding-sensitive maize inbred line and three flooding-tolerant wild relatives. The studied species were subjected to three different flooding treatments and a total of 72 root and leaf tissue samples were collected for RNA extraction, transcriptome library preparation, and sequencing. He is using the sequencing data to investigate whether gene expression and recruited molecular pathways differ in maize compared to wild relatives in response to flooding. He is also conducting phylogenetic analysis of the differentially expressed genes to answer how the flooding response traits evolved in maize. Most cultivated maize is highly susceptible to flooding which leads to significant yield loss of this major crop worldwide. The identification of flooding tolerance genes will potentially help to develop flooding-tolerant cultivars, while the comparison of a crop to wild relatives demonstrates the need for crop scientists to look to nature for solutions to agricultural problems.
These are just a few examples of the exciting and important research being conducted by our graduate students. If you are interested in learning more about these awards and fellowships or helping to support graduate student research, visit our website (bsc.ua.edu). ■
To increase the love of science among students at local K-12 schools, undergraduates in the Department’s Biology Outreach course create hands-on science lessons that they teach to local K-12 students each spring and summer semester. During the 2022 spring semester, 28 UA students served 224 community service hours by teaching 140 K-12 students at the Boys & Girls Clubs of West Alabama. To celebrate Earth Day 2022, eight UA students visited Northridge Middle School and taught 8th graders about Biomes. During the 2022 summer semester, 22 UA students served 42 community service hours by teaching 320 K-12 students at The Alberta School for the Performing Arts, the I DREAM BIG summer camps at Southview Elementary and Rock Quarry Elementary, the UA Arboretum (pictured), the UA Recreation Pool, and the Children’s Hands-On Museum of Tuscaloosa. The Biology Outreach course teaches our undergraduates how to be effective science communicators while engaging local K-12 students in advanced topics within biology such as conservation, water quality, agriculture, species identification and classification, and personal health while raising awareness about STEM undergraduate majors and careers in STEM fields. ■
After twenty years of service to the Department and University, Dr. Stephen Secor officially retired in the fall of 2021.
Dr. Secor has enjoyed a long and outstanding career covering four decades in the field of Comparative Physiology. Stephen earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1992. Following
a time as a post-doctoral and research scientist in the Department of Physiology at UCLA, Stephen became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Mississippi. After three years in Mississippi, he made the move to The University of Alabama in 2001 where he rose through the ranks, earning tenure in 2006 and promoted to full professor in 2014. During this period, Stephen contributed to the Department through his teaching, extensive research, and service to the University and the surrounding community. One area of service that stands out above all was the extensive outreach program he developed to educate K-12 student about the behaviors and physiology of reptiles. Many of our alumni have interacted with Dr. Secor at the homecoming football games where you may have seen or even held one of several of his laboratory snakes as he explained their feeding behavior and physiology. His passion for these animals was well known across the University and his research community. He will be missed in the Department.
Here are some of Stephen’s many accomplishments that span his career:
• Authored or coauthored over 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters
• Received numerous research awards
• Served as Associate Editor for Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
• Served as an Editorial Board Member for International Journal of Zoology
• Served on numerous College and University Committees
The Department of Biological Sciences and The University of Alabama Arboretum through support from the College of Arts & Sciences and the Office of Academic Affairs obtained a new research greenhouse in summer 2021. The facility is located on the eastern portion of the UA Arboretum property near the community gardens. The addition of the research greenhouse provides UA scientists with much needed space to maintain plants for various projects ranging from NSF-funded work investigating the genomic changes associated with adaptation in an invasive species to flooding tolerance experiments in maize and its relatives. The 41.5’ x 90’ structure is split into three equally sized bays, each of which are closed off
from the others to allow for more diversity in growing conditions through independent lighting and environmental control systems. In fall 2022, we will see the installation of irrigation systems allowing for more controlled experiments and versatility. The facility is maintained by Dr. Michael McKain and members of his laboratory.
The Department of Biological Sciences became stewards of the greenhouse in July 2021. Since that time, the facility has become home to a collection of more than 500 accessions of Sorghum halepense (Johnsongrass), various species of grasses related to maize, a collection of agaves and close relatives, and multiple species propagated by the UA Arboretum staff. The greenhouse has supported the dissertations of three Ph.D. students and two master’s students in its first year of operation. The facility will allow more UA faculty to pursue plant-based research and enable acquisition of funding that was previously difficult to obtain due to a lack of such spaces. Though this facility has already greatly improved the capacity of plant-based research at UA, we see this as the first step to developing a stronger plant research core. As more faculty are attracted to what UA can offer, we hope to see expansion to larger and more diverse growth facilities that will allow for even more diverse plant research and allow UA to become a leader in plant biodiversity genomics and physiological ecology research in the South.
For those interested in using or touring the facilities or contributing to the facility’s expansion, contact Dr. Michael McKain (mrmckain@ua.edu). ■
The Alabama Water Institute (AWI) has selected Dr. Gregory Starr as the 2022 Distinguished AWI Faculty Fellow. The program recognizes UA faculty for outstanding research, extension and education programs that significantly advance UA’s interdisciplinary water-related communities of science.
“These AWI Fellows exemplify the depth and quality of our faculty at The University of Alabama, as well as the research they conduct,” said Scott Rayder, AWI Executive Director. “I am excited to work with these new fellows who will be terrific ambassadors for water research here in Alabama and beyond.”
Selected fellows have shown strong evidence aligning with AWI’s mission to both carry out cutting-edge and applied research and to train the next generation of scientists to provide actionable, novel solutions for a more water-secure world.
AWI Faculty Fellows serve as representatives committed to contribute to AWI’s initiatives during their term and help promote the Institute across UA, its partners, and the public. AWI Faculty Fellows also increase the visibility and impact of the institute by participating in its monthly talk series and submitting interdisciplinary AWI proposals.
The creation of the AWI demonstrated the commitment of UA to be a premier research and education institution around water-related issues. AWI’s goal is to become a world-class interdisciplinary water research institute that develops pathbreaking, holistic and environmentally friendly solutions to ensure people and ecological systems in our community, state, nation and around the world have access to clean water and are resilient to extreme events. ■
Dr. Nathan Whelan joined the Department of Biological Sciences in 2008 after finishing his B.S. at Truman State University. Dr. Whelan worked in Dr. Phil Harris’s lab on a dissertation entitled “Conservation, life history and systematics of Leptoxis Rafinesque 1819 (Gastropoda: Cerithioidea: Pleuroceridae).” After completing his Ph.D. at UA, Dr. Whelan conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. Ken Halanych at Auburn University. Dr. Whelan is currently Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Conservation Genetics Lab and an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences at Auburn University. We caught up with Dr. Whelan to ask about his time in our Department and his career since he graduated.
When I finished my undergraduate degree at a small liberal arts college (Truman State University), I was looking for the chance to continue my education at a larger research institution. I visited Tuscaloosa in the fall of my senior year, and I really enjoyed the people I met and the UA campus. At the time, I was very interested in systematics, evolutionary biology, and aquatic conservation. Given the systematics research being done at UA and the aquatic diversity in the southeast, UA seemed like the perfect place for me to get a Ph.D.
One thing I learned at UA that I think has served me well during my career is to question “common knowledge” of your respective field. In spring 2011, I was visiting the University of Florida Natural History Museum with Paul Johnson (Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources or ADCNR). We stayed with Jim Williams, a UA alum who wrote the Alabama and Florida mussel books. One night after working in the museum, we were at Jim’s house discussing future research plans, and I told him I thought it would be worth it to organize a float trip on the Cahaba River to look for the “extinct” Oblong Rocksnail. As I was telling Jim that I had spent some time looking at the museum collections of Oblong Rocksnails to determine where it was most abundant historically, Paul was behind me shaking his head at Jim as if I was crazy because the species was certainly extinct. When I noticed this, in a bit of youthful stubbornness, I knew I had to prove him wrong!
A few weeks later, on a Sunday in May, I wrangled a couple friends to go on a 10 km canoe trip looking for the Oblong Rocksnail. I found it within the first 0.5 km. I brought about 30 Oblong Rocksnails back to Paul’s facility in Marion, AL that night. The next morning, when I arrived at the Alabama Aquatic Biodiversity Center (AABC), I went in the back, grabbed a couple snails, and put them in a petri dish. Paul was on the phone, but I walked into his office, put the petri dish on his desk, and went to another building at AABC to work on another one of my dissertation chapters. I don’t think Paul believed my species ID at first, but by the end of the day I had him convinced. I owe Paul though. He has always been supportive of my research ideas, and I may not have been stubborn enough for a 10 km canoe trip if he hadn’t given me a good-natured hard time that I was misguided to think that the Oblong Rocksnail was still out there.
There were so many aspects of my time at UA that I loved. Picking a single experience would be impossible. I made lifelong friends while doing research that I’m very proud of that advanced the field. Trips to collect snails in Tennessee and Alabama with colleagues from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources that I still collaborate with were high points of my research experiences. I also really enjoyed organizing tailgates and watching the Tide win three football national championships.
One of the great aspects of my time at UA was the collaborations I developed as part of my PhD research. I still collaborate with Jeff Garner and Paul Johnson from the ADCNR. I also still collaborate with Ellen Strong, Chair of Invertebrate Zoology, Research Zoologist and Curator of Mollusks at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. We all recently published a phylogenomic study on Pleuroceridae (https:// doi.org/10.18061/bssb.v1i2.8419), which builds considerably on my dissertation work.
Since completing his Ph.D., Dr. Whelan has been a highly successful researcher and mentor to the next generation of biologists. He and his team are investigating evolutionary relationships within diverse groups of organisms, processes that generate biodiversity, and how environmental changes influence genetic patterns. His research program has direct implications on conservation efforts in animals ranging from endangered molluscs to fish, but he is also a leader in the field of phylogenetics where his expertise in theory and computational tools have helped the field understand which models and methods can provide the most accurate inference of evolutionary relationships. At the time of writing this article, he has published 42 peer-reviewed journal articles including several in top journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Nature Communications, and Molecular Ecology (just to name a few) and he has been awarded over $4M in research grants and fellowships since 2008. ■
Over the last year, several Biological Sciences’ faculty have secured prestigious awards from a variety of funding agencies and industry partners to study wide-ranging biological phenomena, and others have received awards in recognition of their outstanding work. Some of these are highlighted here.
Research at the interface of community and ecosystem ecology increasingly seeks to understand the functional role animals play in biogeochemical cycles. In spite of freshwater systems harboring incredible diversity, they are experiencing more rapid biodiversity losses than any other ecosystem type. The public is largely unaware of the role these diverse ecological communities play in provisioning ecosystem services. Dr. Carla Atkinson’s research merges the characterization of the functional traits of species-rich communities of freshwater mussels the most globally imperiled faunal group to critical ecosystem processes. The results of her work will integrate the concepts of biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships gained from the research objectives into the instruction of undergraduate courses, K-12 day camps, and after-school programs.
Dr. Julia Cherry’s lab received funding through an Alabama Water Resources Research Institute (AWRRI) grant and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Margaret A. Davidson Fellowship. Both awards provide support for Ph.D. student Jacob Dybiec’s dissertation research to study the interactive effects of nutrient enrichment and wave action on tidal marsh resilience in the Week’s Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Fellowship also allows Dybiec to network with NOAA professionals and community partners and provides professional development and mentoring resources.
Dr. Julia Cherry and Dr. Nate Jones are co-Principal Investigators on a NOAA Cooperative Institution for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) project adressing nature-based solutions to reduce
coastal flooding and increase community resilience along the US Gulf Coast. The multidisciplinary project, including colleagues in engineering and geography, will combine stakeholder engagement, wetland science, and state-of-the-art hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to assess the performance of wetland restoration projects as forms of nature-based solutions under different climate, hydrological, and socioeconomic scenarios. Outputs of these dynamic models will be translated into actionable data and policy guidelines for decision makers and planners in the region.
In July 2021, Dr. Lukasz Ciesla began a technology transfer proposal, titled “Cellular membrane affinity chromatography kit for drug discovery.” In collaboration with Regis Technologies, this proposal will develop cellular membrane affinity chromatography (CMAC) kits to allow for the identification of compounds present in complex matrices that specifically interact with immobilized transmembrane proteins. The newly developed CMAC kit will speed up the identification of phytochemicals targeting transmembrane proteins, and can easily be applied in drug
discovery laboratories to identify novel drug templates that can be further used to treat certain forms of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic pain, diabetes, and many other illnesses. Dr. Ciesla is a candidate for the second phase of this grant program to continue research and development of the potential product for a further two years.
Low-grade chronic inflammation accompanies human aging (inflammaging) and is thought to contribute to age-dependent decline in biological resilience and constitutes a major risk factor for chronic diseases in the elderly. This two-year project, funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), will attempt to decipher the protective mechanistic effects of the hot water extract of Centella asiatica (CAW) formulated by the Botanical Dietary Supplements Research Center (BENFRA) at the Oregon Health & Science University on acute and chronic inflammation in the genetically tractable organism Drosophilamelanogaster to promote healthy aging.
Faculty members with outstanding records of teaching and student learning are selected from nominations made by their department chairs, colleagues, and students. As part of this fellowship, Dr. Kaleb Heinrich will on a teaching advisory board, serve as a mentor for other faculty, provide advice on the assessment of teaching, participate in new faculty orientation, and work with the College of Arts & Sciences in other ways to improve its overall teaching mission. The teaching fellows receive stipends for three years to support teachingrelated projects.
The five-year project, titled “Evolving the culture of biology: Promoting graduate teaching assistant professional development to foster inclusion, efficacy, and evidence-based practices,” will develop, facilitate, and evaluate a series of regional workshops to enhance how graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs) are taught.
In collaboration with Dr. Kelly Dorgan (Dauphin Island Sea Lab) and Dr. Ken Halanych (University of North Carolina Wilmington), Dr. Kocot received Alabama Center of Excellence (ALCoE) funding to develop a framework for using microscopic marine animals (meiofauna) as indicators of disturbance. This work will investigate shallow subtidal sediment habitats off Alabama with applications to the broader Gulf of Mexico. The team will focus on meiofaunal communities around natural gas rigs and determine how rigs affect local sediment structure, how those differences in granulometry influence species diversity, and whether taxa are differentially impacted. Because meiofauna are tiny and often challenging to identify, a workshop will be held in 2023 to bring together world expert taxonomists and students from the region to build capacity in this area and generate DNA ‘barcodes’ from expert-identified specimens to facilitate future environmental DNA (eDNA) research in the region.
Dr. Jeff Lozier recently received funding from NSF for a project entitled “How many routes to the same phenotype? Genetic changes underlying parallel acquisition of mimetic color patterns across bumble bees,” which will be looking at the evolution of coloration in bumble bees. This research is being done in collaboration with Dr. Heather Hines at Penn State University and Dr. Jon Koch at the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Logan, UT.
Dr. Michael McKain recently received funding through an NSF Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR RII Track-2 FEC ) award for a project entitled “Consortium for Plant Invasion Genomics (CPING): Combining Big Data and Plant Collections to Understand Invasiveness.”
DRS. OLSON AND MCKAIN RECEIVE NSF GRANT TO ESTABLISH A RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES (REU) SITE
This three-year award provides an opportunity for ten undergraduate students, primarily from community colleges, HBCUs, and small liberal arts colleges, to come to UA each year for a 10-week intensive, summer research experience. The Re-IMAGiNE Life: Exploring Function through Adaptation site started this past summer, bringing students to Alabama from throughout the country for research experiences and professional development activities, and will continue through the summer of 2024. Read more about the new REU program in the article “Re-IMAGiNE Life: An NSF Funded Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates.”
This three-year project utilizes microbial source tracking to identify the source(s) of fecal pollution in Alabama watersheds with documented fecal contamination and partners with three Riverkeeper organizations. By determining the source of fecal pollution and mitigating its introduction into the Black Warrior, Cahaba, and Coosa Rivers, human exposure to fecal pollution will be reduced and water quality improved.
Abiotic factors — such as climate, hydrology, and geomorphology — act as “filters” that control which species can persist in a given ecosystem. How these abiotic factors interact to determine community composition is the major focus of the project “Scaling climate, connectivity, and communities in streams.” This project will develop understanding of the effects of stream drying benthic macroinvertebrate community structure, food web dynamics, and genetic connectivity across a continental gradient. This large collaborative project includes researchers from The University of Alabama, Northern Arizona University, University of Arizona, Penn State, Virginia Tech, and University of California Berkeley, and sites span across a climatic gradient from the Southeastern coastal plain to the Sierras. ■
My research involves the study of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in headbutting animals, like sheep, as a model for humans. Very little is known about how traumatic brain injury develops into chronic disease; however, by studying how it occurs in sheep over time due to their headbutting behaviors, we can develop a better understanding of how to reduce brain injury in humans.
I have always loved animals and the outdoors. I didn’t want to do research at first, I imagined myself working at a zoo or in the rainforest. But the more I experienced research, the more I became addicted to discovering new things and answering my own questions about nature. I absolutely love my job, and it beats scooping poop at the zoo any day!
Even though I have made my life more complicated by choosing to study animals like bighorn sheep and muskoxen, since they’re not easily found in a lab, I get to be the first person to find out things about their brains, and that feeling never gets old. The most exciting part is the potential to help patients suffering from TBI in the future.
Research is mostly failure with some sprinkles of success. It’s just something that takes getting used to. Once you get over that, the most challenging aspect is wearing all the hats that are part of being a researcher. We are required to be educators, public speakers, graphic designers, writers, engineers, MacGyver’s, and much more. It takes a lot of organization.
Be flexible with your idea of where research will bring you, you might never expect to fall in love with the specific way a protein folds! It is important to take time to take care of your health or it will make you take time when it is most inconvenient!
University. I study functional morphology and how it ‘s related to ecology and performance. For example, most fishes have a second set of jaws in the back of their throat, the pharyngeal jaws, which functions in unison with the oral jaws as they eat. The oral jaws participate in prey capture, while the pharyngeal jaws do most prey processing. Many species, for example, have pharyngeal jaws with specialized teeth for crushing snail shells or grinding up plant matter and things like that. Different fishes have different arrangements of bones and muscles that operate the pharyngeal jaws, so I am also interested in comparing the functional morphology among different lineages to understand the ecological and evolutionary implications of their different configurations.
I was interested in fish and salamanders, really any creature in or around streams, when I was young, but I don’t think the prospect of turning that interest into a career really took hold until the third year of my undergraduate studies. A few of my undergraduate professors had a huge impact on me, cultivating my interest in science and math, either with encouragement here and there or opening a door instead of closing it. I got hooked on research almost immediately during graduate school and that sealed the deal so to speak.
I received my B.S. from a small liberal arts college in North Carolina (Lees McRae College), where I double majored in Biology and Psychology. From there I (literally) went over the mountain and earned my M.S. at Appalachian State University. I later earned my Ph.D. from Auburn University, and then spent time as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Davis and Yale
The field is advancing at a fast pace, especially in terms of statistical approaches. New comparative methods are developed every year and periodically make it possible to answer entirely new questions. That’s exciting and encourages creativity in anticipation of what will be possible in the future. More broadly, I’m most excited about mentoring and paying forward everything my advisors did for me along the way and developing my own mentoring and teaching philosophy.
The necessity to stay up to date on the cutting edge of statistical and analytical methods. The pace of advancement as well as the breadth of the field can make that daunting
Work with people that you enjoy working with and that actively foster your creativity, interests, and development. Academia is challenging in many ways and often involves ups and downs. Great colleagues and mentors make everything more enjoyable and fulfilling.
my research focuses on investigating a wide array of environmental disturbances and other stressors on disease/health of crocodilians and other reptiles, in both captive and open-field experiments.
Even while I was growing up, I have always been strongly motivated by my love for animals, especially reptiles, and knew as a child that I wanted to study them and work with them someday. Working with crocodilians literally got me through the stresses of a Ph.D. just because I could not imagine working with anything else. However, on a more serious note, on both my paternal and maternal sides of the family, members of my family have had to suffer terrible rare protein misfolding diseases, including Lou Gehrig’s disease and amyloidosis, which has motivated me to learn more about physiological processes, including cellular pathways, genetics, and especially proteins. I work to incorporate studies of these broad topics of disease into non-model organisms as a foundation to gain more information that could be beneficial to both the organisms that I am working with as well as the medical field.
Do not let anyone stop you from pursuing your dreams. In my time as a student, I have had to overcome many obstacles and many people that had little to no faith in my abilities to succeed in my dreams in life. People may not support your dreams or believe in them; people may even actively try to inhibit your dreams, but if you apply yourself, work hard, always do your best, and try not to get jaded with yourself and the world around you, opportunities will appear to keep you going in the direction that you want to go. Also, do not be afraid to ask questions or ask for help along the way when you really need it.
I received a B.S. in Zoology from North Carolina State University in 2008. Throughout my B.S., I worked at a reptile park in South Carolina, gaining a greater interest in reptiles, namely crocodilians. This led me to eventually pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Georgia working with Dr. Travis Glenn. I had several projects during my Ph.D.: influenza infection in reptiles, toxicant exposure in American alligators and yellow-bellied slider turtles, and agricultural production of saltwater crocodiles in Australia. I went on to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship, at Auburn University, investigating how the heat shock response and oxidative stress were affected by various stressors in zebra finches and alligators, working with Drs. Ruth Elsey and Mary Mendonca. Today,
Much of my research involves investigating toxicant exposure, human disturbance, or other stressors on the physiological processes of non-model organisms. I am excited at the opportunity to further investigate this at multiple levels of biological organization and the possible implications to human health.
My answer to this question is twofold. First, although I have >15 years of experience, crocodilians can be dangerous, and consequently, complicate experiments. Moreover, their size, disposition, and habitat can hinder public perception for their conservation. Secondly, crocodilians are also considered to be non-model organisms in a research setting, so techniques that I use in my research usually must be adapted/validated for use, which can often be expensive and timeconsuming.
I received my Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (LSU) working in the LSU Museum of Natural Sciences. My Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology and my Master of Science are from Auburn University (AU) and the AU Museum of Natural History. I was awarded the National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology to work at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma. I am interested in organismal adaptations to harsh environments, particularly related to darkness. My study systems are fish that live in caves and the deepsea. I use genomics, behavior experiments, and evolutionary history to study how extremophiles thrive in their environments.
My dad kept a fish tank when I was growing up and I became fascinated with the diversity of fishes. I joined the Learning about Science and Engineering Research club in high school and decided I loved research and wanted to continue learning about fish. Extremophile fish really drew me as they were so otherworldly, and it was interesting to me that different species of fish could invade the subterranean habitat and end up looking very similar (i.e., convergent evolution).
What excites me about my area of research is the potential it has to make long-lasting impacts in biology but also public health. Cavefish are covered in sensory hair cells that feel the movement of the water around them. Inspiration in biotechnology was taken from these hair cells and used to create an intravenous (IV) flow sensor, which detects IV flow in humans. Thus, the system that I study can lead to breakthroughs in biotechnology directly related to human health.
The most challenging aspects of my research are caving and coding- coding may be the more challenging of the two! I did not come into biology with any background in computing or computer science and had to learn more about computers than I had ever imagined.
My advice is to follow your passion; find labs that suite your interests instead of the other way around.
I’m a midwestern transplant. I did my BSE in biomedical engineering, B.S. in biology, and Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and a post-doc in Neurogenetics all at the University of Iowa (with many external collaborators and side-trips guiding my trajectory). My broad research interests center on how genes interact with each other and with the environment to shape normal (or abnormal) nervous system function. We utilize the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model organism, and employ both classical and transgenic approaches to precisely manipulate the genome. In these single- and double-mutant flies, we correlate changes in neuronal structure and function with alterations in motor circuit activity patterns and the organization of behavioral repertoires. Findings from our work provide basic insights on the functional organization of the Drosophila nervous system and often have implications in understanding the etiology of neurological disease.
I grew up in a family that valued science. My dad was an engineer with John Deere, and growing up we would always have great discussions about science in the news. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to work in Dr. Chun-Fang Wu’s Drosophila Neurogenetics research lab at Iowa for a summer. Ever since then I was hooked on neuroscience research.
I’m really excited about combining emerging imaging approaches (e.g. genetically encoded Ca2+ sensors) with classical electrophysiological approaches to study how genes that affect synaptic transmission (e.g., neurotransmitter receptors) or neuronal excitability (e.g., ion channels) lead to characteristic defects in motor program generation.
Integrating phenomena across scales. Neurons synapse together to form neural circuits and activity in these circuits lead to an animal’s behavior. Often, the tough questions in our field center on how do small changes in one level (e.g., a minor change in neurotransmitter release) link to catastrophic changes at another level (e.g., spontaneous seizures). Teasing apart these relationships can be quite tricky but is also immensely rewarding (at least it is to me!).
Take classes outside of your immediate needs or your comfort zone. A well-rounded course of study will prepare you for unexpected challenges in the future. ■
Outstanding graduate and undergraduate students are recognized each spring for their achievements and awarded much-appreciated scholarships. Thank you to the donors who have made these scholarships possible!
Joab Langston Thomas Scholarship
Feng Kong, Nathan Hofford
Ralph L. Chermock Prize Paula Adams
Isabella H. Graham Prize
Phoenix Rogers, Thomas Franzem
Bishop-Stackman Marine Science Endowed Scholarship
Aurora Giorgi, Matteo Monti
William and Ilouise Hill Research Award for Excellence in Teaching Spring Semester: Phoenix Rogers, Youn-ji Nam Fall Semester: Annie Blalock, Emery Davis
William and Ilouise Hill Research Award in Ecology and/or Evolution
Jamie Bucholz, Sontosh Deb
Carolyn Lawless and Janice Elizabeth Innes Research Award in Cell and Molecular Biology
Corey Willicot, MaryBeth Rowland, Tolulope Kolapo
Carolyn Lawless and Janice Elizabeth Innes Research Award in Ecology Delaney Peterson
Carolyn Lawless and Janice Elizabeth Innes Research Award in Marine Sciences
Aurora Giorgi, Matteo Monti, Tim Bushman, Taylor Ledford
Graduate Summer Research Fellowship in Ecology and Evolution
Sontosh Deb
Graduate Summer Research Fellowship in Cell and Molecular Biology
Moresh Shokri, Lindsey Starr
Michael L. McDaniel Memorial Scholarship
Brianna Holder, Lilah Havens, Yonathan Janka
Henry Walker Memorial Scholarship
Thomas Penta, Julia Mamana
James D. and Donjette Yarbrough Scholarship
Hannah Berry, Emily Ray, Cole Kiser, Benjamin Trost, Marguerite Padgett
Septima Cecilia Smith Award (Biology) Daija Lampkin
Septima Cecilia Smith Award (Marine Science) Karoline Copeland Septima Cecilia Smith Award (Microbiology) Abigail Myers
Grantland and Louise Rice Scholarship (Biology) Hudson Tate, Maddie Natemeier, Andrew Atkinson Grantland and Louise Rice Scholarship (Marine Science) Priya Gilman, Maxwell Gordon Grantland and Louise Rice Scholarship (Microbiology) Gabrielle Humber, Quinn Cunneely, Joshua Kelley, Mackenzie Wallace, Haley Bounds Wallace E. Holznagel Jr. Award in Biology Andrew Busby
TriBeta Honor Society Inductees
Julia Mamana, Sydney Ringold, Patrick Moore, Cole Witte
The generous support and continued involvement of our alumni and friends allow us to conduct more, transformative research, enhance the education and experiences of our students, and actively serve the local, state, national, and international biological sciences community.
Visit our website (https://bsc.ua.edu/make-a-gift/) or scan the QR code to support scholarships and supplemental support for outstanding students and more.
