PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
The annual Sigma Xi banquet
April 2008
The Botany Department announced its scholarships and awards at the annual Sigma Xi banquet, on April 17th. Scholarship and award recipients are listed below.
Arthur T. and Anna Evans Scholarship - Outstanding Botany Sophomore, Junior, or Senior
Hannah E. Beyer
Justin S. Quenneville
Robert P. Wessel
Rebecca M. Williams
Michael L. Schwieterman
Bruce Fink Scholarship - Outstanding Botany Undergraduate Major
Peter A. Frank
Evan J. Rose
Brian E. Smith
Wallace J. Hagedorn Scholarship - Outstanding Botany Undergraduate Major
David M. Farler
Alex E. Harkess
Hanqing Hu
Charley Harper Scholarship -
Awarded to one undergraduate or graduate student majoring in the Biological Sciences at Miami University (Botany, Microbiology, or Zoology Departments) who demonstrates a talent or interest in the arts and who has a meritorious academic record.
Mary C. Barger Steinwald
Kimberly Lohmeier Ingersoll Scholarship - Outstanding Botany Female Senior
Amelia I. Huerta
Marcia E. Buck Roll Scholarship - Outstanding Botany Major
Margaret A. Vincent
J. Fisher and Margaret E. Stanfield Scholarship - Outstanding Botany Major
Kimberly D. Francis
Amber C. Sollman
William E. Wilson Award - Outstanding Botany Major
Hayley A. Kilroy
Heimsch Award in Botany - Outstanding M.S. and Ph.D. student in Botany
Steven M. Castellano - M.S. student working with Dr. David Gorchov
Christine M. Mutiti - Ph.D. student working with Dr. Kim Medley
Hongwei Zhao - Ph.D. student working with Dr. Qingshun Quinn Li
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| Molly Barger Steinwald |
birch tree bark | pink magnolia flower |
yellow leaves and pink impatiens |
The Charlie Harper Scholarship is awarded
April 2008
Ms. Molly Barger Steinwald has been selected to receive the Charley Harper Scholarship for 2008. Molly is a Ph.D student in Zoology who is examining the "Conservation genetics in the woodland deer mouse" under the direction of Dr. Susan Hoffman. In addition to being an accomplished researcher and educator, Molly is earning many accolades for her nature photography. In 2008 she was selected as "1 of 7 exciting emerging female artists from around the US" at the Fine arts photography exhibit at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. We are pleased to have a Harper Scholarship recipient with so much talent and passion for nature. Molly states, "My intention is to fuse education, photography, and research to heighten the public's perception of and passion for the everyday environment. (Beauty is in the ordinary.)"
Molly's Miami webpage: http://www.users.muohio.edu/steinwmc/
To view more of Molly's images:
http://mollysteinwald.etsy.com/
Charley Harper was a Cincinnati artist known for his stylized wildlife prints (http://www.charleyharper.com/). He designed the tile mosaic mural at the entrance of Pearson Hall, entitled 'The Web of Life'. Limited edition signed prints of the mural are available through the Botany Department for $50 each plus postage and handling (if mailed). All proceeds go to the Charley Harper Scholarship Fund.
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| agave full view | agave flower | agave flower | agave flower | agave plant base |
Agave Victoriae-reginae in flower
February 2008
The photographs show Miami’s specimen of Agave Victoriae-reginae flowering in February (click on photos to enlarge). This slow-growing Agave is native to Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Mexico, and is endangered in its native habitat. It lives for about 40 years, before putting up a 10-15 foot bloom stalk with pale green flowers, and then dies. There are some varieties that produce offsets.
Fungal biomechanics
February 2008
Nicholas Money (Professor of Botany) and Diana Davis (Professor, College of Mount St. Joseph, Cincinnati, and Adjunct Professor in the Miami botany department) have been awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation titled, Ballistospore discharge: Adaptations among mushroom-forming fungi. The project is concerned with the mechanism of ballistospore discharge in the Agaricomycetes, or mushroom-forming fungi, and, more specifically, with the ways in which the process is adapted to control launch speed and range. The mechanism involves the rapid motion of a fluid droplet over the spore surface and is powered by surface tension. The research will identify adaptations to the ballistosporic mechanism that control launch speed and range in gilled, spined, and poroid mushrooms. Experiments will involve high speed video microscopy, mathematical modeling, and electron microscopy. The project involves active collaboration with other faculty scientists in different disciplines, and work with graduate and undergraduate students. The training of undergraduate students from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati through summer research experiences at Miami University is particularly important in terms of the broader impact of the project. A second mechanism that broadens the impact of the research involves student participation through Nik Money’s Advanced Mycology class (Bot 421/521).
Michael Vincent awarded best paper in plant systematics in journal Castanea
01/14/2008
Michael Vincent (botany), curator of the Willard Sherman Turrell Herbarium, and Matthew Sewell, former botany master's student, are co-authors of a paper that received the 2007 Richard and Minnie Windler Award. The award is given annually for the best paper in plant systematics, taxonomy or floristics published in Castanea the preceding year.
Castanea is the quarterly publication of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society.
Their paper "Biosystematics of the Phacelia ranunculacea Complex (Hydrophyllaceae)," presented morphological analyses of the Phacelia ranunculacea complex, members of which are herbaceous annuals and occur on floodplains and in hardwood forests throughout eastern North America. The distribution of the complex displays a disjunct distribution (widely separated geographically, precluding genetic exchange) between the Midwest and Atlantic coastal plain. Vincent and Sewell's analysis revealed two distinct clusters of specimens that resulted in recognition of two taxa (classification category): P. ranunculacea sensu stricto and P. covillei.
Sewell is lab manager for the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies at The New York Botanical Garden. His study on the biosystematics of Phacelia ranunculacea published in Castanea was the result of his master's thesis research.
Vincent's major research focus is on alpha taxonomy and floristics, particularly New World taxa of Trifolium (clovers, Leguminosae).
ALUMNUS ELECTED TO AAASDececmber 2007
Jianguo Wu, an PhD alumnus of the Botany Department, was among the 471 newly elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a prestigious international scientific society. Election as a AAAS fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Wu is a professor of ecology and sustainability science at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences. He was cited by AAAS for "outstanding research, for leadership in the United States and international communities in landscape ecology, and for brilliant efforts to build links to Chinese landscape ecology." Wu is also the director of the Sino-U.S. Collaboration for Conservation, Energy and Sustainability Science in Inner Mongolia, a recently established joint research center between ASU and Inner Mongolia University. At Miami his PhD mentor was John Vankat.
USDA grant funds research on invasive plants.
12/17/2007
A 2007 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program will enable three scientists and their students to study how landscape structure influences the invasion of forests by one of the bush honeysuckle species that threaten forests in the eastern and Midwestern U.S.
David L. Gorchov (botany) and Mary C. Henry (geography) are collaborating with Oscar J. Rocha of Kent State University on this project.
Full Article - Graduate School webpage
E-Report - Full Article
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| Dr. Schussler | Dr. Hickey |
NSF grant awarded for research to improve intro biology labs
12/12/2007
Students in Miami's introductory biology laboratory - BMZ 115 - will benefit from research supported by a $199,352 National Science Foundation (NSF) Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement grant. The grant, awarded to principal investigator Elisabeth Schussler (botany) and co-principal investigators Nazan Bautista (teacher education), Nancy Solomon (zoology), Bruce Steinly (zoology) and James Hickey (botany), will help to develop BMZ 115 lab students' understanding of scientific inquiry and the nature of science.
The project was initiated in response to findings that undergraduate science students do not understand the nature of science and scientific inquiry and that they do not necessarily improve their understanding by performing science, according to Schussler. "We will be testing different methods of delivering the labs, including inquiry and student reflection about the nature of science, and seeing what works best to foster student understanding of these ideas," explains Schussler.
The project design includes comparing the efficacy of inquiry versus non-inquiry labs and reflective versus non-reflective practices on student learning. "We are working with Cincinnati State Technical and Community College as well to try these same ideas with students in their biology courses," says Schussler.
A summer workshop for teaching assistants, faculty and local K-12 teachers, development of innovative instructional techniques, a symposium on the nature of science and scientific inquiry and a pilot lab manual are included in the research project.
Scientists receive awards from NASA, European Space Agency.
10/03/2007
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) presented awards to John Kiss, professor of botany at Miami University, and his research team for their outstanding accomplishments in spaceflight research. Honored with Kiss were Richard Edelmann, director of Miami's electron microscopy facility, and Prem Kumar, postdoctoral fellow in botany.
Full Article - Miami E-Report