Future plans for graduates begin to trickle in . . . (updated as news arrives)
Jamie Hazekamp, President of Tri-Beta, is headed off to veterinary school at the Univ. of Illinois.  Zach Wilson will be attending Palmer Chiropractic college in the fall. Jessica Thomas and Salina Fisel will complete their student teaching next fall and move on to high school biology education.  

Summer Research and Internship successes
Several biology majors have been accepted to summer research programs at large universities to get a taste of what graduate school might hold in store.  Others have been placed in internships related to their potential future careers. Om Shrestha will conduct biochemistry research at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison and Noah Hendricks will travel to Colorado State Univ. for similar research. Megan Pros and Sarah Nokes will pursue their interests in marine biology at Oregon State Univ. and the Univ. of South Carolina, respectively.  Nick Dyson will be conducting research at the Nanotechnology Institute at the Univ. of Iowa. Kat Quigley, recently returned from a semester in Tanzania, will be working in conjunction with Northwestern Univ. professors in the badlands of Wyoming. They will sample ancient sediments for evidence of a 55 million year old global warming event. Two students have secured summer internships; Whitney Maher will be working at a veterinary clinic and Sahar Haghighat will be working at Abbott labs.

"Into the Wild" -- Students hike the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Death Valley
Dr. Cramer, Dr. Hannah Schell (Religious Studies) and 8 students returned from their spring break trip to the Mojave and Great Basin deserts of Nevada and Arizona. A 3-day backpacking excursion into the bowels of the Grand Canyon was the greatest physical challenge for everyone, but well worth the effort.  Day hiking in Death Valley and walks in the snow at Zion National Parks rounded out a stunning desert retreat. Among the critter encounters were a late night visit from a ringtail cat and a family group of bighorn sheep. See a slide show of a field trip to the Grand Canyon.

Godde publishes paper from his sabbatical
Dr. Godde, along with his collaborator in Japan, have published a review paper entitled "Cracking the enigmatic linker histone code" in March's issue of the Journal of Biochemistry.  The paper asserts the existence of an epigenetic code made up of covalent chemical modifications to histone H1, an important component of chromatin which binds to the "linker" DNA which connects nucleosomes.

Brown recluses will scavenge . . . if they have to!
Research in the spider lab on brown recluse feeding behavior has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Arachnology.  Spurred by a 2003 report in Nature, Dr. Cramer and students pursued the idea that brown recluses prefer scavenging over feeding on live prey.  They found that special conditions must be in play for recluses to prefer dead over live food.  Namely, if spiders are hungry, live prey are large and potentially dangerous, and dead prey are fresh, they're not above snacking on dead bugs.

Student publishes on brown recluse spiders with Dr. Cramer
Alex Maywright ('05) and Cramer have had their article on cold temperature tolerance and distribution of brown recluses in Illinois accepted for publication in the national Journal of Arachnology. Maywright also conducted research on feeding habits of recluses and did a study of burrow temperatures in an African wolf spider while off-campus for a semester in Tanzania. Currently, Alex is in graduate school at the Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis working on the social interactions of, you guessed it, brown recluse spiders.

2007 graduates looking ahead
As seniors look ahead to graduation less than three months from now, news of acceptance to post-graduate work is already trickling in.  Cassandra Mefford has been accepted to the University of Illinois and Iowa State veterinary medicine programs.  She's going to stay close to home at U of I following in the footsteps of Devon Townsend ('03) who recently visited campus to talk in Science Seminar.  Joni Nelson has been accepted to medical school at Des Moines University and Jarrod Martin will be attending graduate school in wildlife biology at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. 

Seniors 2006 -- off to new adventures
Careers in the field of human health were the dominant destination of most biology graduates last year. Stephanie Fitzsimons will be at Rush University in nursing while Crystal Corzatt and Chris Hebeler will move on to study physical therapy. Amber Ford and Janel Purlee are pursuing interests in pharmacy and Corey Sullivan will also be attending nursing school.

Godde and student publish paper
Dr. Godde and recent grad Amanda Bickerton had their research on repetitive DNA elements as evidence of horizontal transfer among prokaryotes published in the Journal of Molecular Evolution in 2006.  Amanda's project stemmed from a course in Bioinformatics she took with Dr. Godde and developed into her senior research project.

Restoration at LeSuer Nature Preserve continues
Drs. Tibbetts, Baldwin, and Cramer led a group of about 20 students to LeSuer Nature Preserve the weekend of April 30 to continue restoration efforts on the 16-acre sanctuary where native prairie, savannah, and woodland.  The group planted over 250 native shrubs including gray and red-twigged dogwood, purple chokeberry, snowberry and swamp rose.  A handful of Ohio buckeye trees were also planted.  The shrubs are intended to displace the invasive exotic Asian honeysuckles that dominate the forest understory.  Students removed a significant number of the offending honeysuckles during the weekend blitzkrieg. 

Tri-Beta seniors win awards
Seniors Amanda Harwood and Alex Maywright won three awards at the regional Tri-Beta conference (2005) in Green Bay, WI.  Monmouth nearly swept the awards for oral presentations as Alex brought home 3rd place for his research on temperature tolerance in brown recluse spiders while Amanda won 1st place for her research on the effects of Prozac and its metabolites on frog development and behavior.  Amanda also won 2nd in the poster competition for research conducted the previous summer in Panama on web fidelity in kleptoparasites of the golden orb-weaving spider.   

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