April, 2008
- Mike Kaspari, Associate Professor of Zoology and Director of the EEB Graduate Program, received a one year $22,000 grant from the National Geographic Society to study "The Biogeography of Salt." NaCl is both an essential compound for life and has a geography, generally declining in availability as one moves inland. This project will explore how salt in the forests of the Peruvian Amazon and coastal Panama shapes the activity and life history of the microbes and invertebrates of the brown food web.
- Phil Gibson, Associate Professor of Zoology and Associate Professor of Botany and Microbiology, received a one year $6,600 grant from The Nature Conservancy to study population genetic diversity of the federally endangered western prairie fringed orchid. His research will help identify the best populations to be used as seed sources for reintroduction of the species back into Oklahoma.
- Gary Schnell, Professor of Zoology and Curator of Birds at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, has received $9,510 in funding (“Georeferencing Bird Records”) from the National Science Foundation through the University of Kansas to become an ORNIS (ORNithological Information System) work center for georeferencing localities of specimens in North American museum collections. Assigning standard geographic coordinates will facilitate open access to combined specimen data (over 5 million specimens) and enhance the value of specimen collections. Initial responsibility will be for georeferencing all Oklahoma specimens in collections, after which other areas will be worked on as assigned.
- Congratulations to Nancy Blass, who will receive a Distinguished Performance Award in the Staff Senate Awards Ceremony on April 22.
- The Department of Zoology is again the largest major in the College of Arts and Sciences, with 951 majors (as announced by Dean Bell in the CAS Spring Faculty Meeting).
- Two other recent grants: Gary Schnell (University of Kansas award for “Georeferencing Bird Records”), Ingo Schlupp (National Science Foundation, for “Effects of an Extreme Flood on Fish Populations in Tabasco, Mexico”).
February, 2008
- Randy Hewes, Associate Professor of Zoology, received a 3 year $402,993 grant from the National Science Foundation, to study "Molecular Mechanisms of Steroid Regulation in an Insect Endocrine System." This study will examine how co-factors for a steroid receptor can mediate cell-type specific expression of steroid hormone-responsive genes. Through genetic experiments in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as well as molecular and biochemical assays, this work will define the mechanisms by which a steroid receptor and associated transcriptional cofactors control the expression of peptide hormone gene expression in endocrine cells.
- Don Wilson, Professor and Assistant Chair of Zoology received a 5-year, $1,554,349 grant from the National Institute for Deafness and Communication Disorders to continue his research on neural mechanisms of odor perception. The work focuses on the role that neural ensembles play in discriminating between complex and overlapping odor mixtures, similar to those animals must deal with in finding food, mates and avoiding predators.
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