2012-nhre-newsletter.pdf

NHRE 2012

3.45% The acceptance rate for

applications to NHRE 2012

(Compare with 5.9% - the

record low acceptance rate

for Harvard in 2012).

5,560 Minimum number of biologi-

cal specimens examined by

NHRE interns in 2012.

11 The number of home states

represented by the NHRE

class of 2012 (not including

Puerto Rico and India)

384,000

The greatest distance, in

kilometers, ultimately trav-

eled by any object analyzed

by a 2012 NHRE Intern

(Lunar meteorite PCA

02007)

24,300 The approximate distance

traveled, in miles, for field-

work by NHRE interns - to

Montana and Indonesia!

94 Number of oysters harmed

in the name of science.

Director’s Corner

Well, this is exciting! Welcome to the first edition of Natural History

Research Experiences’ annual newsletter. Our hope is to connect you –

to us, to one another, and to the museum you called home for 10

weeks one summer.

Motivated by the NHRE Class of 2012, the summer of 2012 was action-packed with new

program events and initiatives. We tackled head-on issues faced by underrepresented

groups in the sciences by having an honest exchange with museum and area professionals

from underrepresented groups. Then our interns became mentors themselves in an ex-

change with the YES! high-school interns here at NMNH. Finally, in one of the greatest ex-

pressions of what it means to disseminate your

science, our interns stepped out into the mu-

seum’s halls to meet our visitors in an all-day,

museum-wide event celebrating NHRE research.

This latter activity was so successful that NSF

has chosen to write a “highlights” article about

the day that you can find at www.research.gov.

There’s never a dull moment as we are in the

throes of preparing for the class of 2013. We

are testing new application systems, new means of promoting the program, and new ways

of engaging with the natural world and the museum community. The NHRE website has had

a much needed update and oh yes, we are trying to make sure the class of 2013 has great

housing…

Liz’s lab is buzzing with four postdoctoral researchers and two predoctoral students. She is

excited to be the COMPRES (Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sci-

ences) Distinguished Lecturer in 2012-2013, though this will mean a lot of nights away from

her two kids Madeline, age 4, and Dale, age 1 (sniff!). Gene is similarly enjoying a stint as

a Distinguished Lecturer for the Paleontological Society (the NHRE is a very distinguished

program), and is getting ready for a little tyke of his own, expected in January.

Please tell us what you are up to! Are you in school? Working? Have you done a fellowship?

Gone in the field? Had a major life event? Published a manuscript? Please let us know. You

can send a brief update or a full-length article. Pictures appreciated!

All of our best!

Liz & Gene

Volume 1, Issue 1.

NHRE NEWS The Newsletter of the NSF REU Site Natural History Research

Experiences Summer Internship Program

REU Site, EAR-1062692

Autumn 2012

Rebecca Richards wins a Rhodes Scholarship

NHRE NEWS

Submitted by Rebecca Richards

Life has been hectic since my Summer Internship at the Smith-

sonian. I remain enormously grateful for the encouragement

and opportunities provided through this program to broaden my

horizons and to believe that I can learn and contribute in a

much wider arena.

First of all, I was able to utilise and build on the intensive re-

search I commenced at the Institution on bark paintings ac-

quired through the 1948 joint Smithsonian / Australian expedi-

tion to Arnhem Land. This then became the basis of my Hon-

ours thesis for which I was fortunate to be awarded First Class

Honours.

Gaining this result also led to other adventures including the

surreal experience of becoming Australia’s first Indigenous

Rhodes scholar and South Australia’s Young Australian of the

Year, which included a dinner with our Governor General and

morning tea with our Prime Minister.

It also resulted in the gaining of a place in the Master of Philosophy program in Material Anthropology and

Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. An adventurous journey over here saw six young Aussies

bound for Oxford fly to Beijing and then – after local tours – boarding the train to Mongolia. A horse trek

through parts of the awe inspiring Mongolian landscape of wild plains and mountainous ranges resulted in a

desire to spend more time in these glorious open spaces – as well as some colourful bruises!! A steamer on

Lake Baikal and then the Trans-Siberian railway line provided many other interesting experiences on the way

to St Petersburg and finally London.

Oxford with its amazing college system, its historic buildings, its traditions and its academic rigour has been

an incredible highlight. I now live in a 500 year old ford house spanning a rushing stream and with views of

the deer park – the source of the venison served at some of the wonderful formal dinners at my college

(Magdalen). The studies are demanding but incredibly interesting. My current thesis is delving into the tragic

history of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people as they were near completely decimated in a short thirty year time

-frame, through an investigation of a number of portraits painted by colonial artists in the 1830s and 1840s.

Their ultimate survival is another tale.

I look forward to my second year here but then to returning to Australia to continue my passion to investigate

Indigenous ethnography and to assist in the assumption by Indigenous people of the management of their

own representation within museums and academia.

NHRE Class of 2010

NHRE NEWS

Connections: From Fossilized Shells to Sugar-coated Cells

Submitted by Carlos Rodriguez-Russo

It feels like just yesterday that the 18 interns of NHRE 2010 were giddily getting organized in our luxurious GW

dorms before our first day of lab, making chit chat and wondering how on earth we were going to see every mu-

seum in DC before 10 weeks had reached their end. Now, almost three years later, it’s strange to realize that I

am now around the same age that most other interns in the group were on that first day. Seeing and cheering

on as each of the other 2010 interns dove into an amazing postgraduate career makes me both giddy and ex-

cited as I look forward to my own!

I currently am a senior at Harvard College studying Developmental and Regenerative Biology. As the youngest

member of the NHRE class of 2010, my decision to devote my career to biological research was directly put into

motion by my experience within the NMNH department of paleobiology. Though I applied to the program with an

interest in studying big, fierce dinosaurs, I soon learned the immense importance of studying microbiology while

reconstructing the environment of the Cretaceous period through the biogeochemical lens of microscopic fo-

raminifera shells.

Over the following semesters, I became even more fascinated with the chemistry of life at the smallest scale. My

next summer was devoted to characterizing the complex parasite-host interactions that underlie schistosomiasis,

an extremely prevalent yet severely neglected tropical disease. This illness is caused by tiny, microscopic worms

that penetrate human skin upon contact with infested water; once inside the body, these worms are armed with

an astounding arsenal of molecular immunoevasive techniques that allow them to survive undetected within their

human hosts, even as they cause severe tissue damage. My research elucidated the role of soluble CD23 protein

in parasite immune resistance, bringing the quest for a much-needed vaccine one step closer to the clinic.

Since the fall of my junior year, I have been pursuing honors thesis research at Brigham and Women's Hospital/

Harvard Medical School, examining the "sweet" carbohydrate chemistry that mediates stem cell migration to tar-

get tissues from the bloodstream. My goal is to control the display of specific sugar epitopes on the stem cell sur-

face so that these therapeutic cells, once injected into a patient, can selectively migrate to the damaged tissues

that they are meant to regenerate.

The NHRE program changed my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined as a rising sophomore. It not only gave me

my first experience in biological research and deepened my passion for biochemical analysis, but it also gave me

an enriched perspective on the broad applications of natural sciences to many different fields. Indeed, connec-

tions abound between the natural sciences and human affairs, and I find myself drawn to their intersection: my

career aspirations are centered upon answering scientific questions that integrate the natural sciences, medicine,

and chemistry. After graduating next spring, I will spend a fellowship year completing research at the Sackstein

laboratory at Harvard Medical School, simultaneously applying to graduate programs centered upon translational

science in global health.

NHRE NEWS

Joanna Larson receives a Fulbright to do fieldwork in Tanzania

Submitted by Joanna Larson

After graduating from Harvard in 2011 with a degree in Organismic

and Evolutionary Biology, I started a Fulbright Grant in Tanzania. My

goal was to survey forests in the Eastern Arc Mountains for amphibians

and small mammals to better understand their biodiversity and investi-

gate patterns of species distribution.

Fieldwork in Tanzania is logistically and bureaucratically challenging,

but all of the headaches are forgotten once I arrive at my fieldsite in a

wet, montane forest and begin to find frogs. In one place, the very

first frog that I found has turned out to be a fascinating new species. I

keep moments like that in mind when my tent is invaded by biting ants

that were driven out of their nest by pouring rain.

The aim of the Fulbright Program is to promote cultural exchange be-

tween the U.S. and the host country, so I also spent time teaching in

village schools about my research and the local fauna. Sometimes this

involved structured lessons in a classroom and other times it was more

informal discussions while the children (and adults) watched me pre-

pare specimens.

My Fulbright ended in early September, but I extend my stay for an additional three months in order to do more

research, see more places, and meet more people. Currently, the adventures are on hold for a few weeks while I

sit in Dar es Salaam with fairly reliable internet to apply to graduate programs in evolutionary biology. By the

time I am done with those, the rains will be about to resume after six very dry months and I will go join the frogs

in the forest once again.

“Doing Science” in West Africa

Submitted by Sarah Ehlinger

During the past year, I learned how to “do science” in a developing country. As much as it seems that the quest

for knowledge should not change between locations, there are major challenges doing research in a place with a

completely different social, cultural, and economic climate. With a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, I spent the

past year starting a Master’s Degree in Geography and Resource Development at the University of Ghana, West

Africa. My thesis will focus on the role of socio-economic status in shaping resident’s environmental risk percep-

tion regarding air pollution and health in Accra.

Air pollution in Ghana and many developing countries has countless effects, both on the environment and on

human health. Ghana has been hit hard by climate change as seasonal irregularities put pressure on the liveli-

hoods of thousands in the country. The capital city, Accra, has seen incredibly high rates of urbanization, which

is accompanied by an increase in population density, increase in airborne particulate matter, and increase in

childhood morbidity and mortality due to respiratory illness.

NHRE NEWS

There are already data regarding the amount of

pollution in the air. Less understood is how educa-

tion, income, exposure, and health status impact a

person’s perception of risk.

If those of higher income and higher education in

Accra are less exposed to air pollution and less

aware of its effects – having private houses, per-

sonal cars, paved roads, and gas stoves instead of

wood or charcoal–will they have a lower than pre-

dicted perception of risk? What is so challenging

when dealing with issues of vulnerability and com-

munity engagement is that public perception must

be understood before change will occur. Yet in or-

der to learn about public perception and the factors

that best explain and predict a person’s perception of environmental health risks, research must be conducted in a

scientific manner. I learned this year how natural science underlies social science… and social science is still a sci-

ence.

The wonderful thing about spending time at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum was we saw first-hand that

well-planned and executed research not only helps us as humans understand the world (a duty in itself); it can

have serious implications on policy. We saw this when researchers fought to preserve biodiversity. We saw it

when the Assistant Director testified in front of Congress about the Gulf oil spill or climate change.

Matthew Nielsen is in Graduate school in the Ecol-

ogy and Evolutionary Biology department at the Uni-

versity of Arizona and things are going well although

he has not quite worked out his dissertation project

yet. Most recently he has been working on writing up

for publication some research that he has been doing

on how caterpillar size affects their thermoregulation.

He was very fortunate to receive an NSF GRFP this

past year and before getting the funding he decided

to spend the summer curating the UA Natural History

fish collections—a departure from the insects but still

enjoyable!

Alumni update 2010

Sunjana Supekar has been living in Puerto Rico for

the past six months, working as a field assistant for a

professor at Columbia University and setting up a long

term forest dynamic study plot.

She is returning to Washington DC in December.

Kristen Simmons is currently enrolled in the University

of Chicago doctoral program for Anthropology.

She hopes to pursue research regarding issues of contem-

porary American Indian politics, particularly around green

energy development on reservation lands. Kristen is pre-

senting on this research, continued on from her under-

graduate senior thesis at the 2013 Society for applied An-

thropology annual meeting in Denver.

Over the summer she was a Fellow at the Field Museum,

where she worked with Dr. Alaka Wali, Curator of North

American Anthropology on building the urban Native

American collections, particularly around the creation of

pow-wow regalia in Chicago and examining the history of

the American Indian Center of Chicago. Kristen also

worked in the Repatriation office, where she focused on

several current projects involving various Native groups.

Kristen plans to present this research at the 2013 Native

American and Indigenous Studies Association annual

meeting in Saskatoon.

NHRE NEWS

Heidi Wollaeger is working on her Masters in Horti-

culture at Michigan State University.

It has been a fruitful summer as not only did she

received a graduate support fellowship to attend the

American Society of Horticultural Science in Miami,

FL, where she received second place in an oral pres-

entation competition on controlled environment re-

search, but she also received the American Floral

Endowments Ball Seed Co. Summer Scholarship.

Heidi also attended OFA (Horticulture Professionals)

conference in Columbus OH in July as an OFA

scholar. She is now working

on presenting research

about plant growth and

developmental responses to

different light qualities

(light distributions) using

LEDs.

Spencer Galen is currently a Graduate student at the

University of New Mexico.

He traveled to Peru this summer to do field work,

and while he was there he prepared a museum

specimen of the Rufous antpitta, the very species he

researched while at the Smithsonian. He felt that these

two experiences were very much intertwined as he would

not have found himself in Peru had he not been a NHRE

intern.

Katie Marshall is currently working on her MS in geol-

ogy at Idaho State University.

For her thesis project she is attempting to constrain the

timing and extent of glaciation in the Hoh and Queets

drainages of the Olympic Peninsula by studying and dat-

ing, using radiocarbon and optically stimulated lumines-

cence, glacial outwash and marine transgressions ex-

posed along the Olympic Coast.

NHRE Class of 2011

Submitted by Alyson Harding

Things are going well……I'm graduating from North Carolina State University in May with degrees in Anthropology

and Chemistry. Right now I'm planning to take a year off to do service work, with most likely AmeriCorps. I've

worked with a variety of nonprofits and service organizations through my college career, and it's something I'm

deeply passionate about. After a year of service I'm thinking about going to graduate school for my masters of

public health, but that's still fairly undecided.

I spent last summer on an archaeological dig in Palau, in the Pacific. It was an incredible experience. I really en-

joyed the cultural aspect of it. I participated in the Island Archaeology Program. While in Palau, I worked with a

team to conduct an archaeological dig at a cemetery on the Rock Islands. The site, known as Chelechol ra Orrak,

is approximately 3,000 years old and is one of the oldest known cemeteries in the Pacific Islands.

My daily responsibilities included organizing the lab, wet screening in the field, and excavating trenches. Informa-

Alyson Harding gains Archaeology experience in Palau, Micronesia

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tion gathered from Chelechol ra Orrak is fundamental to understanding

the lives of the Pacific Islands’ earliest residents.

My 2011 NHRE mentor Dr. Ortner is also always in my thoughts. Last

year my scholarship required us to identify a leader in our field and inter-

view them about leadership. So in March I called Dr. Ortner to talk about

leadership. It was an incredibly meaningful conversation to me, and look-

ing back I'm very glad I took that opportunity to talk to him. He was cer-

tainly an incredible person and I was so fortunate to have the opportunity

to work with him.

I am currently serving as co-president of the NC State chapter of Habitat for Humanity and received a Park En-

richment Grant this past spring to support a trip with my chapter to work with Habitat for Humanity of Greater

Miami and learn about affordable housing issues in Florida.

I plan on pursuing a PhD in anthropology after I graduate next spring.

Submitted by Luke Lavin

Over the past few years I have become very interested in energy issues at the intersection of my two majors

(physics; anthropology). I spent this past summer doing research for science journalist Charles C. Mann on a va-

riety of energy issues, primarily unconventional hydrocarbon supply and development, for a book due to be pub-

lished in 2014. I'm currently working on my senior thesis, an exploration of rhetoric and ideology on both sides of

a debate over the viability of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Vermont.

I have also continued the anthropological research I began interning for Dr. Joshua A. Bell at the Smithsonian in

2011. In fact, I just got back from presenting part of the paper we are collaborating on at the American Anthro-

pological Association conference in San Francisco. I also did more archival anthropological work this past summer

for a professor at Amherst College, looking into the development of early secular humanitarianism following the

Armenian Genocide (1915-1923) in the former Ottoman Empire.

Tackling questions about the social and scientific nature of energy

Submitted by Ryan Moraski

Following my stint as an intern in the 2011 Smithsonian NHRE program I graduated with honors from The Penn-

sylvania State University in May 2012 with a degree in Biology. During my senior year I applied to and was ac-

cepted to several Ph.D programs in botany and Ecology/Evolutionary Biology including UW-Madison, The Univer-

sity of Georgia, and The University of Florida.

I decided on Florida and I am currently a Ph.D student at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Depart-

ment of Biology at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Ryan Moraski begins a Ph.D in Botany at the University of Florida


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Page 8 NHRE NEWS

I am in the first year of their PhD program in Botany where I am focusing on developing a

project in molecular systematics and evolution of a flowering plant widespread in the

Neotropics.

My experience in plant systematics and molecular biology with my NHRE advisors Drs. Jun

Wen and Liz Zimmer during the summer of 2011 has been invaluable in providing me with a

strong background in the theory and methods commonly used in the field.

Alumni update 2011

Anikó Tóth has returned to the Natural History mu-

seum to work on a contract for her NHRE mentors Kay

Behrensmeyer and Kate Lyons.

She is creating a database of mammal species lists for

Kenyan national parks, backed by specimens or pub-

lished primary sources. Each species has presence/

absence information for the early 1900's and late

1900's. The database includes a number of ecomor-

phic characteristics for every species.

Gretel Corsa is graduating from Cornell University in

December of this year with a major in Anthropology

and minors in Visual Studies and Latino Studies, and a

strong interest in Human Development. She continues

to work with the Latino Studies Program.

After graduation, Gretel will be moving to Los Angeles

where she hopes to find a job in Public Health and

eventually earn her Master’s Degree in the field of Pub-

lic Health as well.

Rhiannon LaVine “I am beginning my trek to my

PhD.”

Rhiannon is enrolled as a graduate student at the Uni-

versity of Chicago -Department of Geophysical Sci-

ences, concentrating in Paleobiology.

Victoria Danner graduated Cum Laude from St.

Mary’s College of Maryland and won the Margaret E.

Keen award for academic achievement as a female un-

dergraduate.

She is working and preparing for graduate school. She

wants to go into medical anthropology with a focus on

health and education in Native American communities.

Victoria just bought her first car.

Anthony Deczynski is studying Entomology at the

University of Delaware.

Last November, Anthony presented his NHRE research

in a poster competition at the annual meeting of the

Entomological Society of America (ESA).

In January 2012 he participated in a wildlife study

abroad program in Costa Rica. He was able to obtain

collecting permits while he was there.

This past summer, Anthony was accepted into the

REU at the Field Museum in Chicago. He worked un-

der Dr. Margaret Thayer and studied an undescribed

Staphylinid genus (Coleoptera) from Tasmania. He

will give a presentation on this research at the ESA

meeting in November this year.

Matt Chansler is currently working on a Master's

program at Michigan State University in plant biology.

He is studying a disjunct distribution pattern shared

by many species of plants. In Michigan they're local-

ized to the Upper Peninsula, and will not be present

anywhere else except for the West Coast. He is trying

to use some genetic data to determine if the pattern is

due to long-distance dispersal or vicariance.

Matt is a lab assistant at the MSU Herbarium.







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NHRE NEWS


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Page 9 NHRE NEWS

David Reed is living in Washington DC and working

at a higher education tech company called 2tor as

an Admissions Counselor.

He took some time out this Fall to take a trip to Viet-

nam, his first major international trip. He was very

much looking forward to immersing himself in a com-

pletely different culture, and eating lots of good Viet-

namese food.

Alumni update 2011

Angela Rueda is pursuing a Masters of Anthropology

with a concentration in museum and heritage studies

at Denver University. She was really fortunate to re-

ceive almost full funding to pursue her degree, and so

far has been loving the program and faculty.

Although Angela has not finalized her research, she is

looking into studying the relationship between com-

munity-based museums and the formation of racial

and ethnic identity through a descendent community

in Southern Colorado.

Submitted by Tyler Imfeld

Currently, I'm finishing up my core classes at Xavier as well as taking Introduction to Entomology, of which I'm

loving every minute. We're required to make an insect collection and I've gone on to the curating stage for my

80+ insects.

This year I am the president of Xavier University's Outdoor Club (XUODC) and I have begun planning a number

of trips including backpacking at Red River Gorge, spelunking in Mammoth Cave and whitewater rafting on the

New River in West Virginia. We also recently held a day-trip to go fossil hunting and hiking at a local state park.

As for post-graduation plans, I am currently meeting with every biology professor with whom I've had a class,

asking them about their respective fields and entering the early stages of networking to obtain a job as a lab

tech, research assistant or any other job through which I will be able to get more experience and narrow my

focus for a PhD or Masters program.

Regarding my NHRE research: I am planning on applying to the Ecological Society of America. Their conference

which will take place next August.

NHRE Class of 2012

Tyler Imfeld becomes President of the Xavier University Outdoor Club

Haley Vaseghi has made a decision to change her

career goals. Instead of conservation biology, she is

now studying molecular biology and plans to do

graduate work in biomedical research.

This summer she participated in another NSF REU

program at the University of Minnesota. She worked

on a bioengineering project that cloned different

genes into E. coli for applications in metabolic engi-

neering.

Currently Haley is doing research at George Mason

University studying the effects of anthrax infections

on host cell signaling pathways.

She still loves natural history and misses working at a

museum.

In her spare time she volunteers with a local bird

banding station and enjoys bird watching with friends.







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Volume 1, Issue 1.


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Page 10 NHRE NEWS

Page 10 NHRE NEWS

Submitted by Dakota Rowsey

After I finished my NHRE internship and returned to Oregon, I was invited to present my NHRE research at the

Gilbert Ichthyological Society that was to be held in HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, McKenzie Bridge, Oregon.

Although my work did not directly pertain to their research interests, I received nothing but positive feedback

and congratulations on the work I had done. In particular, Dr. Brian Sidlauskas, the former head of the society,

told me that he reviews about 30 papers per year and that my research paper would be one of those he would

recommend favourably. He said that I was 90 percent of the way there. He strongly encouraged me to publish.

It was a rewarding experience for sure and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to present in a different format (i.e,

a presentation rather than a poster session) to broaden my horizons as far as presenting research goes!

My presentation title was “ Species Boundries of Brushtail Possums in the Queensland Wet Tropics”. It was

based on my NHRE project with Kris Helgen. We hope to publish next year.

Dakota Rowsey presents at the Gilbert Ichthyological Society

Alumni update 2012

After returning home from the NHRE internship and

starting the fall semester at Arizona State Univer-

sity, Samantha Hauserman submitted a grant

application to her college.

The grant is called the Unusual Student Projects

Grant, and is offered by the Center for Biology and

Society at ASU. She applied for the grant so that

she could go to the American Museum of Natural

History in New York and continue the research that

she was doing during her NHRE internship. The

grant would cover the costs of airfare to New York.

In early October she received news that she had

been awarded the grant. Sam travelled to New York

on the 11th of October for two weeks to work on the

AMNH collection of penguin skeletons.

Adam presented his NHRE intern project at the 2012 Gil-

bert Ichthyological Society meeting that was held in HJ

Andrews Experimental Forest, McKenzie Bridge, Oregon.

For the future, Adam is looking into research opportuni-

ties abroad.

Akela Kuwahara is about

to get her BA from Hum-

boldt University. She is in

her last semester and has

started doing on campus

research looking at stem

cell model pathways in

cancer cells.

Akela is in touch with her

NHRE mentor Chris Meyers

quite often these days,

and she has submitted an

abstract to present at the

2013 Society of Integrated and Comparative Biology an-

nual meeting in January 2013.

Adam Martin is currently at Oregon State Univer-

sity working as an assistant in the Collection of

Fishes. He is also volunteering as a proctor for the

Systematics of Fishes course, and assisting with

then the species descriptions (based on morphologi-

cal characters) of some Anostomid fishes.

Elected as the lead mentor for a scholar organiza-

tion at OSU, he is currently responsible for a group

of 64 students.

2012-nhre-newsletter.pdf

Documents

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