sciences

The Bees’ Needs

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K alumna Rachel Mallinger holds a visual presentation for Wisconsin’s Wild Bees
Rachel Mallinger

The power of science in large part is the power of great storytelling. When the stories lead into mystery … well, that’s when science continues, generating more stories and encountering more mysteries. The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Genetics/Biotech center harnesses the power of stories during a public series called Wednesday Nite @ The Lab, occurring every Wednesday, 50 times a year. Attendance is high, and K alumna Rachel Mallinger ’05 will be the featured presenter on Wednesday, March 26. Her topic: “Wisconsin’s Wild Bees: Who Are They, What Do They Do, and Why Should We Conserve them?” Rachel earned her B.A. in biology at K, her M.S. in entomology and agroecology (UW-Madison) and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in entomology at UW-Madison. Wisconsin has more than 500 species of native wild bees, and their contributions to pollination are becoming more and more important as honey bee populations decline. Mallinger’s talk will focus on effect of land use change and farm management on the abundance and diversity of wild bees. “I will also discuss the role of wild bees in crop pollination, and address whether or not they can fulfill our food needs,” she wrote. Mallinger wants to learn more about the roles of insects in agricultural ecosystems and how insects can be managed to enhance the sustainability of farming. She currently studies wild bees and pollination services within fruit orchards. She enjoys working with farmers, experimenting in her own vegetable garden, and cross-country skiing during the winter. At K, Rachel studied abroad in Thailand, and she also mentored a SIP student supervised by Ann Fraser, associate professor of biology. According to Fraser, that student is now applying to Ph.D. programs to work on wild bees. “That will make at least four grads in the last eight years who have done to work on wild bees,” adds Fraser. “I’ll be working with three students this summer on another bee project (looking at the impacts of honey bees on wild bees), and a student organization on campus is starting work on constructing ’buzz boxes’ on campus to improve foraging and nesting habitat for wild bees. Maybe,” grins Fraser,” we need a new college mascot.” The hornet’s probably safe for now.

Hands-On HOPES

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Regina_Stevens-TrussRegina Stevens-Truss, the Kurt D. Kaufman Associate Professor of Chemistry has written an article updating an idea of hers and the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: the HOPES Initiative. HOPES pairs teachers with working scientists so that together they could provide hands-on opportunities to students. “We didn’t anticipate the sweeping impact the program would have across the nation,” wrote Stevens-Truss in the update. The HOPES initiative has resulted in 27 partnerships in 22 cities across the U.S. and has affected the education of more than 3,600 fourth- through 12th-graders.

K Grads Receive “Preferred” Admissions Status to New WMU Medical School

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The new Western Michigan University School of Medicine (WMed) has announced a “preferred” relationship with Kalamazoo College, Western Michigan University (WMU), and WMU’s Lee Honors College. Prospective students from these institutions may apply to WMed through the American Medical College Application Service, a centralized application processing service available to applicants to first-year entering classes at participating U.S. medical schools. Students will be selected through the regular selection process and must meet all admission requirements. All things being equal, students from K, WMU, and Lee will receive preference in admission.

“We are excited about this relationship between K and Western Michigan University School of Medicine,” said Kalamazoo College Provost Mickey McDonald. “This acknowledges the strength of K’s Health Sciences Program and provides K graduates an opportunity to pursue a medical degree while remaining in southwest Michigan.”

Construction of the new medical school in downtown Kalamazoo is underway. Students in the first WMed class will begin their studies in August 2014.

Faculty Honors in Art and Science

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Peter Erdi, Physics and Complex Systems Studies, has been selected to deliver the “Ignite” talk at the Science of Success symposium (June 17, 2013) at Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.). The title of his address is “Prediction of Emerging Technologies.”

In other recognition of faculty work, the artwork “Kohler Pile”–a collaborative piece that Associate Professor of Art Sarah Lindley and her husband Norwood Viviano created during their Arts-Industry Residency at John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, Wis.)–was accepted for publication in New Glass Review 2013. Their project was one of 100 selected from a pool of 2,973 submissions by 1010 artists/designers from 48 countries. New Glass Review is an annual survey of glass in contemporary art, architecture, craft, and design created in the previous year by emerging and established artists, as well as students. The works are chosen by a changing jury of curators, artists, designers, art dealers, and critics. The book/journal will come out in July.

K Alumna Describes Her Whale Science in Video Submission

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Ellen Chenoweth ’08, a doctoral student and MESAS Fellow at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, has entered a video contest (National Science Foundation IGERT Video and Poster Competition).

Her entry explains her scientific work with humpback whales and salmon in Alaska and includes wonderful footage of both. It also features some humorous footage and metaphors to make the science accessible to lay audiences.

Humpback whales compete with the Alaska fishing industry for hatchery salmon. Chenoweth seeks to understand the energy expended by humpbacks to secure their other food sources. This information may eventually assist salmon hatchery release procedures in order to make food sources other than salmon more efficient for the whales, thus reducing whale-human competition for salmon fishing, which is vital to the economy of coastal Alaska.

Says Chenoweth: “Anyone can vote in the public choice category and you can vote for as many different videos as you want.”

If her submission wins the contest, she’ll use the prize to attend Marine Mammal Conference in December.

Heyls Feted at K; Most Will Stay

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10 Heyl Scholars
Photo by Tony Dugal

At a May dinner, Kalamazoo College feted the 2013 Kalamazoo county high school graduates who earned Heyl Scholarships for Kalamazoo College (science and math) or Western Michigan University (nursing). The scholarship covers tuition, book costs, and room charges.

The winners are (l-r): first row—-Raoul Wadhwa, Sharifa Amini, Madison McBarnes; second row—-Graeme Timmeney, Marlena VandeStreek, Eric Thornburg; third row—-Andrew Kaylor, Colleen Orwin, Brice Calco; back row—-Christie Goodyke. Not pictured is Quinton Colwell. Attending K next fall will be Calco, Colwell, Kaylor, McBarnes, Orwin, Thornburg, Timmeney, and Wadhwa. Amini, Goodyke, and VandeStreek will attend the WMU Bronson School of Nursing.

Strong K Presence at National Science Meeting

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Six students presented research work at the annual ASBMB meeting
Six students presented research work at the annual ASBMB meeting. From left: Josh Abbott, Erran Briggs, Amanda Bolles, Mara Livezey, Michael Hicks, and Nic Sweda. Hicks is a biology major; the other five are majoring in chemistry.

Six Kalamazoo College students joined two of their chemistry professors and mentors (Regina Stevens-Truss and Laura Lowe Furge) at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology National Meeting in Boston, Mass. The students–Nicholas Sweda ’13, Mara Livezey ’13, Michael Hicks ’13, Josh Abbott ’13, Amanda Bolles ’14, and Erran Briggs ’14–presented results of their summer and academic year research experiences (Senior Individualized Projects in the cases of Nick and Josh). Nearly 300 posters from colleges across the country were part of the 17th Annual Undergraduate Student Research Poster Competition and Professional Development Workshop. Professor Furge was a judge in the competition.

The lab of Professor Paul Hollenberg at the University of Michigan was the site of Abbott’s SIP research on the role of CYP2B6 metabolism of the chemotherapeutic drug cyclophosphamide. The other five posters were based on research done at Kalamazoo College. Sweda presented ongoing studies from Professor Stevens-Truss’s lab on suramin selective inhibition of nitric oxide synthases. This work is the basis of a manuscript in preparation with Sweda and Alyssa McNamara ’11 as co-authors. Livezey, Hicks, Bolles, and Briggs each presented individual posters with results of three projects from Professor Furge’s lab on the interactions of inhibitors with human cytochrome P450 enzymes. The work presented by Bolles and Briggs is currently being prepared in a manuscript for publication with both students as co-authors along with Livezey. The posters presented by Hicks and Livezey are the basis of current NIH-funded studies in the Furge lab. In addition to the poster sessions, students attended talks, award lectures, and exhibits. Students also met with graduate school recruiters.

During the meeting, Professor Stevens-Truss directed her third annual teaching workshop for middle school and high school science teachers in the Boston area. The workshop attracted more than 70 teacher-participants from the Boston area, a record number for these ASBMB associated events. Professor Stevens-Truss’s efforts in structuring the workshops have provided a new platform for scientists to collaborate and mentor the nation’s secondary school science teachers. Scientists from across the country helped make the workshop a meaningful experience for school teachers. It was funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Stevens-Truss. Next year’s meeting will be in San Diego, Calif., and K expects to be there.

Sustainability Goes Fourth at Kalamazoo College

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Kalamazoo College will host the fourth annual Sustainability SIP Symposium on Monday, April 29, 6-9 p.m., in 103 Dewing Hall on the K campus (1200 Academy St.), co-sponsored by the College’s Guilds and Environmental Studies Program. Free and open to the public, the event will feature student presentations of sustainability-related Senior Individualized Projects (SIPs) ranging in topic from English to Economics. Audience members will have time for questions following each presentation, and an opportunity to meet student researchers at the interactive poster session and reception beginning at 8 p.m. in Dewing Hall Commons. Refreshments will be provided by the People’s Food Co-Op.

Student presentations include:

Mysha Clarke: Energy Recovery in Landfills: A Jamaican Case Study

Monika Egerer: Ecosystem Services on the Mariana Islands: Implications of bird loss for a wild chili pepper species

Rebecca Rogstad: Zane, the Curious Little Zooxanthellate

Shoshana Schultz: Inverting the Atlas: Mapping Geographically Based Food Security in Kalamazoo

“The annual symposium recognizes the scholarship and research that many K seniors devote to their SIPs (a graduation requirement) and showcases the breadth and depth of sustainability-related work taking place at the College,” said Joan Hawxhurst, Director, Center for Career and Professional Development.

This year’s Symposium is the first since the reorganization and expansion of the Guilds to include seven career path clusters: Arts & Media, Business, Education, Health, Law, Nonprofit & Public Service, and Science & Technology. Sustainability infuses the conversations and collaborations in all seven Guilds, and the Sustainability SIP Symposium showcases how this value cuts across disciplines and departments and informs the work of all professionals.

Sabbatical Attraction

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The root of the word sabbatical is “rest,” but Jan Tobochnik, physics and computer science, was in great demand as a lecturer during his sabbatical (June 2012 to March 2013). He gave five invited talks while on sabbatical. Three of the talks were titled “Network Analysis of Patent Citations,” and were based on work he did with fellow Kalamazoo College professor, Peter Erdi, physics and psychology, and others. These talks were given at Clark University, the Boston University Center for Computational Science, and the Northeastern University Center for Complex Networks Research. In addition, Tobochnik gave two talks titled “Physical Insight from Computational Algorithms,” at Universidad de Murcia in Murcia, Spain, and the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth.

Henry David and K Alum Rob

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I’ve been on a walk with Henry David Thoreau—not literally, of course, but a second reading (or multiple readings) of Walden can seem like an attentive wood-or-wetland perambulation with its author. I came across this: “At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.” Wait, wait … that reminds me of another favorite author, science writer and scientist Rob Dunn ’97, who writes in a recent article (in which Rob’s grandfather makes an indelible impression): “So much for my New Year’s resolution, though maybe part of the problem is that we still know so little about so many fields that it is nearly impossible to make it to the end of a story without encountering the unknown.” His resolution was to answer the science questions that come up in everyday life. His “Year in Review” blog article (Scientific American) kicked off the resolution with 11 questions. But pretty soon the questions were multiplying, not answers. But that’s a good thing that comes in part from Rob’s long lineage of questioners who “went long” and went broad to go long (Rob’s other resolution is to write shorter articles, but I’m glad that’s unlikely to work, too). It’s no wonder Rob attended K.