New Director
           Dr. Margaret Riley stepped down as the Director of Collections in the beginning of January. We are grateful to Peg for her leadership through the transition from scattered locations throughout Morrill Science Center to consolidated space and office on the first floor and for her vigorous advocacy of the importance of collections in natural science. The new Director of Collections is
Dr. Elizabeth Dumont. Betsy is also the Curator of Mammals and conducts research on the evolution of feeding strategies. Her primary goals for the collections are: 1) to increase their visibility in Biology and across the UMass campus, 2) to highlight their contribution to education at UMass, and 3) to continue to vigorously support collections based research by graduate and undergraduate students.

Betsy Dumont Receives Biomechanical Systems Website Grant 
            Elizabeth Dumont (Biology) and co-PI  I. R. Grosse (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering) received a four-year, $982,633 grant from the National Science Foundation to support a new website called Biomesh, which teaches biologists how to study the behavior of biomechanical systems using the same computer modeling technique employed by engineers designing aircraft or bridges. Known as finite element analysis, this technique has revolutionized engineering, and has the potential to transform how biologists approach research in areas ranging from functional morphology and developmental biology to the study of evolution and cellular mechanics. Biomesh will support this learning experience by developing a shared digital resource collection of finite element models of biological systems. Biologists are just beginning to use finite element modeling to understand the biomechanical behavior of biological organs, tissues and even cells in both living and extinct organisms. Dumont research focus, for example, is how the physics involved in feeding has affected the evolution of diversity in mammals.

Natural History Collections Summer Scholarships Awarded
            The second annual NHC summer scholarships were announced on April 2, 2008. The funding for these scholarships is provided by the Jane Hallenbeck Bemis Endowment for Research in Natural History and the David J. Klingener Endowment Fund. All students conducting collections-based research under the mentorship of a UMass faculty member or a faculty member associated with a life sciences graduate program were eligible to apply. This year we funded twelve students studying a wide variety of research topics:
    Kristian Brevik (undergraduate, Hampshire College), “Preparation of an articulated dolphin skeleton” (mentor: Al Richmond, Biology, UMass Amherst).
   Nicole Soper Gordon (PhD student, PSIS) “Effects of a galling insect on pollination and herbivory of its host plant” (mentor: Lynne Adler, PSIS, UMass Amherst).
   Rodger Gwiazdowski (PhD Student, OEB and Entomology), “Cryptic species, phylogeography, host specialization, and evolution of parthenogenesis in pine scale insects across North America” (mentor: Ben Normak, PSIS, UMass Amherst).
   Lori Johnson (PhD student, Antioch University of New England), “The ecology of eastern musk turtle ecology in Massachusetts” (mentor: Al Richmond, Biology, UMass Amherst).
   Katherine Kauffman (PhD student, OEB), “The foraging behavior of razorbills (seabirds) at the southern limit of their range” (mentor: Paul Sievert, NRC, UMass Amherst).
   David McMillan (PhD student, OEB), “Geographic and seasonal variation in thermal tolerance in the western fence lizard, Scoloperus occidentalis” (mentor: Duncan Irschick, Biology, UMass Amherst).
   Adilia Nogueira, (PhD student, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, in Manaus, Brazil), “Three new species of Microsternarchus from the Negro River Basin, Amazon, Brazil” (mentor: Cristina Cox Fernandes, Biology, UMass Amherst).
   Emilienne Rasoazanabary (PhD student, Anthropology), “Stratigraphic and morphological analysis of mouse lemur jaws from Andrahomana Cave, Southeastern Madagascar” (mentor: Laurie Godfrey, Anthropology, UMass Amherst).
   Ariel Rodriguez and Jose Calderone (MS students, University of Costa Rica), “Morphological and Physiological adaptations of bats” (mentor: Betsy Dumont, Biology, UMass Amherst).
   Sharlene Santana (PhD student, OEB) “The Evolution of feeding habits and cranial morphology in neotropical leaf-nosed bats” (mentor: Betsy Dumont, Biology, UMass Amherst).
   Natalia Taft (PhD student, OEB), “Pectoral fin evolution in the malaculemorph fishes” (mentor: Cristina Cox Fernandes, Biology, UMass Amherst).