Summer Scholarships for 2007
Congratulations to the seven students awarded summer scholarships by the Natural History Collections group:
Jane Hallenbeck Bemis awards:
    Rodger Gwiazdowski of the Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences Department (PSIS) and the Organismic and Evolutionary (OEB) Program, a student of Ben Normark for his study, “Genomic quality, entomological and botanical collections of Mexico”;
    Kimberly Kasper of the Anthropology Department, a student Elizabeth Chilton, for her study,” Moving beyond maize in New England; a multidisciplinary approach”;
    Sydne Record, of the Plant Biology Program who is working with Aaron Ellison at Harvard Forest for her project, “Living on the edge: a comparison of core versus edge populations of swamp wood-betony (Pedicularis lanceolata) and related root hemiparasites of the Orobanchaceae”.
David J. Klingener awards went to:
    Marina Blanco of Anthropology, a student of Laurie Godfrey for her study, “Dental analysis of small-bodied Malagasy lemurs (cheirogaleids)”;
    Sandra Gillespie, of PSIS and OEB, a student of Lynn Adler, for “Parasites and parasitoids of bumblebees in old-field habitats of Massachusetts: the potential for multi-trophic effects”;
    Michael Jones of the OEB Program, a student of Paul Sievert in the Natural Resources Conservation Department, for “ Ecology and conservation of wood turtles (Glyptomys insculpta) in the Connecticut River valley of Massachusetts:,
    Lisabeth Willey of the OEB Prgoram, also a student of Paul Sievert, for her project “Conserving eastern box turtles (Terrapene c. carolina) in the Connecticut Valley, Massachusetts”..

Curator ReceivesResearch Leadership Award
Betsy Dumont, Curator of Mammals, recently received a Research Leadership in Action Award of $6,000 to conduct a workshop called "Finite Element Modeling in Biology" that will run June 9-16 here on campus. The  workshop will train people how to build and analyze 3D finite element models of complex biological shapes. The long-term goal of the Research Leadership in Action Program, which is sponsored by the Vice-Provost for Research, is to help investigators develop ties with industry and generate financial support for their research programs..

Collections Director Asked to Chair Working Group
Peg Riley was asked to chair a working group, created by the American Academy of Microbiology and funded by the Department of Energy, charged with exploring the potential for sequencing the genomes of all named bacterial species. She will invite leaders in the field of microbial evolution to meet in Washington to discuss this opportunity and provide advice to the DOE with respect to how to choose which genomes to sequence.

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