| Bios |
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The Biology Department NewsletterFall 1999 |
Volume 14: No. 2, Editor: J. Maxwell, Publisher J.W. Dole California State University, Northridge |
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Students, Teacher Get Awards,
Fellowships
Six students working
in Dr. Steve Oppenheimer's lab have been awarded fellowships. Gayani Weerasinghe, Marcella Barajas and Lylla Ngo are recipients of MBRS Fellowships; Juan
Carlos Pelayo and Edward
Yamoah are now MARC fellows. Alejandra Caino, a Mission College
student, was awarded a Summer Bridge Fellowship.
A middle school teacher, Mr. Greg Zem, also will be doing research in Dr. Oppenheimer's lab. He will be supported
by a National Science Foundation K-12 Teacher Fellowship.
Biology Faculty
Achievements
Dr.
Maria Elena Zavala has been asked to give a plenary
talk at the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native
Americans in Science. The session is sponsored by the American Society for Cell Biology.
Dr. Mary Lee Sparling presented a poster on "High basal phospholipase D in sea urchin
eggs and embryos" at both the Gordon Conference on Fertilization and Activation,
held at Holderness, New Hampshire, and at the Federation of American Societies for
Experimental Biology Conference on Phospholipase D held at Saxton's River, Vermont.
Dr. Larry Baresi
was part of a team of international scientists that recently published a paper on
a new extremophilic bacterium. The paper, entitled "Salinivibrio costicola
subsp. vallismortis subsp. nov., a halotolerant facultative anaerobe from
Death Valley and emended description of Salinivibrio costicola," was
published in the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. Dr. Baresi's co-authors
are C.H. Huang, J.L. Garcia, B.K.C. Patel, J.L. Cayol and R.A. Mah, all of UCLA.
Dr. Cheryl Hogue
recently published a paper entitled "Avoidance responses of rainbow trout and
Utah chub to rotenone" in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management.
Since Dr. Steve Dudgeon joined the faculty last January, three papers based on his recent research
have been published. "Dynamics of gastrovascular circulation in the hydrozoan
Podocoryne carnea: the one-polyp case" was the cover article in the Biological
Bulletin. "Experimental evidence for the origin of alternative communities on
rocky intertidal shores" appeared in Oikos. And, just out, "Coexistence
of similar species in a space-limited intertidal zone" appeared in Ecological
Monographs.
Dr. Janet Kübler has published a paper in Plant Cell and Environment entitled "The
effects of reduced and elevated CO2 and O2 on
the seaweed, Lomentaria articulata," co-authored by J.A. Raven and A.M.
Johnston of the University of Dundee, UK. She also had a review article on algae
in extreme low light environments accepted by the Journal of the Marine Biological
Association of the United Kingdom. The article, co-authored with J. A. Raven
and J. Beardall (of Monash University, Australia) is titled "Put out the light
then put out the light."
Dr. Paul Tomasek
presented an invited talk on microbiology undergraduate education at a Gordon Research
Conference in New London, Connecticut in July. The title of his talk was "Enhancing
microbiology in the midst of a full plate."
Biology Faculty Receive Grants
The National Science
Foundation awarded $159,147 to the Biology Department for the purchase of a research
microscope and computer-assisted, image analysis system. This system will enable
researchers to expand their current studies to three-dimensional cellular reconstructions,
fluorescent analysis, real-time imaging and microinjection. Dr. Randy Cohen was principal author
of the grant proposal. Collaborating with him were Drs.
Lisa Banner, Edward Carroll, Cheryl Hogue, Steven Oppenheimer
and Maria Elena Zavala.
Drs. Paul Tomasek and Larry Baresi recently received a US Department of Agriculture grant for $299,182. The grant, entitled "Enhancing microbiology at three Hispanic serving institutions," will fund, in part, the purchase of equipment for a Food Microbiology course to be developed and taught by both professors.