Laura Angley Receives 2021 Denton Award
Laura Angley of the Schmitt Lab was selected as the winner of the 2021 Denton Award for her master’s research thesis in biology titled “Post-Release survival rates and welfare of rehabilitated vervet monkeys in malawi.” This award is given for excellence in scholarship and research accomplishment during a master’s thesis in the Department of Biology.
Laura has a BA in Biology from Providence College. Prior to coming to BU, Laura interned at the Bronx Zoo and Maritime Aquarium, and worked as a research assistant at the Ann Van Dyk Cheetah Centre in South Africa. Her MS research focused on investigating factors affecting post-release survival rates and welfare of rehabilitated and released vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus rufoviridis) in Malawi, using data provided by the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust.
Congratulations, Laura!
Leah Williams Receives Charles Terner Award
Leah Williams, Biology PhD candidate of the Gilmore Lab, is this year’s recipient of the Charles Terner Award. Leah studies the role of transcription factor NF-kappaB in the control of biological processes in invertebrate systems. This research has relevance to pathogen defenses in simple marine organisms, climate change-induced effects on coral health, and the evolutionary origins of immune processes in humans.
This award provides support for a CM or MCBB PhD candidate who has made significant contributions to their field. Charles Terner was a Professor of Biology at Boston University for over 20 years before he retired in 1985. Dr. Terner specialized in biochemistry and focused his research on the metabolic properties of male reproductive cells. The award was established in his memory after he passed away in 1998.
Congratulations, Leah!
Sarah Davies Receives NSF Awards
Dr. Sarah Davies recently received two National Science Foundation (NSF) awards: a Biological Oceanography award and a co-funded Biological Oceanography and Biological Sciences award.
Dr. Davies is collaborating with Dr. Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser at WHOI for the NSF Biological Oceanography award, which will fund the proposal "Collaborative Research: How do selection, plasticity, and dispersal interact to determine coral success in warmer and more variable environments?". Dr. Davies and Dr. Meyer-Kaiser will conduct coral spawning research in the Rock Islands in Palau alongside Palauan interns in spring 2022. This work will also fund a Reef Music event in collaboration with Multiverse. The event will be conducted in Spanish and will be free of charge to attendees in East Boston. Dr. Davies is the PI and Dr. Meyer-Kaiser is the co-PI.
Dr. Davies is collaborating with with Dr. Adrienne Correa at Rice University and Dr. John Parkinson at University of Southern Florida for the co-funded NSF Biological Oceanography and Biological Sciences award, which will fund the proposal "Collaborative Research: Building consensus around the quantification and interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae diversity." The overarching goal of this workshop is to recognize and build further consensus around the identification and analysis of Symbiodiniaceae (the coral's algal symbiont) genetic variation and come up with a practical ‘consensus road map’. This workshop will take place via Zoom, with 75 researchers from across the world attending. Dr. Davies is the PI and Dr. Correa and Dr. Parkinson are the co-PIs.
Research in the Davies Lab leverages in situ environmental data and mesocosm/culturing work with large-scale genomic and transcriptomic data to identify the mechanisms underlying adaptation, dispersal, and symbiosis in corals. The lab's long-term research vision aims to uncover mechanistic links from phenotype to genotype and predict evolutionary trajectories for this critical symbiosis under climate change.
Congratulations, Sarah!
2021 Undergraduate Graduation Award Winners
Congratulations to our Class of 2021! Last week, Biology and BMB students were recognized for their academic excellence and research contributions at the Biology Virtual Graduation Celebration and BMB Virtual Graduation Celebration.
For Biology, awards were given out to graduating seniors including Cairo De Souza (Senior College Prize for Excellence in Biology); Mary Kate Brennan and Vikram Daesety (Excellence in Scholarship Award); Yi Cao and Tiffany Voon (Academic Achievement Award); and Elena Gomez, Anthony Khoudary and Katie Tiemeyer (Biology Department Undergraduate Research Award). For BMB, the graduation awards went to Gwen Pyeatt (Senior College Prize for Excellence in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and to Roxanna Altus, Surya Pulukuri, Emily Traficante, Sainetra Sridhar, Michelle Pan, Katie Tiemeyer, and Sunnie Kong (Outstanding Achievement in Research and Scholarship Award). Congratulations to those recognized and to the entire Class of 2021!
Photos of some of our award winners below:
Biology and BMB Students Inducted into Tri-Alpha Honor Society
Twenty-five Biology and BMB undergraduates were inducted into the Tri-Alpha Honor Society this year. Tri-Alpha honors first-gen students who have achieved high GPAs of at least 3.2 or higher. First gen students are students who are in the first generation in their family to go to college. The Newbury Center has more information and a recording of the induction ceremony here. The Biology and BMB undergraduates inducted were:
| Hailey Ames | |
| Sarah Anwar |  |
| Katherine Barahona |  |
| Bianca Barreto | |
| Grace Beery | |
| Mary Kate Brennan |  |
| Margina Canales Diaz |  |
| Siria Coello | |
| Kristin Doucette |  |
| Jhoely Duque-Jimenez |  |
| Abby Evancho |  |
| Christine Foran |  |
| Patrycia Glowiak | |
| Makenna Graham | |
| Alyssa Haynes | |
| Long Hong | |
| Allyson Imbacuan | |
| Amanda Katchmar |  |
| Lauren Kwok |  |
| Michelle Pan |  |
| Melissa Rodriguez | |
| Karan Smith | |
| Mila Torres |  |
| Rachel Xue | |
| Leah Yim |  |
Ana Fiszbein Named BU Hariri Institute for Computer Faculty Fellow
Assistant Professor of Biology, Dr. Ana Fiszbein, was recently announced as a junior faculty fellow with the Hariri Institute for Computing. The Junior Faculty Fellows Program "recognizes outstanding early-career computing and data-driven researchers at BU and supports their continued development by connecting them with one another and with the Institute community at large through various mechanisms and activities." Ana was recognized for her research with investigates fundamental aspects of gene regulation using an interdisciplinary genomics-based approach. Congratulations Ana!
Thank You to Our Interns
The Biology Department is extending a big thank you to our undergraduate interns: Sofia and Serena. Sofia and Serena have been helping us with our events and communications in the past year which was greatly appreciated during a very busy and unpredictable year. Sofia planned multiple events for us, including brand new ones that she organized like our Biology/BMB Club Fair, our Biology Specialization Fair, and our Career Exploration events. Serena wrote dozens of news articles for our website on recent developments in research and publications and created posts for our social media channels to help get news about opportunities and events to our students. Thank you Serena and Sofia for all of your hard work and support!
Sofia and Serena were hired through the CAS On-Campus Internship program which runs every fall and spring semester. More info can be found here.
Jenny Bhatnagar and BU Grad Students Zoey Werbin and Kathryn Atherton Publish Paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution
Dr. Jenny Bhatnagar, PhD candidate in Biology Zoey Werbin, and Bioinformatics grad student Kathryn Atherton recently published a paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution titled, "Soil microbiome predictability increases with spatial and taxonomic scale". BU alum, Colin Averill (CAS '08) and Michael Dietze, Professor Earth & Environtment at BU were also authors on the paper. The goal of the paper was to "develop predictive models of bacterial and fungal community composition in soil". In their work, these researchers found that soil microbe predictability increased with the size of the land area being surveyed and predictions were more accurate when based on symbiotic relationships that microbes have with local plant species.
You can read the whole paper here and read more about the process of the research in The Brink. Congratulations to Jenny, Zoey, Kathryn, Colin, and Michael on their publication.
Jason Samaroo Selected for The Poetry of Science Project
PhD student Jason Samaroo of the Larkin Lab was recently selected for a project with The Poetry of Science, an initiative directed by the Cambridge Arts Council in which poets and scientists of color from the Cambridge area collaborate to create poetry for a public art installation centered around science, poetry, and racial social justice. Through this collaboration with the Poetry of Science, Jason is hoping to further understanding of the relationship between life and art, analogous to the perspectives of science and poetry.
The project offers scientists the opportunity to speak about their work in new and creative forms of writing, and allows poets and scientists to bridge the gap between the sciences and humanities while also strengthening links between distinct communities of color. A local photographer will also create portraits of the scientists in their field of study.
The poems will be presented at the Boston Lit Crawl on June 10th at the Starlight Space in Central Square, Cambridge and will also be published in a special edition of Spry Literary Journal. Both the poems and portraits will be printed and publicly installed at local businesses in the Cambridge area later this summer. Further information about this project can be found on The Poetry of Science website.
Jason conducts research on the biophysical properties of microbial communities. Microbes encounter many different environments: the soil, ocean, animal intestines, etc. To thrive in these environments, they must employ biological and physical strategies to address self-organization—more specifically, what cell-to-cell or cell-to-environment information is necessary for successful formation of microbial communities. A clear understanding of how the emergent patterns, intrinsic to life, originate from cells would show us how living things have spread across the whole planet.
Bacterial cells can differentiate into many fates, much like the cells in our bodies. For example, they can become motile and move dynamically, or matrix producing, and aid in surface adhesion. Jason aims to investigate the role that physical interactions between cells, and gene regulation within cells, play in the emergence of colony-level behaviors that make bacteria successful in every habitat on earth.
Bacterial communities that stick to surfaces such as plant roots and medical devices are called biofilms. Once a group of cells adheres together to form a multicellular biofilm, it becomes a living material in which forces can be transmitted to shape colonies and alter cellular states. Using the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis as a model, Jason seeks to find how localized forces create emergent patterns that give biofilms new strategies to thrive in harsh environments. In this way, a school of thought is formed in which biofilm formation can be thought of like the development of an organism: as cells grow, stick together and unstick, local forces create movements and three-dimensional structures that become anatomy.
Congratulations, Jason!
Professors Templer, Gilmore, and Bradham Receive University Awards for their Work in the 2020-2021 Academic Year
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Three Biology faculty, Pam Templer, Tom Gilmore, and Cyndi Bradham received awards from Boston University for their work during the 2020-2021 academic year. Congratulations to Pam, Tom, and Cyndi on this achievement.
At BU's 148th Commencment on May 16, Dr. Pam Templer was awarded the Provost's Scholar Teacher of the Year Award. The Provost’s Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award recognizes outstanding scholars who excel as teachers inside and outside the classroom and who contribute to the art and science of teaching and learning. From the Office of the Provost:
"Dr. Pamela Templar’s thoughtful integration of original research into her teaching practices embodies the spirit of a scholar-teacher. In the classroom, Dr. Templer uses findings from her own climate and pollution studies to teach students how to analyze data and examine the impact of human activity on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
A frequent presenter at national and international conferences, she is a Fellow and Vice-President for Education in the Ecological Society of America, and her research group has published nearly 90 articles in premier scholarly journals. This convergence of excellence in research and teaching is at the core of what the Provost’s Scholar-Teacher Award celebrates."
You can read more on the Office of the Provost's website and in BU Today.
On May 5, Dr. Tom Gilmore was awarded the 2021 Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Education and Dr. Cyndi Bradham was awarded a Templeton Award for Excellent in Student Advising. From his nominators:
"Thirty years ago, Thomas started the Biology Department’s weekly graduate-student seminar series, which remains an integral part of the curriculum for the Cell & Molecular and Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biochemistry (MCBB) graduate programs. Since 2019, he has directed the MCBB graduate program, an umbrella program incorporating faculty from several BU departments, and he has made changes to the admission process that have both enhanced the experience for students and elevated the program’s quality."
And from her nominators:
"Cynthia’s nominators noted she saw her role as much more than just helping students to choose classes and was especially helpful with academic skills. According to one of her nominators, 'When I first transferred to Boston University I was lost. I didn’t know how to study or how to properly take any test. After doing bad on my first test, Professor Bradham reached out to me and invited me other office hours. She not only helped me with the class but with my testing anxiety and overall mental health.'"
Congratulations to Pam, Tom, and Cyndi for these well-deserved awards and thank you all for your hard work!