Kennesaw State Biology

A new EEBOB on-demand seminar is live! Check out how you can view this week's video and join the Q&A session on Thursday at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

Join us tomorrow morning for our first EEBOB live Q&A session of the semester with Dr. Jessica Welch from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Learn how to stream her video and join the live Q&A at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

MSIB alum Eric Duncan (’14) considers himself an arborist at heart and even started a nursery business, All About Natives, to provide Georgia native plants of all kinds for customers who want to beautify their yards. After staying connected to KSU, Eric was eventually connected with Dr. Mario Bretfeld, who also understood the importance of how native plants like skullcap and milkweed help strengthen most ecosystems.

Not all weeds are bad. At least that’s what assistant professor of biology Mario Bretfeld, MSIB alum Eric Duncan, and Field Station manager Michael Blackwell want people to understand. To help shift perceptions, the trio launched the Safeguarding, Education, Propagation, and Applied Research Laboratory (SEPAL) project to get people to understand certain plants can be beneficial. Ultimately, they hope to help safeguard endangered plants and grow native plants such as skullcap and milkweed to support local ecosystems around the South. https://bit.ly/3WihMR8

Congratulations to the EEOB and MCB faculty members recognized at the CSM Teaching Excellence Reception! 🎉

Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Karyn Alme, M.S.
Dovid Kozlovsky, Ph.D.
Monica Maddox, D.C.
Vennece Fowlkes, Ph.D.
Traci McGee, M.S.

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Joy Brookshire, M.S.
Elizabeth Harrison, Ph.D.
Kristina Mercer, Ph.D.
Farnaz Shoja-Taheri, Ph.D.
Sheila Schreiner, Ph.D.

Congratulations to the 25 faculty members recognized during the Teaching Excellence Reception on Monday, April 29! These faculty members significantly impacted teaching within the college in 2023. Thank you for all you do to help our students succeed in science and mathematics! 🔗https://bit.ly/4avruol

Happy ! Your gift to the College helps support our student scholarships, while donations to our departments help support our needs for equipment, faculty support, and special programs. https://bit.ly/4ceQgLL

Alumni: Help us unlock up to $10,000 to help all Kennesaw State University students! Gifts to the college and/or department are included in this challenge.

Remember, it's not about the size of your contribution, but the impact of your involvement. A small donation today will go a long way for our students!

A new EEBOB on-demand seminar is live! Check out how you can view this week's video and how to join the Q&A session on Thursday at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

Kennesaw State University was well-represented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB) in Chattanooga March 20-23, 2024. Several faculty and students from the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology attended the conference, and several students presented their research at the conference, including:

— Will Freyberger, a biology major in Dr. Joel McNeal’s lab, presented “Host Selection in Harper's Dodder, a Rare Parasitic Plant.”
— Isabella Vahle, an MSIB graduate student in Dr. Paula Jackson's lab, presented “Above and Below Ground Community Structures in a Longleaf Pine Restoration Site: Differences in soil communities at longleaf pine restoration sites.”
— Brianna Casement, an MSIB graduate student in Dr. Nick Green's lab, presented “Spatial and Abiotic Effects of Urbanization on Small Mammal Communities.”
— Leslie Lopez, an MSIB graduate student in Dr. Nick Green's lab, presented “Patterns and potential mechanisms of phenotypic changes in urban small mammals.”
— Olivia Walker, a biology major, Dylan Bennett, a biology major, and Rylee Shaw, an environmental science major, from Dr. Paula Jackson’s lab presented their poster “Differences in soil communities at longleaf pine restoration sites.”

A new EEBOB Seminar is available! Check out how you can view this week's video and how to join the Q&A session on Thursday at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

Dr. Brandon Carpenter and two of his undergraduate students, Zaynab Massenburg and Benjamin Ngyuen, were among the several KSU CSM faculty and students to attend the 2024 Allied Genetics Conference. The conference was hosted by the GSA - Genetics Society of America, earlier this month in Washington, D.C.

Zaynab was one of the select few undergraduates to present her research, “Developmental phenotypes caused by the inappropriate inheritance of histone methylation require Polycomb Repressive Complex 2,” orally at the conference. The selection process for oral presentations was competitive, and many spectators in the audience commented on how her talk was on a post-doc level. Benjamin was one of the several KSU attendees to present his poster, “A major regulator of germline transcription, LSL-1, contributes to developmental defects when histone methylation is inappropriately inherited,” during the poster presentation session.

Congratulations to MSIB graduate student Isabella Vahle for receiving a highly competitive Grants in Aid of Research (GIAR) from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society!

The committee evaluated 593 applications across most research disciplines, and awarded grants to 11 undergraduate students, 10 master’s students, and 30 doctoral students. Grant amounts ranged from $600–$5000; Isabella received $4,530.

A new EEBOB on-demand seminar with KSU student Christian Cave is now available! Check out how you can view this week's video and how to join the Q&A session on Thursday at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

The EEBOB Seminar Series will be on-demand this semester. Check out how you can view this week's video and how to join the Q&A session on Thursday at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

There will be a new MBIG seminar tomorrow with our very own Dr. Kojo Mensa-Wilmot!

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_Calendar

The EEBOB Seminar Series will be on-demand this semester. Check out how you can view this week's video at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Guindre-Parker for her article in Futurum Careers that focuses on her National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research in EEOB!

Futurum Careers is a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities, and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

Does city life negatively affect wildlife? - Futurum Dr Leslie Holland is developing a S.A.M.E. (systems approach for managing the expression) of cranberry fruit rot.

There will be a new MBIG seminar tomorrow!

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_Calendar

The EEBOB Seminar Series will be on-demand this semester. Check out how you can view this week's video at the link below.

📷 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB

The EEBOB Seminar Series has released a new on-demand seminar! Check out how you can view this week's video at the link below.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CSM_EEBOB