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Prospective students:
Click here to
download a pdf presentation on the Biology
Department (3MB)
Click here to
download a pdf presentation on Field
Biology at Sweet Briar (4.5MB) |
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Fall Events
2 September: Naturalist-in-Residence Mike Hayslett is lecturing at
the Science Museum of Virginia. On 9 September he is lecturing
at Hampton University.
11-13 September: Isolated Wetlands Conference and Vernal Pond Building
Workshop, with Tom Biebighauser. For more information contact Mike
Hayslett.
25 September: Emeritus Professor Ernest P. Edwards turns 90!
26 September: Research Professor Lincoln Brower is lecturing
at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond VA.
10 October: Natural History Workshop for Teachers. For more information
contact Linda Fink or Mike
Hayslett.
2-4 November: Visit by evolutionary biologist / writer Olivia
Judson. For more information contact Janet
Steven.
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Alumnae News (also see the Alumnae
webpage)
Katie Wood Rea '01 switched careers a year ago from
intensive care nurse to Drug Safety Associate at PRA
International. She reports adverse drug events to regulatory
authorities, for several pharmaceutical companies.
Stephanie Jefferson '03 received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the
University of Florida and has started a postdoctoral fellowship in the
neuroscience
lab of Theresa Jones at the University of Texas at Austin.
Laurel Speilman Rodgers '03 spent Spring 2009 as Visiting Instructor
in our department, teaching Introduction to Cells and Microbiology. While
teaching full time, she also defended her Ph.D. in Cell Biology
and Anatomy at the University of Arizona. She has now moved to
a postdoctoral fellowship in North Carolina.
Lindsay Kinyon Ashton '03, who has been teaching high school science,
is changing careers and starting this fall at the VCU School of Dentistry.
Cara Cherry '06 is in her fourth year of vet school at VA Tech. She
is in a research-focused track, and is spending most of this year in
a series of 3-week rotations. Cara is going all over the country:
USDA Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health in Colorado. FDA Center
for Veterinary Medicine; the NIH for a pathology rotation; the CDC for
epidemiology; the ports of Los Angeles to inspect quarantined animals,
and possibly to the Dominican Republic for a public health rotation.
Dawn Slekis '08 is starting an M.S. program in Environmental Toxicology
at Texas Tech.
Sam Clark '09 has extended her contract with the School
for Field Studies in Baja, Mexico. She is working on mangrove
restoration and fisheries monitoring, teaching kayaking, setting up
a recycling program on the local beaches, and trying to establish a
spay/neuter clinic.
2009 graduates who have reported back to us include Doreen McVeigh (M.S.
program in Biology at Hood College), Sarah Barta (employed by biotechnology
company Wuxi Apptec Corp in St. Paul), Jessica Cheverton Taylor (employed
in the histology department of Pathology Consultants of Central Virginia)
and Murphy Horne (law school at W&L).
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Recent
faculty and alumnae publications
Brower, L.P., L.S.
Fink and P. Walford. 2006. Fueling the fall
migration of the monarch butterfly. Integrative
and Comparative Biology 46 (6): 1123-1142.
Fink,
L.S. and
R.I. Vane-Wright. 2007. Lincoln Brower's European
tour. Antenna
31 (4):
203-207.
Harris, PR,
Wright, S, Serrano, C, Riera, F, Duarte, I, Torres, Javiera,
Pena, A, Rollan, A, Viviani, P, Guiraldes, E, Schmitz,
JM (SBC '03) , Lorenz
RG, Novak, L, Smythies, LE, Smith, PD.2008. Helicobacter
pylori gastritis in children is associated with a regulatory
T Cell response. Gastroenterology 134:
491 - 499.
Morrissey,
J.F. and J.L. Sumich. 2008. Introduction
to the Biology of Marine Life, 9th Edition. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. ISBN-13:
9780763753696
Morson,
J. and J.F. Morrissey.
2007. Variation in the morphology of the electric organ in the
little skate, Leucoraja erinacea, and its possible role in courtship. Environmental
Biology of Fishes 80 (2-3): 267-275.
Penny,
R.H.
(SBC '08) and J.C. Steven. 2009. Sexual dimorphism in pollen
grain size in cryptically dioecious Thalictrum
macrostylum. Plant Systematics and Evolution 279:11-19.
Rodgers, L.S. (SBC
'03), S. Lalani, R.B. Runyan, and T.D. Camenisch. 2007. Differential
growth and multicellular villi direct proepicardial translocation
to the developing mouse heart. Developmental
Dynamics 237 (1): 145-152.
Robeva, R.S., J. R. Kirkwood, R.L. Davies,
L. Farhy, B.P. Kovatchev, M. Straume and M.L. Johnson. 2007.
An Invitation to Biomathematics. Academic
Press. ISBN 978-0120887712.
Schmitz, J.M.
(SBC '03), V.J. McCracken, R.A. Dimmitt and R.G. Lorenz. 2007.
Expression of CXCL15 (Lungkine) in murine gastrointestinal, urogenital,
and endocrine organs. Journal
of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry 55 (5): 515-524.
Slayback, D.A., L.P. Brower, M.I. Ramirez, and L.S.
Fink. 2007.
Establishing the presence and absence of overwintering colonies
of the monarch butterfly in Mexico by the use of small aircraft. American
Entomologist 53 (1): 28-40.
Slayback,
D.A. and L.P. Brower. 2007. Further aerial surveys confirm the
extreme localization of overwintering monarch butterfly colonies
in Mexico. American
Entomologist 53 (3): 146-149.
Steven, J.C.,
L.F. Delph, and E.D. Brodie III. 2007. Sexual dimorphism in the
quantitative-genetic architecture of floral, leaf, and allocation
traits in Silene latifolia. Evolution
61 (1): 42-57.
The biology alumnae
page reports on graduates' new jobs,
graduate programs, and careers. New information was added
in August 2009.
About the Biology
Department
We share a commitment to our students and the college, a
fascination with the natural world, and enthusiasm for teaching
and research.
- We provide
a comprehensive biology curriculum for students interested
in research, education, conservation and the health professions.
A strong program is never static, and we have recently added courses
in Marine Biology, Biomathematics, Insect Biology and Conservation
Biology. In addition to a Biology major, we offer a Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology major jointly with the Department
of Chemistry.
- Field
biology is an important component of our curriculum.
We take advantage of our 3200 acre campus in Field Natural History,
Plant Kingdom, Ecology, and Insect Biology.
- Faculty research
is supported through an institutional faculty grants program.
In addition, we have been successful in obtaining grants from
the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health,
the Jeffress Memorial Trust, LI-COR, the Virginia Academy of Sciences,
and the Virginia Commonwealth Health Research Board.
- Our state-of-the-art
equipment has been obtained through NSF-ILI, CCLI and
research grants, Jeffress Research Grants, and an endowment from
the Kresge Foundation.
- We
encourage and support student research.
Biology majors gain research experience in lab courses before
completing a semester or more of independent research. Research
is required for the B.S. degree and is optional for the B.A.
degree.
Research students participate in a colloquium and present
their research at a departmental symposium. We continually
increase our expectations for student research, and our students
continually rise to the challenge.
- We
enjoy collaboration with one another, as well as with
faculty in other departments.
Members of the Biology Department have conducted joint research
projects with members of the Chemistry Department and with an
Environmental Science colleague at a nearby institution; have
written a biomathematics textbook with members of the Mathematics
Department and colleagues at the University of Virginia School
of Medicine; and have taught interdisciplinary courses with colleagues
in Studio Art, Creative Writing, Math and Chemistry.
http://www.biology.sbc.edu
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