Congrats to Biology graduate student, Lauren Fuller, for receiving a Lerner-Gray Memorial Fund grant. This is a grant for marine research given out by the American Museum of Natural History. Lauren is receiving this to help fund her research that focuses on increasing the survival of bycaptured sharks by alleviating stress.

Congratulations to graduate student, Chaz Hyseni, for winning 1st place in the Graduate Student Council’s 7th Annual Research Symposium. Chaz won the podium session for the Physical and Life Sciences category.

Pictured here are some of our amazing graduate students along with our winner. From left to right: Jason Bohenek, John Banusiewicz, Amber Horning, Matt Pintar, Renan Bosque, CHaz Hyseni, Tyler Breech, and Isis Arantes.

Congratulations to undergraduate neuroscience minor, Mary Harvey, for winning 1st place for her poster presentation at the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Division.

Mary’s poster title: “Correlation of brain size and acrobatic display complexity in Manakins”

Congratulations to Mary Harvey and John Arron Howell who were selected for presentation of their posters to the Millsaps-HHMI Undergraduate Symposium.  This symposium is for only the top 20% of abstracts submitted to MAS. Also pictured are Katelyn Duda, Blake McClure and Dr. Lainy Day, neuroscience minor director.

John Arron’s poster title: “Egg Laying Male Has Androgynous Song System and Plumage Coloration”

Congratulations to JP Lawrence for winning a 2017 University of Mississippi Graduate Achievement Award! Way to go JP!!

Photo by Robert Jordan/Ole Miss Communications

Biology masters student, Jessica Heppard, was the overall winner of The University of Mississippi 3 Minute Thesis Competitionwith her presentation titled “Impact of habitat modification and human disturbance on the basking behavior of the endangered Ringed Map Turtle (Graptemys oculifera)”

. Her research examines how human activities affect the behavior of an endangered turtle, the Ringed Map Turtle, also known as the Ringed Sawback. Jessica hypothosizes that by impeding optimal basking behavior, humans are contributing to the endangerment of the species. By studying populations in the Pearl River outside Jackson, MS, she hopes to aid in the formation of management strategies for the conservation of the species.

Jessica will be representing Ole Miss at the Conference for Southern Graduate Schools in Annapolis, MD in March.

Mary Harvey and Kaitlyn Duda, two members of Dr. Lainy Day’s lab, tied in the $1000 Research Award competition for the Neuroscience minor. Mary’s project is titled “The Correlated Evolution of Cerebellar Size and Display Complexity in Pipridae” and Kaitlyn ‘s project is titled “Immunocytochemistry in Manakins”.

Researchers, Dr. Mika Jekabsons (Biology) and Yu-Dong Zhou (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received a major award from the National Institutes of Health to continue their studies for three years to find new drugs to stop the spread of breast cancer to other organs. To read the full article click here.

Dr. Glenn Parsons and honors student Emily Hildebrandt recently published a paper in the scientific journal Copeia entitled “Effect of Turbidity and the Swimming Performance of Golden Shiner, Notemigonus crysoleucas”. Click here to read the paper.