Brandon Güell Wins BU’s Inaugural Research Photo Contest
PhD candidate Brandon Güell of the Warkentin Lab is the winner of BU's inaugural research photo contest in the field research category (entry pictured above). The competition had more than 120 entries in three categories—field research, research happening at BU, and research imaging—with three winners and six runners-up chosen by a panel of faculty and staff judges.
Winners were announced during the Kilachand Day celebration on September 27th and featured in The Brink. Read the full article and see the other winners and runners-up here.
Congratulations, Brandon!
Congratulations to Cynthia Bradford for Winning the 2022 Perkins Award
John S. Perkins Award Ceremony in the Metcalf Trustee Center on May 3, 2022.
Photo by Jake Belcher for Boston University Photography
Congratulations to Cynthia Bradford for winning the 2022 John S. Perkins Award for her outstanding long-term service at the College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Biology. As a proposal development specialist, Cindy has gathered grant proposals, which have received 70 awards, totaling over twelve million dollars in funding within the past year alone. According to CAS Professor and former Chair of Biology Kimberly McCall, Cindy’s ability to gather potential grants for faculty and review final applications saves Biology faculty hours of time.
In 1982, Cindy started her work at BU as an Administrative Assistant for a recently formed neuroscience research center called Adaptive Systems. She held multiple titles such as assistant director of the Center for Adaptive Systems and Administrative Director of the Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST), Associative Director of the Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology (CompNet), and Editorial Assistant for the international journal Neural Networks. By 2015, she began working with BU Biology Department as the Proposal Development Specialist for the Department of Biology. Cindy describes her experience as,
“One that no one else had held before. I had the responsibility and also the pleasure of designing and implementing the administrative procedures.”
Since 2016, she has served as one of the inaugural members of the BU-wide Advisory Council on Research Administration (ACRA).
When asked about her reaction about receiving the reward, Cindy replied,
"I felt very humbled and still do. Of course, I would hope to be doing a good job always but to be recognized by colleagues and in such glowing terms is a moment to treasure. It’s also important to say here that sponsored research is always a group effort and several BU colleagues, in particular, deserve public thanks for any success I have enjoyed. Cynthia Kowal and Dolores Markey have been valued mentors, and in more recent years Danielle Van Vooren has been invaluable for her guidance and support during my time in Biology."
Starting this September, Cindy formalized her retirement from BU. In conclusion of her career in the Department of Biology, she states,
"The work has been fascinating. I’m going to miss the intellectual stimulation—and seeing the baby geese along the Charles each spring—but I will miss the people the most, some of whom have become good friends over the years."
Congratulations Cindy, and thank you for everything!
John S. Perkins Award Ceremony in the Metcalf Trustee Center on May 3, 2022.
Photo by Jake Belcher for Boston University Photography
John S. Perkins Award Ceremony in the Metcalf Trustee Center on May 3, 2022.
Photo by Jake Belcher for Boston University Photography
Spring 2022 Undergraduate Research Award Winners
Congratulations to Maria Salgado Patino, Russell Laman, and Jamie Li for receiving the Spring 2022 Undergraduate Research Award. This annual award is given to outstanding seniors of any major who are performing research in Biology Department labs by the Biology Research and Honors Committee.
Maria Salgado (Neuroscience and Psychology) conducted her research on a non-canonical mechanism of complement 4-Driven Cortical Synaptic Loss in the Cruz-Martín Lab.
Russell Laman (Biology with specialization in Ecology & Conservation Biology and Marine Science) did research using photomosaics to analyze the structural complexity and conservation success of restored Belizean coral reefs in the Kaufman Lab.
Jamie Li (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology) carried out her research on the regulation of indole glucosinolate and melatonin production in arabidopsis thaliana in the Celenza lab.
Congratulations to Maria, Russell, and Jamie!
Brandon Güell Among Wildlife Photographer of the Year Winners
PhD candidate Brandon Güell of the Warkentin Lab is among the list of winners for the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his entry "Treefrog Pool Party" (pictured above).
You can read more about his winning shot and explore some of the other entries here.
Congratulations, Brandon!
2022 Loren E. Wold Research Award Recipients
Douglas Alvarado, Erika Broeker, Evelyn Harper, and Judy Wong are the recipients of the Loren E. Wold Research Award for 2022
The Loren E. Wold Research Awards have been established by Biology alumnus Dr. Loren E. Wold (CAS ’97), a distinguished research scientist and Professor at Ohio State University. Dr. Wold is a strong advocate of undergraduate research and mentoring and this award supports summer research projects in the amount of $5,700 for salary and a $200 Conference Travel Award. Recipients are chosen based on outstanding UROP applications. This year's recipients are:
Douglas Alvarado, a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major, conducting research with Dr. Peter Buston on a project titled “An Investigation of Genetic Mechanisms Underlying Strategic Growth in the Clown Anemonefish Amphiprion Percula.”
Erika Broeker, a Biology major, conducting research with Dr. Francisco Naya on a project titled “Determining the role of the lncRNA Meg3 in Cell Lineage Determination.”
Evelyn Harper, a Biology major, conducting research with Dr. Angela Ho on a project titled “Neurodevelopmental effects of inhibiting the Aldolase A – Actin interaction.”
Judy Wong, a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major, conducting research with Dr. Thomas Gilmore on a project titled “Effect of Human Disease Mutations in a Central Region of the Scaffold Protein-NEMO on Cellular Activity.”
Congratulations to this year's recipients for their hard work and dedication to undergraduate research. Thank you to Dr. Wold for his support of undergraduate students and their research.
Meg Younger Publishes Study in Cell
A new study published in Thursday's edition of Cell reports that a mosquito's sense of smell is more complicated than we once thought.
Neuroscientist and faculty member Meg Younger along with colleagues Leslie Vosshall of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Rockefeller University, Margo Herre of Rockefeller University, and Olivia Goldman of Rockefeller University peered into the mosquito's brain to decipher how it smells its surroundings.
Pete Buston and Tim Clutton-Brock Publish a Review in Trends in Ecology and Evolution Journal
Congratulations to Pete and Tim on this publication!
Meg Younger named 2022 Searle Scholar
Dr. Meg Younger has been named a 2022 Searle Scholar. Younger is one of 15 young faculty members in the biomedical sciences and chemistry who have recently been appointed as one of the assistant professors on tenure-track appointments. The cohort was selected from a group of 191 applicants from 137 universities and research institutions. Each Scholar receives an award of $300,000 in flexible funding to support their research over the next three years. Dr. Younger's lab focuses on olfaction in mosquitos, examining how they detect and encode human odor.
Maria Jose Salazar Nicholls Receives 2022 Thomas H. Kunz Award
Maria Jose Salazar Nicholls of the Warkentin Lab is this year’s recipient of the Thomas H. Kunz Award. Her thesis work focuses on the mechanisms enabling adaptive embryo behavior in red-eyed treefrogs, Agalychnis callidryas. Maria completed her BS at Pontifical Catholic University in Ecuador, where she worked in the Developmental Biology lab studying the early development of Ecuadorian frogs’ embryos. She is interested in phenotypic plasticity, embryo behavior, development, and mechanisms underlying plasticity.
This award provides support for Ecology, Behavior & Evolution (EBE) PhD candidates who have completed the qualifying exam, with a preference for those conducting field research in the award year. The award was established in 2015 in recognition and appreciation of Professor Thomas H. Kunz’s mentorship. His current and former graduate students established this award to serve as a lasting legacy of Tom’s contributions at BU and beyond. Learn more about Dr. Kunz and how you can support this award.
Congratulations, Maria!
Daniel Wuitchik Receives Dana Wright Fellowship
Daniel Wuitchik of the Davies Lab is the 2022 recipient of the Dana Wright Fellowship.
Daniel's research explores the effects of temperature on stress, symbiosis, and patterns of diversity in marine invertebrates. He leverages modern genomic tools, coupled with phenotypic assays of thermal performance to better understand how these invertebrates respond to increasing temperatures. His focus is on species that are local to New England, and attempts to contextualize how they may be impacted under anthropogenic climate change.
This fellowship was established in memory of Dana Wright (CAS ’00), an alum of the BU Marine Program. After completing her studies, Wright went on to work in research in right whale acoustics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod.
Congratulations, Daniel!