Degree In Zoology Research Articles

Major advances in physiology: celebrating a centenary of contributions by women. Introduction.

Major advances in physiology: celebrating a centenary of contributions by women. Introduction.

The best decision I ever made.

What prompts a person to make a decision that will change their life forever? For me, it was being born a female in a developing country, India. I had a happy childhood filled with warm memories and a supportive family, but because I was a girl, it seemed that I had fewer rights than boys and couldn't have the freedoms and education they were offered. My future was to marry a man as arranged by my parents, rather than have a full career. But I wanted something different. After spending a glorious summer at a youth World Wildlife Fund camp in Mudumalai National Park in the mountains of the Western Ghats when I was 13 years old, I decided that I wanted to be an ecologist to study and preserve nature. I undertook a bachelor's degree in zoology at the University of Delhi, with the intention of going to graduate school in North America. But my family couldn't understand why I wanted to live in the Western world as a poor graduate student when I could have a comfortable life in India. Elders clicked their tongues in disapproval, and friends thought that I had lost my mind when I told them about my dream to become a scientist. After I completed my undergraduate degree, I had the choice to either get married or leave home for a career. I took the latter option, and now, more than 20 years later, I know that it was the best decision I ever made. ![Figure][1] ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “I decided that I would move anywhere to pursue my dream.” But the path wasn't easy, especially at the start. I moved to Canada with only a few hundred dollars and a suitcase full of books and clothes. I worked in retail, as a waitress, and other odd jobs for a few years while trying to get into graduate school. And once I began my master's program, I found myself chronically behind my peers. I didn't even know how to turn on a computer, let alone use one! Only after many years of hard work was I finally up to speed. Luckily, along the way I met wonderful friends and colleagues who gave me a sense of family and belonging, and helped me get settled in a new and foreign culture. I always had a place to go for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and when I married an American husband of my own choice, we started hosting at our home. But developing confidence was a major challenge. Both as a graduate student and young faculty member, I caught myself trivializing my accomplishments when I was complimented. Slowly, I learned to take ownership of my successes. Yet it took decades to truly feel confident about myself as a scientist, and to not dwell on negative messages or the failures that are more common than successes in science. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my colleagues and mentors, who guided and taught me along the way. My mentors were patient; they believed in me and gave me opportunities to thrive in science. This is not an easy task, as I understand better now that I am a mentor myself. Life is full of choices, and those dictated by passion, dedication, and perseverance are the ones that will make us successful. As I was establishing my career, I decided that I would move anywhere to pursue my dream. I wanted to see the world, pursue opportunities as they arose, and learn widely about ecological problems. Before we got married, I asked my husband if he was willing to move with me, and he agreed to follow me across the continent. So, I worked with various state and federal agencies and forest companies in Alberta, British Columbia, California, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio before becoming a professor and settling in Georgia. Working in many ecosystems gave me a unique perspective and appreciation for ecological problems, which brought depth and diversity to my research program. Many times during graduate school I wondered if, by leaving home, I had ruined my life. But I found a supportive and nurturing community that made the challenges lighter and easier, and I am glad I stayed the course. After all, the biggest adventures in our lives are the ones we allow ourselves to have. [1]: pending:yes

Rosemary Lowe‐McConnell 1921–2014 (Freshwater Biological Association and British Museum of Natural History)

Rosemary Lowe‐McConnell 1921–2014 (Freshwater Biological Association and British Museum of Natural History)

British Ornithologists’ Union Union Medal

British Ornithologists’ Union Union Medal

In Memoriam

In Memoriam

Francis H. Ruddle (1929–2013): A Pioneer in Human Gene Mapping

Frank was born August 19, 1929, in West New York, New Jersey, to immigrant parents. It was said that his Welsh-English heritage defined his personality and his unique sense of humor. He joined the Air Force in 1946 to serve our country before finishing high school. After excellent service, he left the Air Force in 1949. The GI Bill helped him to obtain higher education, and he obtained his BA and MS degrees from Wayne State University. He went on to the University of California at Berkeley, where he obtained his PhD degree in zoology in 1960. Frank began his research while in Detroit, and he was involved in isolating epithelial cells from different sources, including tumors, and analyzing them. He pursued his interest in mammalian cell culture at Berkeley, where he trained with Morgan Harris and worked on cell culture and cytogenetics of pig kidney cells. Frank went on to do postdoctoral work with John Paul at the University of Glasgow in Scotland (1960–1961). He was recruited to a faculty position in the Biology Department at Yale University, where he remained throughout his career. Frank began to work on mouse genetics and began studying variant forms of mammalian enzymes (isozymes). Some of the early work was conducted in collaboration with a fellow Welshman, Tom Roderick of the Jackson laboratory. The two of them became lifelong friends. Frank’s first graduate student at Yale was Charlotte Boone, who started work on the use of somatic cell hybrids that sustained his laboratory for many years to come. Frank brought his skills with cell culture, analysis of isozymes, and cytogenetic skills to begin a program on mapping human genes. In a landmark paper that was published in Nature in 1970, Frank was able to use somatic cell hybrids between mouse and human cells to establish linkage between genes coding for lactate dehydrogenase A and B and Peptidase B. The work on the use of somatic cell hybrids to establish linkage between genes coding for enzymes and assign these genes to individual chromosomes went through an explosive phase in his laboratory for many years afterward. I had the privilege of joining his laboratory in 1972, where I stayed for 3 years. From my perch there, I was able to watch the rapid expansion of human gene mapping, which sustained my interest for many years to come, including my participation in the human genome mapping and sequencing effort in the 1990s and during the early phase of the 21st century.

Kevin Foster

Kevin Foster

Sequel to Kitzmiller's Anopheline Names: Their Derivations and Histories

The derivations of the names of 74 Anopheles species and one subgenus are explained together with accounts of the life and scientific work of people who have been honored by having a mosquito named after them. Descriptive accounts are given of geographical locations, whether towns, regions or counties, that have had anopheline species named after them.

James O. Davis

James Othello Davis, MD, PhD, an outstanding scientist who made many exceptional contributions to the advancement of biomedical research in his lifetime, was born July 12, 1916 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and died September 28, 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr Davis earned his undergraduate degree from Northeastern State Teacher's College in his home town, followed by receipt of a master's degree in zoology from the University of Missouri (MU) in Columbia in 1939. He continued his studies in what was becoming one of the most distinguished zoology departments in the country and was awarded his PhD in zoology in 1942. While pursuing his doctoral studies, he met and married Florilla Sides, who was also pursuing an advanced degree in zoology at the University of Missouri. She was his active, life-long partner until her death in 2006, and will be remembered by all who knew her as a highly intelligent, energetic, charming, and independent person whose life was inextricably intertwined with that of her husband. After completing his doctoral training, Dr Davis remained at the University of Missouri to finish a BS degree in medicine and then completed his MD degree at Washington University in St. Louis in 1945. Since the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had its early roots with Washington University, it is not surprising that Dr Davis began his independent research career with the NIH in Baltimore. He advanced quickly within an organization that has always been home …

<p><strong>Obituary Nathan Wendell Riser (1920–2006)</strong></p>

Professor Nathan Wendell Riser died at his home in Swampscott, Massachusetts on Wednesday July 26, 2006 at the age of 86. He was known to his colleagues as “Pete” and to his graduate students as “Doc.” He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1920 where he completed secondary school in 1937. After attending the University of Utah for three years he transferred to the University of Illinois, Champagne, where he earned his B.S. degree in zoology in 1941. He enlisted in the military in 1942 and served as a Navy Corpsman in the Navy Medical Corp where he saw action in the Pacific Theater of WWII. He was discharged in 1945 and entered graduate school at Stanford University where he conducted research at the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California. He earned an M.S. degree in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1949 on the biology of tetraphyllidean cestodes associated with sharks and rays (“The morphology and systematic position of some little known Tetraphyllideans”) under the direction of Prof. Tage Skogsberg.

A brief biography of Bruce Merrifield: His life and legacy

A brief biography of Bruce Merrifield: His life and legacy

John C. Avise — Recipient of 2006 Molecular Ecology Prize

John C. Avise — Recipient of 2006 Molecular Ecology Prize

Jo-Ann Leong, Ph.D., Director, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology

Jo-Ann Leong, Ph.D., is Director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. She received her Bachelor's degree in Zoology from the University of California at Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California School of Medicine. Dr. Leong's research interests focus on virology, including the study of rhabdoviruses and birnaviruses, fish vaccines, and, specifically, genetic vaccination and aquaculture and fisheries.

The Epps Factor: How Brains Trumped Bigotry

The Epps FactorHow Brains Trumped Bigotry John H. Britton (bio) A teenaged Anna Cherrie in mid-20th century America, no less than her ancestors in bondage a century earlier, was experiencing the raw pain that gave rise to the mournful lyrics of a traditional Negro spiritual that reduces even atheists to tears: I been 'buked and I been scorned. With Langston Hughes,1 Anna Cherrie would come to know what happens to a dream deferred. In her young life, she hoped for nothing more than an opportunity to follow her beloved father into the practice of medicine. Would her dream, as Hughes wondered, "sag like a heavy load" under America's twin towers of racism and chauvinism? Or would it explode? In the New Orleans of her youth, Anna Cherrie sprinted through Catholic schools, graduating with honors from Xavier University Preparatory High School at age 16. She enrolled in her father's alma mater, Howard University, to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology. Immediately following her baccalaureate career, she experienced the drama that deferred or, more accurately, redirected her dream. Majority medical schools of that day rarely enrolled people of color and, notwithstanding spectacular academic bona fides and a superior performance on qualifying exams, Anna Cherrie, a college graduate at age 19, was treated dismissively when she sought admission to the two major African American medical schools. Why? Viewed from the 21st century, the reasons given by Howard University's medical school administrators look more like convenient excuses: • Because, they answered, as a female (and something of a Southern belle at that) she probably was less serious about the practice of medicine than a man would be. • Because, they speculated, she was too young to master the medical school curriculum, never mind that standard predictors of success favored her. • Because, if admitted, they said, she would take a seat away from a male applicant who, as a consequence, might find himself exposed to the military draft in wartime. She turned to Meharry Medical College, a final hope, where authorities were dazzled by her remarkable qualifications. In the end, though, the president of the institution ruled that her youth was disquieting and disqualifying; that she needed more [End Page 413] seasoning to prepare herself for the rigors of Meharry's School of Medicine sometime in the future. Family friends, professionals who had bonded with her father, these school officials rocked her middle-class innocence and rattled her faith in meritocracy. Where was her refuge, she wondered? Her beloved father's associates, medical doctors sworn to do no harm, were stunting her ambition, abridging her right to the pursuit of happiness, and gratuitously deferring her dream. Would it explode? The confusion made her head hurt. Her heart raced to keep pace with her thoughts. Her mind struggled to find solace. Her soul sought sanctuary, or at least momentary deliverance from made-in-America race and gender madness. But, how best to respond? More accurately, young Anna Cherrie asked herself this question (long before football Hall of Famer Jim Brown used it to shock an addled and then-addicted comic genius, Richard Pryor, to face his dependence): What'cha gon' do? Failure was never an option. Her pride remained intact. Anna Cherrie, after all, was of the southern black gentry, the apple of the eyes of a loving mother, Anna, and a doting father, Ernest Cherrie, MD; eventually to become the wife of the respected New Orleans physician, Joseph M. Epps, Sr., MD. Her response was simple, yet profound: • Simple because in time she set her sights on a PhD degree in science rather than the MD she had originally envisioned. Physicians, she rationalized, are mere technocrats; the Ph.D. offers flexibility and room for greater creativity. • Profound because her subsequent accomplishments offer powerful vindication. The institutions that denied her opportunity, plus others in the fraternity of academic medicine, now freely acknowledge, in ways great and small, that Anna Cherrie Epps, PhD ranks among the very best medical educators in America. What of her dream? It was deferred. But it did not explode! No class- or race-based -isms could extinguish the after-burners that powered Anna Cherrie...

Douglas Scott Falconer. 10 March 1913 – 23 February 2004

Douglas Scott Falconer obtained a first–class honours degree in Zoology at St Andrews University followed by a PhD at Cambridge for research on wireworms. He then worked with R. A. (later Sir Ronald) Fisher FRS, as a prelude to joining the ARC Genetics Section of its Animal Breeding and Genetics Research Organisation at Edinburgh University. There he spent the rest of his career, later becoming Head of Unit and a personal professor in the university.His research interests fell into three main categories: the formal genetics of the mouse, quantitative genetics, and the genetics of human diseases. His work on mouse mutants and gene linkage was a major contribution to mapping the mouse genome, and his research in quantitative genetics produced theoretical and practical findings that have been of much benefit to animal breeders and to human geneticists as well as to the understanding of traits of complex inheritance.From his research and teaching he developed his acclaimed textbook Introduction to quantitative genetics , which ran to four editions in 36 years. The book is used as a foundation text worldwide.Douglas was much admired as a stimulating and innovative scientist, a considerate and polite colleague, and family gentleman.

A leading authority on cold injuries in Alaska

The American Society for Circumpolar Health was honored to nominate William J. Mills Jr. MD for consideration by the Canadian Society for Circumpolar Health to receive the Jack Hildes Award. The award was presented in absentia to Dr. Mills during the 12th International Congress for Circumpolar Health in Nuuk, Greenland in September 2003. The award is offered through the International Union for Circumpolar Health courtesy of the Donner Foundation and the Canadian Society for Circumpolar Health. In 1922, at age of 4, William J. Mills, Jr. came to Anchorage, Alaska with his family. He has seen this small US Territorial railroad construction tent city grow to be the largest urban center in the State of Alaska.He attended college in California and received an undergraduate degree in zoology and anthropology as part of his pre-med program. He then served as Commissioned Ensign in the Navy during World War II.

Matthew White Ridley, DPHIL, DSC: A Conversation with the Editor

Matt Ridley, DPhil, DSc (Figure ​(Figure11), was born on February 7, 1958, in Newcastle upon Tyne. He graduated from Magdalen College of Oxford University with a degree in zoology in 1979 and he received his doctorate at the same university in 1983. From there he joined The Economist, initially as a science correspondent and then as the science and technology editor in London. Later, he was their correspondent in Washington, DC, and finally their American editor in London again. In 1992, he left The Economist and became a freelance journalist, becoming a regular columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and for the Daily Telegraph for the next 8 years. During this time, he also wrote many articles for numerous other publications in both the United Kingdom (UK) and the USA. His first book, which was on the US presidential election of 1988, appeared in 1989. Subsequently, he authored The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, the international bestseller Genome, and Nature Via Nurture (Figure ​(Figure22). For his work he has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate in science from the University of Buckingham in 2003. He honored Baylor University Medical Center with a visit on March 18, 2004. It was a pleasure to visit with this splendid man.

Camping to change the world

Keynote given at the 6th International Camping Congress, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 6 January 2003. Reprinted with permission from the Camping Association of Victoria. Also available on: http://www.icc2003.cav.asn.au/ Abstract As well as providing amazing recreational experiences, camping can nurture our connection with both nature and one another. The development of such deeper relational competence is needed for our species to take the next step in our psychosocial evolution. Without this we can expect ongoing environmental degradation, social strife and personal anxiety. By being aware of the philosophical underpinnings and possible practical applications of these ideas, we can all be in a better position to appreciate and experience camping at a much deeper and rewarding level. This holistic view of camping aims to integrate humour, humility and hope. As a youngster I remember laughing at the definition of camping as "loitering with-in-tent". In this presentation I want to reframe and examine deeply what that 'intent' might be, how it gets constructed, and what the consequences of different 'intents' might be. As indicated in my title, I believe that camping - along with many other activities - has the potential to change the world (for the better). Camping can be both a means for developing our 'good intent', and for taking meaningful action to create the better world(s) we would want to live in, and that we would want to pass on to future generations. Perhaps I should first tell you where I am coming from, a little about my association with camping, and about some of my assumptions and the frameworks I use to think about topics such as the one we are dealing with. I was born in Aylesbury in the UK during WWII, and we camped throughout my youth - both with my family and through the Cubs and Scouts. I did some camping with my children in North America, and I camp occasionally now with my partner in Australia, where I have lived since 1995. In addition, each year a group of us take our Social Ecology undergraduate students for a one-week camping trip in the Blue Mountains (at Glastonbell, near Bell, NSW). I looked up 'camping' in the 'Oxford Book of Quotations' and the only reference was to H.G. Wells, who in his novel Bealby (Part III, p. 7) stated: The life of breezy freedom resolves itself in practice chiefly into washing up and an anxious search for permission to camp. This certainly was an important part of my memory of camping with my family. It is interesting that in Lancashire, where my father comes from, the word 'camping' is used to refer to situations when someone engages you in conversation, for example, when you meet someone unexpectedly on the street. I also remember having numerous meaningful conversations with other campers. One meaning of the Latin word campus, from which 'camping' is derived, is 'level ground'. I certainly remember much time spent searching for such ground - and also sometimes crawling into my sleeping bag only to find that the bit of ground I was on was far from level. One of my father's entertaining stories relates to a camping trip that he made as a young Sea Scout. On the last day of the trek he arrived about midnight on Chorleywood Common (Hertfordshire). It was pitch black with no moonlight, and he had no torch, so it was difficult to find a suitable site, until by chance he came upon a piece of flat ground. He pitched his tent quickly and, being exhausted from the long trek, went to sleep immediately. He was awakened in the morning by a very angry local - an early morning golfer. He had pitched his tent on the golf green of the 9th hole! An innocent mistake, but one he would never make again. With my love of nature, I did an undergraduate degree in zoology and a PhD in ecology - which involved spending two years studying life in a bat-inhabited cave in Trinidad. There my camp was a hammock covered in a mosquito net strung between two trees close to the cave mouth. …

IN MEMORIAM: NED KEITH JOHNSON, 1932–2003

Ned Keith Johnson, a past President (1996-1998) and Life Member of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), died on 11 June 2003 at his home in Orinda, California, after struggling with leiomyoscarcoma for 15 years. He joined the AOU in 1951, became an Elective Member in 1964, and a Fellow in 1971. His passing ends a lifelong career dedicated teaching and research on birds. Ned was born in Reno, Nevada, on 3 November 1932. Although raised in a Mormon family, he eschewed religion early in favor of two childhood passions: birds and fishing. He got hooked on birds at the age of seven and nurtured his love of the outdoors by birding, hiking, or fishing in the mountains and desert near Reno, and by taking meticulously labeled photographs of birds when still a teenager. As an undergraduate at the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR), Ned tagged along with his older brother Kay-a retired fisheries biologist with the Nevada Division of Wildlife-on field trips and got a job working in the UNR bird collection as a curatorial assistant. Here Ned met his mentor Ira LaRivers, a UNR professor and expert on insects and fishes of LaRivers added him as a subpermittee on his scientific collecting permit and took him on numerous collecting trips throughout Ned soon realized the importance of scientific collecting for careful documentation of avian distribution and variation; he collected and prepared over 7,200 specimens, most of which are deposited in the UNR museum and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley. Ned was known as a true champion of museum collections and specimen-based research. He spread this word his students, emphasizing the value of specimens for studies of natural history, evolution, and conservation. Although he had a deep conservation ethic, he felt a growing frustration in later years toward increasingly negative attitudes against scientific collecting, purportedly in the name of conservation and animal welfare. He was especially disturbed by resistance toward collecting by biologists, even when specimens were crucial for answering particular questions. Ned received his B.S. in biology from the UNR in 1954, married, and was drafted serve in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1954 1956. After returning, he enrolled as a graduate student at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. Although courted by E. Raymond Hall attend the University of Kansas, Ned chose Berkeley so that he could study birds with Alden H. Miller. By that time, Ned already had published 10 papers in The Condor, Journal of Mammalogy, and Great Basin Naturalist, the first in 1949 when he was only 17 (Loggerhead shrike steals shot sparrow). The topics of those early papers ranged from new distributional records for birds and mammals of Nevada, natural history notes, such as Dipper eaten by brook trout and Food of the Long-eared Owl in southern Washoe County, Nevada. Never daunted by a challenge, Ned chose study the biosystematics of Empidonax flycatchers for his Ph.D dissertation, becoming the leading authority on this difficult and controversial group of birds. He completed his degree in zoology in 1961 and immediately joined the faculty at UC Berkeley where he remained until his death only two weeks before his planned retirement. As Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology (formerly Zoology), he also held the title of Curator of Birds at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Although Ned's initial passion was learn everything about the birds of Nevada, he soon branched out into systematics and speciation, biogeography and avifaunal change, molt, migration, bioaccoustics, plumage pigmentation, evolution of feathers, and sexual size dimorphism and food habits in raptors. Ned's papers were scholarly and detailed, and, as John Hubbard wrote, he showed an eagerness to embrace and apply new concepts and techniques in ornithology, while never discarding the good features of the old ways. He published 123 papers, including two monographs on the systematics of Empidonax, co-authored the Check-list of North American Birds, 7th edition, and co-edited a book, A Century of Avifaunal Change in Western North America. His work

A career path in arbovirology--an interview with Robert E. Shope, M.D.

53 Robert E. Shope, M.D., is the John S. Dunn Professor of Biodefense in the Department of Pathology and the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He holds joint appointments as Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, and is a member of the Sealy Center for Structural Biology, Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine, Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, and the WHO Center for Tropical Diseases. Dr. Shope received his Bachelor’s degree in zoology from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, in New York City. His primary research interests include the epidemiology of arboviruses and rodentassociated viruses, anti-viral compounds, vaccines, and emerging infectious diseases.