News

Congratulations to Skye Austin, a former lab member, for being accepted into the PhD program at UC Davis! Skye worked with us on an invasive plant project in summer 2021. We are excited to see what they do next!

Some amazing undergrads are graduating from SU this month. Congratulations to William and Mokhinur for being recognized for their academic and research achievements! Both of you will be greatly missed in the lab. We wish you all the best in your next endeavors!

Congratulations to William on being accepted into the national honor society Phi Beta Kappa. William graduated from Syracuse University this spring and was recognized by the Biology Department for his academic excellence.

The Engaged Humanities Network hosted its first Community Showcase to celebrate community-engaged projects led by SU teams and their local partners. The Natural Science Explorers Program connected with other EHN projects and community members at this event.

https://artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/news-all/news-2024/engaged-humanities-network-holds-showcase-highlighting-collaborative-community-work/

NSEP will also be at the upcoming “United We End Racism” festival on June 8. We hope to see you there!

Our recent article about midden research was featured by the college. I have to give credit to my fantastic co-authors on this manuscript. We had many interesting discussions while writing this manuscript and we are excited to see other scientists use middens in their own research!

https://artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/news-all/news-2024/as-biologist-calls-for-protection-and-more-studies-of-natural-time-capsules-of-climate-change/

The Natural Science Explorers Program is excited to be featured at the Engaged Humanities Network’s first annual Community Showcase event on Friday, May 3 from 1:00–6:00PM at Salt City Market. The event celebrates the community-engaged work of dozens of project teams through performances, screenings, activities, and table presentations. This interconnected work involves over two dozen departments across Syracuse University and 20 collaborating community-based organizations. Please come and learn more about this amazing work!

Check out our recent prospectus paper discussing research that uses rodent middens to answer cross-cutting ecological and evolutionary questions and inform conservation goals in the Anthropocene. 

Becklin, K.M., Betancourt, J.L, Braasch, J., Dézerald, O., Díaz, F., González, A.L., Harbert, R., Holmgren, C.A., Hornsby, A.D., Latorre, C.L., Matocq, M.D., Smith, F.A. New uses for ancient middens: Bridging ecological and evolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.12.003

Earlier today Sarah successfully defended her dissertation, “Microbial contributions to plant function and resistance under a changing climate.” We are excited to see what Sarah does next in her science career.

Undergraduate researchers Mokhinur Sobirova (pictured left) and Ryann Washington presented their research at SU’s Summer Research Symposium. Mokhinur’s project examined spatial variation in mycorrhizal associations in alpine buttercup populations. Ryann’s project compared ant body size and thermal tolerance in high and low elevation populations.