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Notes from the Chair ………………………………………………………………….......3 New Faculty …………………………………………………………………………………… 4 In Memoriam: Jeremy Hatch ……………………………………………………........ 5 In Memoriam: John Freeberg …………………………………………………………. 7 In Memoriam: William Riley …………………………………………………………… 9 Faculty & Staff Achievements ………………………………………………………….. 10 Alumni Corner ……………………………………………………………………………… 12 Graduate Student Corner ………………………………………………………………… 14 Undergraduate Student Corner ……………………………………………………….. 16 Staff Corner …………………………………………………………………………………… 17 Staff Departures …………………………………………………………………………….. 20 A Note to All Alumni ……………………………………………………………………….. 21

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Dear Alumni and Friends of Biology,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to this year’s Biology Newsletter. It has been a thrilling year of many exciting accomplishments. We have completed our first full year in the new Integrated Science Complex and research programs are humming.

Our Cell Signaling core group of scientists has been doing extremely well. Recently, with funding by National Institute of Health (NIH), Alexey Veraksa and his lab working with Drosophila (aka fruit fly) have continued to investigate how cells communicate with each other in the context of a developing organism. Basic mechanisms of cell signaling are very similar in flies and humans, so what we learn using Drosophila can be applied to human development and disease. One of the projects in the Veraksa lab is to study how the Hippo pathway controls organ growth The Veraksa lab recently published a paper in Developmental Cell, in which they discovered a link between the Hippo pathway and a steroid signaling pathway in flies. This was a collaboration with Ken Moberg’s lab at Emory University.

Linda Huang and her lab also study cell signaling, but use yeast as a model system. They have been studying the genes and signals that tell a cell to switch from vegetative cell division to sexual reproduction and spore production. They have published three papers on the development of the prospore membrane and their discovery that class of kinase enzymes, also found in humans, is important for the timely closure of the membrane and regulates the timing of meiotic cell division and the production of haploid spores. She and her students were selected to give a talk at the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Yeast Cell Biology Meeting last November and will be presenting this work at the TAGC Allied Genetics Conference this summer.

Ron Etter and his lab have recently been funded by two major NSF awards to estimate dispersal and connectivity among blue mussel populations in the Gulf of Maine. Their work is identifying the environmental forces that shape regional dynamics, and providing a better understanding of how to manage this valuable fishery. They are also part of an interdisciplinary effort to identify how larger-scale environmental forces interact with local and landscape level processes to control the structure, function, dynamics and productivity of shallow-water marine ecosystems. The Etter lab is also involved in an international effort to quantify dispersal and connectivity in deep-sea organisms to help establish the scale and geography of marine protected areas. They recently published two papers estimating dispersal and connectivity in deep-sea organisms in the journals Molecular Ecology and Deep Sea Research.

Liam Revell and his lab have continued to be very active over the last year. Liam has been awarded several major grants including a prestigious NSF CAREER grant given to outstanding young scientists. Liam and his students are particularly interested in rapid evolutionary change in animals that is driven by human impacts on the environment. With one of his graduate students Kristin Winchell as the lead author, their work documenting morphological changes in the tropical lizard Anolis that have been invading and adapting to urban environments. Their work was featured on the cover of the prestigious journal Evolution in May and has garnered a substantial amount of press coverage.

I hope you have fun reading about the various activities and events that have occurred over the last year in the remainder of this newsletter. You can get more information on the people and activities by visiting our web page or our Facebook site. Finally, let us hear from you! Feel free to contact me or the staff with news.

Best Wishes, Rick Kesseli

Chairman, Biology Department

NOTES FROM THE CHAIR

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Over the course of this year, the Department of Biology welcomed two faculty members: Changmeng Cai Dr. Changmeng Cai joined the Biology Department in the fall of 2015 as an assistant professor in the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy (CPCT). His research focuses on the basic aspects of prostate cancer (PCa) biology, the central role of androgens and androgen receptor (AR) in driving PCa, and the more aggressive castration-resistant prostate cancer. Dr. Cai, as well as those working in his lab, are currently focused on four major projects: the function of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion in PCa development, the molecular mechanism of CYP17A1- inhibitor resistance in CRPC, the molecular basis of AR mediated transcription repression, and the function and mechanism of LSD1 as a major coactivator of AR. He was awarded with the US Army Prostate Cancer Research Idea Development Award. Catherine McCusker Dr. Catherine McCusker joined the Biology Department in the fall of 2015 as an assistant professor in developmental biology. Her research focuses on elucidating the underlying mechanisms of organ regeneration in adults. Her research is currently performed on the Mexican Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), which is one of the few tetrapod species that retains the ability to regenerate complicated biological structures well into adulthood. The long-term goal of her work is to understand how regeneration naturally occurs in certain species so that the principles can be reapplied in order to safely unlock the regenerative potential in humans. Her research also has applications to other important areas of biological investigation, such as cancer research and stem cell biology.

NEW FACULTY

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Jeremy Hatch October 7, 1937 - December 2, 2015

I am sorry to report the sad news that our former colleague and friend, Jeremy Hatch, died on the 2nd of December at his house in South Tawton, UK. Jeremy was diagnosed with melanoma in 2015. He was able to attend his son Nick’s wedding in July in Alaska, and then returned to the UK. He had been reasonably stable since August, but deteriorated quickly and died peacefully at home with his family. Jeremy, as many of you know, was British through and through. He earned his BA and MS degrees from Cambridge University. He then came to the United States to earn his PhD in Zoology at Duke University. He was an ornithologist by training and came to UMass Boston as an assistant professor in 1969, four years after the founding of the university. His research interest was in ecology and the breeding and foraging behavior of seabirds. He led efforts that first identified unusual female biased sex ratios in the endangered Roseate Tern. He also studied the expanding cormorant populations in New England. Jeremy authored and co-authored more than fifty refereed scientific papers. He also worked on more than fifteen technical reports that were sent to organizations such as Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and Cape Cod Wind Associates that were based on the status of several rare and endangered sea birds. He contributed several monographs to the Birds of North America compilation with his most recent being a 2002 detailed description of the Arctic Tern. Jeremy retired from UMass Boston in 2004 and moved back to England. He remained very active in the years following. He co-authored several additional publications after his retirement, the last of which was in IBIS, the International Journal of Avian Sciences (Breton et al. 2014). Jeremy successfully mentored and co-advised very successful MS and PhD graduate students over the years (at least 6 MS and 2 PhD students). Jeremy leaves behind two sons who grew up in Milton, MA as well as a brother in England and other close family members.

IN MEMORIAM

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Jeremy Hatch A Note from Associate Professor John Ebersole

There’s a lot to remember about my generous and stimulating colleague, Jeremy Hatch. The thread connecting all these memories is that Jeremy cared sincerely about how his students and colleagues thought – not just what we thought – but how we thought.

I co-taught Ecology (Biol 342) with Jeremy during my first hectic semester at UMass Boston. I learned more from Jeremy in this course about both UMass Boston as an academic institution and how to teach students effectively, than students learned from me about principles of ecology. He stressed presentation and development of the classic experiments that tested the ecological principles that I was so fond of explaining. He presented these studies with all their warts and blemishes. By doing so, he was able to get students to think for themselves about how well a hypothesis was tested, what were the strengths and inadequacies of the study, and to what degree was the underlying theory supported or shown to be limited. I find myself still trying to recapture his approach today.

During the 70's, 80's, and early 90's, general biology labs were taught by the faculty, and nearly all professors would teach a section from time to time. When I was assigned to teach the second semester of General Biology (Biol 112) in the late 80's and early 90's, one of my early tasks was to revise the lab manual, which we had been using for years without updating. When I asked Jeremy about it, he prepared a critique, exercise by exercise, that went far beyond the “how can we make this procedure work” sort of question. Jeremy showed me that a more sweeping revision was necessary by insisting on asking “what are we trying to teach in this exercise? What biological principle? Anything about experimentation? Anything about analysis and presentation of data?” The revision prompted by Jeremy’s insistent queries explicitly set forth the educational goals of each exercise so that they didn’t get lost from one generation of lab instructors to the next.

Teaching seminar-style graduate courses with Jeremy was a great pleasure for me. Discussions were lively, and sometimes even contentious. Jeremy had a knack for engaging the students in scientific debate. He emboldened students to treat all ideas – even from the established priests of our discipline – with both interest and skepticism, and enabled students to question the ideas of their fellow peers and professors without fear of giving personal offence. It was quite alright to be wrong in Jeremy’s class, and nobody was always right. The debate provoked by an idea that might be considered by some to be half-baked or erroneous, would appear as a tool for motivation and further productivity in Jeremy’s eyes. Jeremy reminded us how to really learn, and how to think together.

IN MEMORIAM

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John Freeberg March 30, 2016

Our colleague and friend John Freeberg passed away on March 30, 2016. He retired from UMass Boston in 1994. John (Jack) Freeberg, a botanist with a Harvard B.S. and Ph.D., became one of the founding faculty at UMass Boston in 1966. He left the faculty at Lehigh University to join a small group of pioneering biologists to participate in the exciting venture of creating a public urban university, which would offer a high quality education on a par with the best universities in the area. The first task of this group was to develop a curriculum that was challenging and covered all aspects of biology necessary to prepare graduates for an academic career as well as positions in medical research and associated fields. The new university was housed in Downtown, Boston in a rented former gas company building of 14 floors. For that first year, the entire site was under constant construction to provide the necessary classrooms and teaching laboratories. During the first two years, Jack, together with a couple of other founding faculty in the fields of developmental biology, as well as plant and animal physiology, worked diligently to prepare and eventually implement a year-long laboratory-based course in organismal biology which together with two other yearlong courses would become the upper level requirements for the major degree in biology. One of his colleagues, who joined the organisms faculty in the third year states that it was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences of her career. There were six faculty members in the multidisciplinary team by then and Jack was the course director; with his leadership a good team spirit was created. The team was composed of teachers and students, who were learning disciplines that we’re unfamiliar, and were also learning the skill of teaching as a team across the sub-disciplines of biology. It was an exhilarating experience for all. Jack’s lectures to the undergraduates were models of clarity and elegance dealing with important concepts in clear precise ways that the students could appreciate. He had high expectations of his students and did not pander to them; he treated all students as mature adults and set high standards. He was particularly pleased, for example, when one student came back to him several years later, and thanked him for turning him around and giving him a good work ethic. For his colleagues it was a time of fun and camaraderie, who loved the way Jack led the team, by example and discussion. Many young colleagues learned most of what they know now and practice about teaching, and about plant biology, from Jack. Over the years there was an inevitable evolution as the department grew, and team teaching was replaced by individual course offerings. But those early years were special and Jack’s contributions were important and central.

IN MEMORIAM

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Later, his “Comparative Anatomy and Morphology of Vascular Plants” course was very popular. Indeed, Jack wrote his own text and lab manual for the course, which he distributed free to all students, and all of the diagrams and pictures were ones that Jack created himself on an ancient Mac computer. There were many memorable occurrences during Jack’s career, some bordering on the hilarious. One example involved his teaching the physiology course at the gas company campus. A lab exercise for the course involved measurements of respiration using frogs. Frogs must be kept moist. After class Jack placed the ten wet frogs into a cardboard box and used the elevator to get back to his lab. Several secretaries were in the elevator. The bottom of the cardboard box became wet and opened, dropping the frogs onto the elevator floor. As the frogs started jumping around the elevator, Jack tried to catch them and the secretaries tried to climb the walls. Jack realized that he could hold one frog between his fingers. But, that only allowed him to catch eight of the ten frogs. Eventually the elevator doors opened at Jack’s floor and he kicked the box out of the elevator, the two free frogs jumped out, and Jack left with the eight frogs between his fingers. Spectators stood frozen in shock as Jack placed the eight frogs into the box and folded the flaps to seal the box shut. Jack then began chasing the last two frogs around the hallway but the spectators were mesmerized by the box of frogs. The box remained closed but it was jumping all over the hallway and the spectators were running as crazily as the two escaped frogs. Eventfully Jack caught the remaining two frogs and restored order but the people in the elevator and in the hallway may have been scarred for life! Jack Freeberg was a very good scientist and interested in working on important problems, not just grinding out data. While collaboration is common today, at that time it was not customary; he presaged modern research endeavors. He was an astute and in depth scientist who enjoyed using his knowledge-base to solve problems. For example, he collaborated in growing fern sporophytes (diploid) and gametophytes (haploid) in culture in large test tubes, which allowed for subsequent measurements of photosynthetic rates. This was the first reported photosynthetic rates for ferns in their characteristic different life cycle generations. Both generations showed enhanced rates of photosynthesis when exposed to lower oxygen concentrations (establishing them as the less specialized C3 rather than C4 type of photosynthetic plant). Jack was interested in changing concentrations of carbon dioxide before it was noticed as a climate change problem. In effect, he summoned the future. Towards the end of Jack’s career, he worked in a molecular biology research lab, a specialty that was new to Jack. As a plant physiologist and a plant developmental botanist this was a new adventure for him. Despite never having been familiarized with molecular techniques and the exacting measurement of micro volumes and radioactive materials, Jack demonstrated expertise and participated in the cloning of a gene-regulating protein (the TATA-binding protein, TBP) and then the sequencing of TBP gene, resulting in his final publication. Working with Jack we were amazed at his expertise and we had a joyful time in the lab. Jack was very intelligent. His was a long view: where did this problem come from, where would it go, not only in science but also the rest of the world, and we often went to him for advice. He was kind and generous, but also completely honest, made more digestible by his humor. He was a modest and honest person who was absolutely fair in dealing with both colleagues and students. He never manipulated for his own gain and could be relied upon. He was a good and respectful colleague.

IN MEMORIAM

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William Riley Passed on March 20, 2016

William D. Riley Jr. passed away on Sunday, March 20, 2016 at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, MA.

William, otherwise known as Bill, was born in Lowell to the late William D. and Sheila Joyce (Conlon) Riley. He was raised and educated in Lowell. He graduated from Keith Academy and attended Boston College shortly after. He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master’s Degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Bill received his BA in biology in 1974. His wife, Katherine, also received her degree in biology in 1977.

He recently had retired from a division of Qualcomm in Wilmington. Qualcomm Inc. is an American, multinational semiconductor company that designs and markets wireless telecommunication products and services. Qualcomm Inc. derives most of its revenue from chipmaking, and the bulk of its profit from patent licensing businesses. Bill worked as a scanning electron microscopist and failure analysis engineer. Bill enjoyed spending his free time playing his guitar, reading or writing poetry, traveling, and cherished spending time with his family.

Bill's family offers words of appreciation and gratitude to the staff of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, where he received exceptional and compassionate care. They would particularly like to express their thanks to Dominic Durrant, RN, whose care helped ease Bill, as well as his family and friends through a difficult time.

He was a very colorful person who brightened up a room with his smile and exuberance. Several of us remember his days as Professor Bettina Harrison’s graduate student as well as his subsequent success in industry and with his family. While at the University of Massachusetts Boston, he successfully brought many of us into the 21st century with his instrumentation knowledge and skills. Bill always was a pleasure to meet as he could cut through any negativity with positive statements. He will be missed by all, but has left a legacy of helpfulness and happiness- to all of us- that we will remember forever. While at the University of Massachusetts Boston, he successfully brought many of us into the 21st century with his instrumentation knowledge and skills. After graduation, Kathy and Bill hosted Dottie and I one night at their apartment in the North End. The dinner on the roof, the view of the city and their warmth as host are still in our memories. We did meet again with both of them at different events over the years. Although, we have not met with Kathy and Bill recently, we did get together a few years ago to discuss school systems and education. Bill always was a pleasure to meet as he could cut through any negativity with positive statements. He will be missed by all, but has left a legacy of helpfulness and happiness- to all of us- that we will remember forever. - Bill & Dottie Hagar.

IN MEMORIAM

A NOTE FROM DR.WILLIAM HAGAR

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Kamal Bawa Collaborated with six of the world’s leading dramatists, in partnership with five other world-renowned scientists, to create the first theater production of Mouthful. Mouthful is a darkly comic, and at times heartbreaking, response to the global food crisis.

He was inducted into The Royal Society of London, which is the oldest scientific academy in the world. Bawa joined former and current fellows such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and about 80 Nobel laureates. Established in 1660, each year the Royal Society’s existing fellowship proposes about 700 candidates for election, and then elects up to 52 fellows from England and the Commonwealth countries, and up to 10 foreign fellows. A statement published on the society’s website reads as follows: “[Bawa's] pioneering contributions to understanding the population biology of tropical forest trees led to new strategies for their conservation, and also for the sustainable use of non-timber forest products…[Bawa] has provided leadership in conservation science in India by establishing ATREE, an influential NGO that generates interdisciplinary knowledge, guides policymaking, disseminates information, and builds human capacity in biodiversity science. Through his work and popular writing, Kamal Bawa has promoted international cooperation in science, while also strengthening biodiversity awareness and public support for conservation in Indian civil society.” Bawa is the second UMass Boston faculty member to be elected as a fellow in The Royal Society.

Jarrett Byrnes Was funded $49,674.00 from the WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) sea grant proposal that evaluated the relationship between kelp forest ecosystems and water temperature in the Southern Gulf of Maine. His organization, “Floating Forests”, has also hit over two million classifications by citizen scientists.

Jill Macoska Was named one of the “2015 Women to Watch in Science and Technology” by the Boston Business Journal. She was also the event sponsor for UMass Boston’s first “Walk for Cancer Research/Relay for Life” event. Macoska was able to bring the American Cancer Society fundraiser onto campus. “This event provides funds for research to develop new ways to detect and treat cancer. It provides funds for patient support, such as transportation to and from doctor appointments, home-care visits, and wigs for cancer patients who lost their hair from chemotherapy. Without this kind of fundraising event the ability of the ACS and other organizations like it to offer these services would be impossible”, said Macoska. In total, there

FACULTY & STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS

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were 15 teams and 77 participants who partook in this event. Macoska was able to raise $9,853.97! Klaus Schliep Was featured in “The Unsung Heroes of Scientific Software” on Depsy. Depsy is a free website that launched in November of 2015 which aims to “help build the software-intensive science of the future by promoting credit for software as a fundamental building block of science. Schliep’s profile on that site shows that he has contributed in part to seven software packages, and that he shares 34% of the credit for phangorn. Those packages have together received more than 2,600 downloads, have been cited in 89 open-access research papers and have been heavily recycled for use in other software — putting Schliep in the 99th percentile of all coders on the site by impact.” Michael Shiaris And his teaching assistant, Casey Lyons, have had fifteen senior biology students spend their Wednesday afternoons at the new Sandbox Laboratory working with bacteria. The Sandbox Lab mimics the environment of a federally funded research lab and gives students the opportunity to experience working in a real research lab. Shiaris has designed the class so that the principles that students have been using in their own research are applicable to biological research in general. As part of the microbial genomics laboratory, students isolate and analyze bacteria from the environment, using basic microbiological methods as well as molecular biology methods. The class is particularly focused on enterococcus, a common human intestinal bacterium. The activities are supported through the generous funding that the college has received from Sanofi Genzyme to increase student success in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math). Douglas Woodhams Uncovered a method that might help save species of salamanders and frogs from a specific fungus by using good bacteria to help salamanders fight off chytrid fungal infection. His research indicates that this bacterium could be used to protect amphibian species that have not co-evolved to deal with the specific species of fungus. Woodhams reported that in his lab he was able to figure out which bacteria makes a good probiotic. He then was able to apply it to individual amphibians, and make sure that they were resistant to the infection. One of the new things he found is that there are bacteria on the skin of amphibians that produce volatile compounds that can kill the fungus at a distance. Woodhams said the fungus has already killed fire salamanders in Europe. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a ruling in January declaring 201 salamander species to be “injurious wildlife” in an attempt to halt the spread of the fungus. Woodhams also did a segment on NPR’s Living on Earth radio program in regards to good bacteria that could potentially save amphibians.

FACULTY & STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS

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Garrison Wilkes

Inside the upper vault (left) Garrison Wilkes, Emeritus professor and (right) Dr. Denise Costich Director of the Upper Vault Bank.

Dr. Garrison Wilkes is known for his expertise in the evolution of maize (one of the three food plants – maize, rice and wheat) and its wild relatives, teosinte and the genus Tripsacum, the structure and operational functions of gene banks, plant-genetic resource policies, Economic botany, and the genetics of domestication.

In November of 2015, Dr. Wilkes was asked to become a member of the “Maize Genetic Resources Advisory Committee” at the World Maize Gene Bank, CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) outside of Mexico City. The committee is made up of about thirty people from across the globe with various scientific skills. Dr. Wilkes enjoyed his time at the CIMMYT because was he able to contribute further research into a meaningful cause, and because he was able to work with colleagues that he has built relationships with for 30+ years. The committee spent the third week of February reviewing the status and updating assessments of the genetic conservation strategy for the world maize collection. The two vaults of this gene bank hold the world’s biodiversity of maize. Both of the vaults are held underground. The lower vault is kept at zero degrees Fahrenheit and is reserved for long term storage (100 to 500 years). The upper vault is kept at just above freezing (33/34F) temperatures, and is for active storage (20 to 50 years). The cold temperature of the bank not only slows down the aging of the seed, but also can be used to regenerate, maintain, and update mega-data passport for each accession. Stemming back to 1961, Dr. Wilkes’ earliest contributions to the bank still exist. However, his contributions can be found only in the bank, as ‘modern’ agriculture wiped out and replaced the original populations of maize that had existed in the specific area in Mexico for hundreds, and in one case, thousands of years.

ALUMNI CORNER

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Biology Graduate Class of 2016 Sarah Feinman Stefanie Gazda Tsering Gesar Scott Morello Joe Roesner Martin Wagstaff Tomas Zavada

Honors Biology Undergraduate Class of 2016 Pablo Aguirre Carrion Dhruval Amin Tsz Ling Au Andis Bala Benjamin Carter Angelo Christophe Joyner Cruz Taha Elseaidy Walter Flores Michael Greenwood Christina Harrison Arshilazim Master Brandon Mui Adeeba Nahrin Akriti Pandit Susan Patalano-Salsman Natalia Pisklak Samender Randhawa Lindsey Raymond Fernando Senjobe Huong Tang Khang Tran Kevin Valencia Eduardo Vargas

IMSD Class of 2016 Diego Almanza Taha Elseaidy Christina Harrison Adeeba Nahrin Fernando Senjobe John Charpentier Farha Mithila Yildrim Ozdemir Alexander Winnett

Biochemistry Class of 2016 John Charpentier Cristina Lofton Farha Mithila Yildrim Ozdemir Chisom Udengwu Alexander Winnett Seraphina Yang

Congratulations to all 2016 Graduates, and also to those who presented in the Spring 2016 Honors Poster Presentation!

ALUMNI CORNER

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Daniel Acuna-Hurtado Was a recipient of The Nancy Goranson Endowment Fund Award. Kevin Aviles-Rodriguez Was a recipient of The Herbert Lipke Memorial Endowment Fund Award. He also gave a presentation at a regional herpetology conference in Puerto Rico. Jamie Dombach Received the Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant and gave a poster presentation at The Boston Bacterial Meeting. She was also accepted into The American Society of Microbiology Science’s Teaching Fellowship Program. Sarah Feinman Was a recipient of the Herbert Lipke Memorial Endowment Fund Award, the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) Professional Development Grant, and the Sanofi-Genzyme Research Fellowship. She also gave a presentation at the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) in Portland, Oregon. Laura Ganley Received grants from The Island Foundation and The American Wildlife Conservation Fund in order to do field work next semester. Stefanie Gazda Got her paper entitled, “The Importance of Delineating Networks by Activity Type in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) in Cedar Key, Florida” published in The Royal Society Open Science. Marc Hensel Received The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative Grant for $1,000.00. He also presented his research at The Nantucket Conservation Foundation Conference, and at The Benthic Ecology Meeting. Tenzing Ingty Published his first book, The Framed Himalaya: Lachen Valley. He also received The Sanofi-Genzyme Doctoral Fellowship Award. Patrick Kearns Got his article entitled, “Tidal Freshwater Marshes Harbor Phylogenetically Unique Clades of Sulfate Reducers That Are Resistant to Climate Change-Induced Salinity Intrusion” published in The Estuaries and Coasts Journal. Brandon LaBumbard Published his first amphibian related disease related paper entitled, “Co-Infection by Chytrid Fungus and Ranaviruses in Wild and Harvested Frogs in the Tropical Andes.”

GRADUATE STUDENT CORNER GRADUATE STUDENT CORNER

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Ted Lyman Taught the university’s first-ever course on scuba diving for research. According to Lyman, this is a first step toward creating a scientific diving program at UMass Boston, and earning accreditation from The American Academy of Underwater Sciences to teach scientific diving to even more students. Lyman also attended The Western Society of Naturalist (WSN) Conference in Sacramento, California for a poster presentation.

Sean McCanty Attended The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) annual conference. He attended and gave a presentation at The New England Association of Environmental Biology conference. McCanty also gave a presentation at The Society for Freshwater Science in May, and was awarded $7,050.00 along with Tom Dimino from experiment.com to further fund his research. Stuart Morey Received an Oracle Doctoral Research Fellowship. He gave a poster presentation at the College of Science and Mathematics Student Success Showcase at UMass Boston. He also submitted a paper as a co-author, along with Dr. Anna Gray Aguilera, entitled, “The Effect of Rhizosphere Bacterial Communities on the Growth and Competition of Lactuca Species.” Quynh Quach Received the Herbert Lipke Memorial Endowment Fund Award twice and the GEO Travel Grant once. She attended the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) conference and the Puerto Rico Herpetological Symposium. Michael Roy Was awarded the Herbert Lipke Memorial Endowment Fund Award. Roy was fortunate enough to travel to Ethiopia in January as a part of The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Fellowship. He met with elite scholars and learned about research opportunities in the Horn of Africa. Kristin Winchell Had her article entitled "Phenotypic shifts in urban areas in the tropical lizard Anolis cristatellus" published in Evolution International Journal of Organic Evolution, and it appeared as the cover story.

GRADUATE STUDENT CORNER

Ted Lyman on the UMass Boston Boat

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Reynaldo Aguilar Lopez Presented his poster at the annual National Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS), and won a travel award from Tufts from Massachusetts Life Science Center. Diego Almanza Has been the recipient of The Mass High Demand Scholarship, The John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, The Charles Hoff Scholarship, The Academic Recognition Award, The Follet Corporation Scholarship Fund, and The Tufts/University of Massachusetts, Boston ABRCMS Travel Award. He was chosen for the U54 UMass Boston/Dana Farber Cancer Institute Summer Internship, is a part of the Beacon’s Student Success Fellowship and the Sanofi Genzyme Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Abrar Ahmed Will be graduating as a part of the Honors College and as a senior biology major in the College of Science and Mathematics. She will be teaching English for the Fulbright program in Turkey in the coming months. Demetri Hill Traveled with IMSD co-director Adan Colon Carmona, Claudia Heske, Rob Stevenson, and nine other students to Seattle, Washington to attend and present research posters at The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). He won the ABRCMS Poster Presentation Award. Timothy Musoke Presented his poster at the annual National Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS), and won a SACNAS travel award. Alex Winnett Was the recipient of the JFK Scholarship Award. Chancellor J. Keith Motley announced that Winnett, a 22-year-old Whitman native, will be receiving two distinguished awards: the John F. Kennedy Award for Academic Excellence, the highest honor given to UMass Boston graduates, and the Massachusetts Department of Education’s 29 Who Shine Award. He is the first student to receive both awards in university history. Winnett will graduate at the TD Garden May 27 with a degree in biochemistry, and minor in mathematics. He plans to attend a combined MD-PhD program after graduating, with the hopes of becoming a physician-scientist, likely specializing in critical care medicine and infectious disease research, developing life-saving cures.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT CORNER

Demetri Hill along with fellow IMSD students and IMSD Director Claudia Heske (top right) accepting his award.

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Alanna’s Fun Fact: If you run through a field full of cows screaming with your arms flailing, and suddenly stop and drop to the ground, the cows will come over and surround you to check if you are okay or not.

Ericka’s Fun Fact: There are eight times as many atoms in a teaspoonful of water as there are teaspoonful’s of water in the Atlantic Ocean.

Andreas’ Fun Fact: In Panama lives a yellow frog that leaves a yellow stain on your fingers when it is touched.

The Department of Biology welcomes their newest staff members: Alanna Boyle Has been the Biology Department’s Purchaser II since 2014. In her role as purchaser, Alanna is one of the primary contacts for purchasing and distributing lab and research supplies throughout the department. She maintains precise records for chemical and equipment inventories, purchase orders, and shipping receipts. Alanna also assists with general office paperwork and administrative tasks. Alanna is an Alumni of UMass Boston, having received both of her Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Criminal Justice and Sociology.

Ericka Gonzalez Is the Biology Department’s Administrative Assistant II. Ericka handles a large volume of traffic professionally by assisting students and staff with a variety of inquiries. She also handles confidential contracts, paperwork, and payroll information for incoming students, faculty, and staff. Ericka is responsible for scheduling conference rooms, class room availability, and assisting in the coordination of event logistics. She has advancing professional knowledge and skills by participating in different training and educational opportunities on campus. Ericka is an Alumni of UMass Boston, having received her degree in Business Administration and Management last spring.

Andreas Hertz Is a lab technician and a postdoc fellow. He has been given a one year position with the university, but has his own funding through a research grant of The German Science Foundation (DFG) that will start in the fall 2016. Dr. Hertz has been working on taxonomy and systematics of Neotropical herpetofauna for almost 10 years. He has been involved in several new species descriptions of amphibians and reptiles, primarily from Panama. One current research direction includes examining recovering amphibian populations that have survived mass extinction through chytridiomycosis. This research focuses on the mechanisms of host adaption in recovering frog populations permitting coexistence with the pathogen.

STAFF CORNER STAFF CORNER

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Matthew’s Fun Fact: Cuvier’s Beaked Whales are able to dive and hold their breath for incredibly long periods of time, with one recorded time being as long as 138 minutes.

Samantha’s Fun Fact: A female fruit fly can mate with one male fruit fly to store and use the sperm to lay hundreds of eggs.

Warren’s Fun Fact: Dogs can see blue-violet and yellow, as well as any blends of these colors, but cannot see red or green.

Matthew Howard Is the laboratory technician (II) for the Biology Department. He oversees the day to day operations in the Biology teaching laboratories. He provides instructors with technical support, maintains a well-organized and safe working environment with equipment in proper working order, and he also provides guidance in the use of that equipment. Matthew prepares chemical solutions for students to use and provides safety protocols to ensure the proper handling of those chemicals. In order to improve the success of the labs being conducted, he works alongside instructors to troubleshoot solutions to problems and to enhance quality control. Through the process of working with undergraduate lab assistants to help prepare and test experimental materials, Matthew is excited to have be given the opportunity to train young scientists in standard operating procedures and good lab technique.

Samantha Rassler Is the laboratory technician for the genetics course at UMass Boston. She is in charge of preparing and setting up the labs each week for various experiments, and she helps the TAs as much as possible with making sure that the labs run smoothly. Samantha also creates the different buffers and reagents needed each week for the labs and she grows any bacteria cultures. She is the person the TAs go to if there is a problem during the labs or if they have questions about how the lab is supposed to be set up. Samantha also helps review and edit the lab manuals every semester to keep them as up to date as possible.

Warren Vieira Warren Antonio Vieira, a post-doctoral fellow from South Africa, is the newest addition to the McCusker Lab, located in the Integrated Sciences Complex of UMass Boston. His research, like that of the other members of the lab, broadly focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in organ regeneration in adults. He will make use of the Mexican Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) as a model organism, due to members of this species being able to faithfully regenerate various body structures (such as limbs) throughout their lives. By employing an array of molecular, cellular and biochemical techniques he will be working towards elucidating the mechanisms underlaying the reprogramming of axolotl cells in response to amputation so that an integrated regenerate can be formed.

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Sarah’s Fun Fact: In Hawaii on February 27th, 2016 there was a new species of octopod discovered. The small and adorable cephalopod is silvery and ghostlike in complexion, which in turn, gained it the nickname “Casper.”

Sarah Yellamaty Is the Biology Department’s newest Administrative Assistant I. Sarah is a computer-literate performer with extensive software proficiency covering a wide variety of applications and fields of media design. Sarah performs different editorial tasks, varying from transcribing to proofreading. She maintains and completes large database spreadsheets for international networking, faculty searches, and different programs within the department. She also attends to assisting other administrative faculty in various tasks, like creating and distributing flyers across campus and working various on-campus events. Sarah maintains and updates different social media for the department. Sarah is working towards her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English with a concentration in Professional Writing.

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We are sad to announce that the U54 UMass Boston – Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Partnership program manager, Lori-Anne Ramsay will leave the University at the end of spring 2016. Lori-Anne came to our campus in 2010 to work on the U54 Partnership after co-founding and serving as executive director of the national non-profit organization Business Advancement and Social Entrepreneurship (BASE) Inc. Lori-Anne attended Bates College and was a dual major in economics and sociology; and based on data collected for her college thesis, she created and operationalized a novel and culturally sensitive educational intervention pipeline program designed for high-risk high school students from low socioeconomic, underrepresented minority backgrounds in the New York City school system. With high school cohorts in Boston and NYC, the program had a 100% college matriculation and graduation rate (2009). School Chancellor of NYC, Joel Klein, honored the BASE program for extensive research done on high school dropout prevention (2007) and Lori was featured in Oprah Magazine in 2008 (November issue) as one of the top 80 up-and-coming female leaders in the USA (nominated by American Express). Lori received the 2008 Women of Justice Award recognizing the top 40 female leaders in Massachusetts, and has given guest talks on building effective and sustainable social entrepreneurship programs at Harvard Business School (2006), Boston University (2007) and Suffolk University (2008). Within the U54 Partnership working closely with principal investigators, she helped established a strong partnership foundation and administered tremendous gains in terms of grants, publications, and students receiving training. Lori-Anne has established herself as people person who is dedicated to important causes such as cancer research and health disparities; and with incredible organizational skills, she is an experienced professional understanding the ins and outs of the granting world. We congratulate Lori-Anne on her new position at Elysium Industries Inc. where she will be the lead grant and technical writer, and lead the Grants Division. We wish her the very best in this new endeavor.

Drs. Adán Colón-Carmona and Jill Macoska

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Dear Alumni, 2015/2016 Graduates, Faculty, Staff and Students, UMass Boston is currently running the Just Imagine campaign. The goal of the Just Imagine campaign is to raise money university wide. On their main website, they state the following: “Just imagine what we can build together: a great public university that knows no bounds in research, teaching, and service—where students have every opportunity for success and the financial resources to pursue their passions. Together, we can build a community where researchers have the facilities and funding needed to thrive creatively and the inspiration to reach new heights of discovery, and where a hub of teaching and learning translates knowledge locally and globally to forge social opportunity and cultural change. Imagine the potential of a great institution to become even greater. With your support, we will.” If you would like to donate to the Just Imagine campaign, please click here. UMass Boston is “a research university with a teaching soul.” As its academic reputation grows, it steadfastly delivers a student-centered education that is not commonly associated with major public universities. Faculty members have strong research and publishing credentials, but teaching is a key priority for all faculty. And UMass Boston students have daily access to faculty, since most teaching happens in mall classrooms – not giant lecture halls. We would love to hear about where you are now, what you are doing and your latest achievements. Please send us a letter or an email to share your news with us and your fellow alumni in the Alumni Newsletter.

Best Wishes, Rick Kesseli, Chairman

Sarah Yellamaty, Administrative Assistant I Ericka Gonzalez, Administrative Assistant II

University of Massachusetts Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125-3393

Phone: 617.287.6600 Fax: 617.287.6650 www.umb.edu/academics/csm/biology

Email: Sarah.Yellamaty@umb.edu