Biology Buzz

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Samford celebrated Earth Week with lectures, art, exhibits, and the ALEEC Conference on Climate Change

The department's own Dr. Betsy Dobbins led the efforts to produce a fabulous Samford Earth Week with participants from all areas of the university.   Dr. Larry Davenport and Virginia Brown were instrumental in making the Earth Day conference on climate change a success.  Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel, as well as Collapse:  How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, delivered a lecture entitled, "The Environmental Collapse of Societies."  Dr. Larry Davenport, who is director of the VMC at Samford, explained, "We put this together both to celebrate the earth and to take a serious look at the current problems that our earth is experiencing."  

Other presenters were:

• Mike Tidwell, author of The Ravaging tide:  Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities
• Howard Frumkin, director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Jim McClintock, participant in 13 research expeditions to Antarctica

At the weeklong focus on environmental stewardship, students Cody Penrod, Hunter Boyette, and Austin Davis, representing the Foundations of Biology classes and guided by Dr. Malia Fincher, received the "Most Informative" award for their display on Vermaculture.

Student paper published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry:

The Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences congratulates senior biology/pre-medicine major John Douglas Carson, along with his mentor, Dr. W. Mike Howell, on the acceptance of their paper, "Naturally Occurring Progesterone in Loblolly Pine: A Major Steroid Precursor of Environmental Androgens," which will be published in the journal, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, in June 2008.  Authors are:  John Carson, Ronald Jenkins (Samford University), Elizabeth Wilson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, William Howell (Samford University), and Ray Moore (University of Alabama at Birmingham).

Carson's work on this paper began with research directed by Dr. Ronald L. Jenkins.  After the death in 2007 of Jenkins, Dr. Howell and Dr. Betsy Dobbins stepped in to serve as faculty mentors.

• Sarah Austin - University of Louisville School of Medicine
• Robin Bishop - University of South Alabama College of Medicine
• Britni Bradshaw - University of South Alabama College of Medicine
• David Field - Graduate Program in Immunology, University of Rochester Medical Center
• John Lax - Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright University
• Kirbylee Nelson - Rush Medical College, Rush University
• Erinn Ojard - University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
• Justin Palmore - University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
• Cody Penrod (biology minor) - University of South Alabama College of Medicine
• Katherine Turk - Mercer University School of Medicine
• Jonathan Walker - University of Tennessee College of Medicine

Samford biology/premed major, John D. Carson, was awarded first place in the biological sciences student poster competition.  Fellow poster authors and directors of Carson's research dealing with progesterone in gymnosperms are Samford biology professors Ronald L. Jenkins (deceased) and Elizabeth G. Dobbins.  (Click here for further information, including photos, about the AAS meeting.)

Dr. Kristin Bakkegard's article, "Interactions between Red Hills Salamander and Its Invertebrate Prey," published in The Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science, is the co-winner of the Emmett B. Carmichael Award. The award was presented at the April AAS meeting.  Dr. Bakkegard will be joining the Samford biology faculty in August 2008.

Recent Publications and Grants by Biology Faculty and Students

Dr. Malia Fincher has received an Environmental Education matching grant from Licor Bio-Science for a photosynthesis and flourescence instrument. This will be a major piece of teaching and research equipment for our department.

Dr. David Johnson (joining the biology faculty in August 2008) has published an article, "Amplification of DNA from 30-Year-Old Aceto-Orcein Stained Salivary Gland Squash Slides," in Drosophila Information Service (2007).

Congratulations to Dr. R. Malia Fincher on her recent publication, Inter- and -Intraspecific Comparisons of Antiherbivore Defenses in Three Species of Rainforest Understory Shrubs, in the Journal of Chemical Ecology.  Authors are:  R. M. Fincher, L. A. Dyer, C. D. Dodson, J. L. Richards, M. A. Tobler, J. Searcy, J. E. Mather, A. J. Reid, J. S. Rolig and W. Pidcock (Volume 34, Number 4 / April, 2008.)

Professors W. M. Howell, G. E. Keller, R. L. Jenkins, R. N. Hunsinger, and E. W. McLaughlin co-authored with student Diane Kirkpatrick the article, "Effects of the plant steroidal hormone, 24-epibrassinolide, on the mitotic index and growth of onion (Allium cepa) root tips," in Genetics and Molecular Research, 2006.

Dr. Larry Davenport named 2007 Alabama Professor of the Year

Samford biology professor Lawrence Davenport, director of the university's Vulcan Materials Center for Environmental Stewardship and Education, has been honored as the 2007 Alabama Professor of the Year by The Council for Advancement and Support of Education and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Davenport was one of 40 educators selected from a field of more than 300 of the nation's top professors.  

In January 2008 Davenport presented a poster, "Potential Effects of Climate Change on Alabama's Plant Life," at the conference of the National Council for Science and the Environment on "Climate Change: Science and Solutions" in Washington, D.C.  Ginny Brown also attended the conference. Davenport and Brown participated in the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors.