Ashland Biology alumna attending the 61st Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Germany

Becky Richards speaking at AU in 2010

Becky Richards '04, a combined MD/PhD student at Oregon Health Sciences University, was selected as one of the 570 students out of 20,000 applicants to attend this year's meeting of Nobel laureates in Lindau, Germany.  This annual meeting allows young researchers from around the world to discuss science with 25 Nobel Laureates.  Becky will be blogging about this amazing experience, and has just written her first post.

Having recently submitted the final edits to her doctoral dissertation, Becky will be rejoining the 3rd year of medical school after travels through Europe this summer.

You can learn more about Becky's research in this previous post about her visit to the AU campus in 2010.  And if you would like to follow the Lindau Conference you can follow a special social media page here.  While we are not all fortunate to attend the conference itself, lectures from the Laureates are available online.  The theme of this year's conference is physiology and medicine.

Young hawk rescued on campus

The Department of Biology had an exciting visitor recently.  Dr. Dick Stoffer came across a stunned juvenile red-shouldered hawk on the University campus, apparently after it had flown into some object.  Being harassed by other birds, and unable to fly, Dr. Stoffer brought the bird back to the Department where we took these pictures.

On their way to a local raptor rescue facility, this young hawk gathered the energy to escape its temporary cardboard home and was last seen in the vicinity of Dr. Stoffer's back yard.  Apparently all it needed was time to clear its head.  And Dr. Stoffer says that some adult red-shouldered hawks in the area may be helping out this younger new addition to the neighborhood.

Biology graduates to pursue advanced nursing degrees

Greg Schwertner '10

Two of our recent graduates will be starting programs to earn their Masters of Science in Nursing degrees this Fall.  Melissa Michaels '11 will be going to the MSN program at Xavier University in Cincinnati while Greg Schwertner '10 will be attending the University of Toledo.  Advanced nursing degrees are one of many health related opportunities for AU science graduates.  Other recent grads are heading to medical, veterinary, physical therapy, occupational therapy, optometry, dental and physician assistant programs.  Check back soon to see what other health programs our students will be starting this Fall.