Biology and toxicology students earn University honors

With the academic year coming to an end it is time to congratulate our students who earned University honors recognitions this Spring.  Let's start with our three department honors:

Hannah presenting at the 2015
URCA symposium

Our outstanding senior this year is Toxicology major and Choose Ohio First scholar Hannah Baumann.  Hannah has done research here at AU with Drs. Doug Dawson and Jeff Weidenhamer, recently presenting her results at the annual URCA student research symposium.  Last summer she took part in a research internship at Ohio State University in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy identifying and isolating novel anti-cancer compounds.  Hannah will be starting a PhD program in chemistry at the University of Akron this June.

Isabella Steiner, a Biology major, Spanish minor, Choose Ohio First scholar, and member of the University Honors Program, was selected as our Department's outstanding junior.  Isabella plans to attend veterinary school and currently works in the kennel at Spring Meadow Veterinary Clinic.

Our outstanding sophomore is Biology and Math double major, and University Honors Program member Alyssa Predota.  Alyssa plans to pursue graduate work to become a physician assistant and has shadowed at Lakewood Hospital and and the Parma Veterans Affairs Hospital.  She is currently working as a State Tested Nursing Aid (STNA) at the Good Shepherd here in Ashland.

Mack presenting at URCA 2015

Congratulations as well to Biology major Mack Reece, who was selected as the University's Male Undergraduate Student of the Year.  Mack has conducted research for the past few years with Dr. Paul Hyman on bacteriophage, viruses that infect bacteria.  He has presented his work at meetings of the American Society of Microbiology, at Ashland's own URCA students research symposium, and recently at the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) Meeting in Washington, D.C..  Mack also lead the formation of an Ashland chapter of the AMSA.  He will be attending Case Western Reserve University's Applied Anatomy program this Fall with plans to pursue medical school afterwards.

Ashland science students heading off to great summer internships

We have started to hear from students who have been accepted into research internships for this coming summer.  If you are thinking of internship opportunities for the future these may give you some ideas.  While most internship application deadlines have passed, we are still hearing about some opportunities, so keep checking back with our Science News and keep searching Google.

These are some of the internships our students are heading to this summer:

• 10-week field ecology internship at the Environmental Research Center at the University of Notre Dame involving both classwork and independent research at their field station in the upper peninsula of Michigan
• Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program with Oregon State University working at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, OR 
• Summer internship at Gorman Nature Center, Mansfield, OH 
• International Volunteer HQ summer program in Cusco, Peru. Typical activities can include planting/reintroducing native species, inventory/observation of wildlife, seedling propagation, and helping with community projects 
• Internship at the Columbus Zoo

Remember that you can always talk with your faculty advisor for information about internships, use the resources of the AU Career Center, and check our occasional blog post with internship searching information.  If you are interested in environmental science or field biology related internships you will want to be on Dr. Saunder's environmental science email list.  Contact her to ask to be added if you are not.

Eleven ashland science students, including many Choose Ohio First scholars, present at research symposium

Toxicology major Alison Biro and Biochemistry major
Peter Kobunski, both COF scholars

Ashland science students represented a wide range of disciplines at this year's College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium (URCA).  In its sixth year, the URCA event was originally chaired by a faculty member from the Department of Biology/Toxicology and has always highlighted a strong contingent of science presentations.  This year eleven science students from biology, biochemistry, chemistry, environmental science, geology and toxicology presented their independent research projects in oral and poster presentations.  Six of these students are members of our Choose Ohio First scholars program, which provides scholarship funding for excellent graduates of Ohio high schools majoring in the sciences.

Biology major Mack Reece

You can see photos of all our presenters on the Ashland Science Twitter feed.