Senior Olivia Macek reports on summer internship at University Of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center

Olivia Macek (environmental science and biology '16)

Olivia Macek writes about her experience at University Of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) in summer 2015:
 
 "My name is Olivia Macek and I am a senior biology and environmental science double major.  During this past summer, I had an internship at the University Of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center in Northwoods, Wisconsin. 

Olivia sets up an insect emergence trap on Long Lake, WI

During these ten weeks I learned about vertebrate biology, insect ecology, aquatic ecology, and forest ecology.  I also had the opportunity to work on my own research project with emergent aquatic insects and how they are affected by different dissolved organic carbon levels in Long Lake, Wisconsin. It was such a great opportunity to be a part of this internship and to learn many field and lab techniques that I hope to use as a future environmental scientist." 

The summer research program for undergraduates at UNDERC includes 3 credits of ecology coursework and an independent research project conducted with support from a scientist-mentor.  Olivia also conducted directed research during her junior year on the dynamics of zooplankton in seasonal ponds at the Black Fork Wetlands Preserve. In 2015, Olivia was one of four AU students awarded a $2,500 Environmental Science and Engineering Scholarship from the Ohio E.P.A.

Ashland science alumnus becomes Assistant Professor at Purdue University

Brady Hardiman (B.S. Biology, minor in Chemistry ’03) has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor at Purdue University starting in January 2016.  He will hold a joint appointment in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental and Ecological Engineering and will initially teach courses in Urban Ecology and GeoSpatial Analysis and GIS.

Brady received a Ph.D. in Ecology from The Ohio State University in 2012. Since then he has been a Post-Doctoral Associate at Boston University in the Department of Earth and the Environment. Brady studies the interaction of forest ecosystem structure and function at different scales and from urban to rural landscapes. He is particularly interested in how the physical structure of forests influences ecosystem exchanges of carbon. Evidence from his studies suggests the potential to manage forests in ways that maximize ecosystem services such as carbon storage.

Brady was recently awarded a $59,952 National Science Foundation grant. He will serve as Principal Investigator for a study of forest sites in eastern North America that will compare on-site canopy structure data measured using a ground based LIDAR system with published NPP (net plant productivity) data sets sponsored by the NASA Terrestrial Ecosystem Program.

While at Ashland University, Brady participated in undergraduate research with Dr. Dick Stoffer and Dr. Soren Brauner. He took a winter-break course in Panama where he did a research project and climbed a lot of trees. He also spent one summer in the NSF-REU Summer Research Program at Harvard Forest, where he got his first taste of studying canopy photosynthesis.

Congratulations, Brady!