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AUGUST 2007
There was a meeting held in Cancun Mexico which was a major international meeting of the Developmental Biology Societies of North America, Latin America and Mexico, and also included others from around the world. Our CMDB students won BOTH FIRST (Dave Martinelli) and SECOND (Jill Weyers) prizes at the poster competition and another one of our students (Nicole Crnkovich) was selected for a talk at the meeting.
MARCH 2007
Abbie Casper from Mark Van Doren's lab won 3rd Prize in the poster competition at the National Drosophila Research Conference in Philadelphia in March.
JANUARY 2007
Notes from the Chair's Desk
Everyone is invited to learn about “Recent Advances in the War Against Viruses” at the Annual Hopkins Biology Symposium to be held on Wednesday, January 17th, in Mudd Auditorium. We are honored to have Joseph Vacca, Executive Director, Medicinal Chemistry, Merck Research Laboratories as our Keynote Speaker. Other invited speakers include Robert Siliciano, Paula Pitha-Rowe, tentatively-Richard Cone, Diane Griffin, Janice Clements, Ru Chih Huang, and Ernesto Freire. The Symposium will begin with coffee at 8:30am and the talks starting at 9 am. All faculty are invited to have lunch with the speakers.
DECEMBER 2006
Notes from the Chair's Desk
Hope everyone can make it to the Biology Holiday Party on Monday, Dec. 18 at 4 pm. We will have some special live music by a newly formed trio and great food and drinks, as well as the traditional dessert contest. Drs. Bessman and Schroer will be the celebrity bartenders. Wear your dancing shoes! Note the Special Seminar by Apostolos Georgopoulos on ‘Deciphering the linkages of brain function to cognition and behavior’. It will be held at 3 pm, Dec. 14th, in Mudd Auditorium.
Questions, Comments, Ideas, or Complaints about the department?
Let your Student Reps know!
The Biology Graduate Student Representatives meet regularly to discuss and enact ideas for improving the department. If you have any problems, concerns, or suggestions as to what needs to change in the department, please let one of us know, or e-mail us at:
BIO-GradRepCouncil@mail.bio.jhu.edu, Anna Krueger, Jill Weyers, Alex Ebie,
Megan Mayerle, and Aaron Stephan.
NOVEMBER 2006
On October 26 the Department of Biology and Beta Beta Beta, the Undergraduate Biology Honor Society, presented a panel discussion: “Applying to Graduate School in the Biological Sciences.” The discussion was led by panelists Ashley Bushey, Joel Schildbach, Trina Schroer and Mark Van Doren and included ‘essays and the interview’ - suggestions what to do, GREs, GPAs, what to expect, and how to make an impression.
OCTOBER 2006
Marijke Koppenol was born in Baltimore of Dutch parents, but she’s spent the past twelve years in Zürich, Switzerland, where she attended the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Marijke’s undergraduate research focused on a biochemical characterization of a bacterial F-type ATP synthase. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, swimming, travelling and playing classical guitar.
A recent paper by Nannan Zhang, Cunningham Lab, was highlighted on page 20 of the monthly ASCB Newsletter, ‘Incyte from MBC’.
See: http://www.ascb.org/files/0608newsletter.pdf . Congratulations!
SEPTEMBER 2006
Welcome New Students!!
I’d like to welcome all the incoming graduate students. To everyone - please come and meet them at the barbeque on September 5th.
Kim Baxter grew up in New Hampshire and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004. Since graduation she has been working at the National Institute of Health in a Lab of Molecular & Cellular Biology. Her main scientific interest is public health microbiology. Kim enjoys photography, traveling and planning theme parties.
Born in India, and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia Mohan Bolisetty recently graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Mohan received a bachelor's degree in Biotechnology. While he enjoyed undergraduate research in a signal transduction lab, Mohan is ready to learn and do research on new things. In his spare time away from the lab, Mohan is a sports buff, playing and watching quite a few.
A local from Perry Hall, Stephanie Dirla enjoys running and reading. She graduated from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. Her scientific interests include RNA and epigenetics.
Tovah Honor originally from Rockland County, New York spent the past year studying Judaic subjects in Jerusalem. She graduated from Brandeis University in 2005 with highest honors in biology using her aspiration of being a biologist since tenth grade as motivation. She enjoys swing and other types of dancing.
Scott Johnson, born and raised in Dallas, Texas, graduated from The University of Texas at Austin. He is very excited to see snow for the first time.
Kim Lorenz is from the small town of Lewiston in New York just north of Niagara Falls. She can usually be found reading a science-fiction or fantasy novel or volunteering at an animal rescue center. She attended Alleghany College in Pennsylvania where she did undergraduate research on the phenotypic rescue of a larval lethal Drosophila melanogaster mutation.
With a degree in cell biology/biochemistry from Bucknell University, Jeff McKnight would like to involve chemistry in his research on a biological problem. Jeff who is from South Plainfield, New Jersey likes the outdoors, getting back in shape, and bad television shows.
Karen Petree’s hometown is Chattanooga, Tennessee. She attended the University of Georgia. Her interests include her new cat Lela and reruns of Seinfeld.
After growing up very close to San Jose in Morgan Hill, California, Amanda Reider attended San Jose State University. Her interests outside of science include doing anything outside, watching professional sports, shopping, and anything that involves learning/doing something new.
Devin Rosenthal, from the local area of Columbia, Maryland, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Scientifically he is interested in disease research and outside of the lab he enjoys sailing, music, and travel.
Hailing from Cairo Egypt, Lamia Wahba attended the College of William and Mary. Mathematical Biology and rowing make up some of her interests.
Departmental News
Maria Matos, Hattar Lab has been awarded an NRSA grant for three years for her project titled, ‘Retinal photoreceptors in the non-image visual system’. Congratulations to Maria and Samer.
Elissa Lei, a postdoctoral fellow in the Corces lab, has accepted a faculty position as a tenure-track Investigator in the Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), NIH. Elissa will be leaving us for the NIH in Bethesda at the end of August. http://intramural.niddk.nih.gov/research/faculty.asp?People_ID=1699
Please note changes to the Colloquia Series: 1- The colloquium will start exactly at 4:30pm, with 5-10 minutes of introductory remarks about the speaker and 50-55 minutes for the talk. The questions period will be open and no limit on the questions will be imposed. 2- A happy hour will be held for the department after the colloquium. Drinks and food will be provided as before but now reserved till after the colloquium is over. Members of the presenter’s lab (including postdocs, graduates, undergraduates, technicians etc.) will be encouraged to bring posters, computers, or any other visual or auditory aids to continue the discussion of what was presented in the colloquium.
IIC News
Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, Inc. sponsored an open house for the newly renovated Integrated Imaging Center (IIC) located at Dunning Hall, 1st floor on August 11. See Press Releases - http://www.zeiss.de/us/micro/home.nsf and http://www.jhu.edu/news/home06/aug06/newcell.html
JULY 2006
Tiara Booker is another new Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. Administered by the National Research Council (NRC) under a grant from the Ford Foundation, this fellowship provides three years of support with an annual stipend. Congratulations Tiara!
JHEM Mail System Migration Last week, email system migration took place. The new mail client setup instructions are at: http://it.jhmi.edu/email/jhem/jhemmigration/clientsetup.html
If you have not done so, please, update incoming and outgoing mail server names in your mail client program, using recommended names specified on the mail client setup instructions
web page. Recommended address for Web client access is now: https://jhem.johnshopkins.edu.
In case of any migration-related problems, please contact:
Andrew Nechkin at (410) 206-9223.
JUNE 2006
Dupont Teaching Awards for Spring 2006 have been awarded to Gayani Weerasinghe for General Biology,Courtney Akitake and Nicole Crnkovich for Developmental Biology and
Jill Heidinger for Cell Biology. Congratulations to all!
The S.U.R.E. students have arrived!
MAY 2006
Our S.U.R.E. (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) Program commences May 29th through August 3rd. We have 5 students participating this summer. Please take time to welcome them and introduce yourself
Gamze Camdere - Bilkent University in Turkey - Wendland Lab
Pelin Uluocak - Bilkent University in Turkey - Koshland Lab
Lauren Pederson-Buck - Oakwood College (Alabama) - Brand Lab
Jaysson Brooks - Oakwood College (Alabama) - Hattar Lab
Arturo Guzman - University of Arizona - Van Doren Lab
The Biology Graduate Student Representatives meet regularly to discuss and enact ideas for improving the department. If you have any problems, concerns, or suggestions as to what needs to change in the department, please let one of us know, or e-mail us at BIO-GradRepCouncil@mail.bio.jhu.edu, Anna Krueger, Jill Weyers, Alex Ebie, Megan Mayerle, and Aaron Stephan.
Minutes from student rep meeting: http://www.jhu.edu/cmdbgradrepcouncil/
Also, we're starting to address the new suggestions that people submitted to us. Thanks for the ideas! If you're interested, details of what we're doing with each one are listed in the minutes.
As always, we love to get new ideas! We've gotten lots of great ones so far, so keep up the good work! The website is always available for new submissions.
Sarah Barker and Guruvasuthevan Thuduppathy have been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. They will be inducted during a ceremony in May. Congratulations to you both!
The Fourth Annual Diversity Recognition Awards have been awarded. Our own MinDS group founders– Tiara Booker, Jovita Diaz, Lori Orosco and Eddie Ramos received an award, as a group, from President Brody on May 2nd. Congratulations to all of you!
Lymarie Maldonado Baez is a new Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. Administered by the National Research Council (NRC) under a grant from the Ford Foundation, this fellowship provides three years of support with an annual stipend. Kudos, Lymarie!
APRIL 2006
Awards Robyn Goodman and David McNeill are the winners of a Dupont Teaching Award for Fall 2005 in Genetics. Congratulations!
Congratulations also go out to Abbie Casper and Jennifer Barrila, the winners of a 2006-07 Dean’s Teaching Fellowship. Their class “Stem Cell Biology in Development and Disease” will be taught this fall.
Congratulations to Jessica Chang of the Van Doren Lab, winner of the 2006 McElroy award for meritorious undergraduate research and to Samantha Davis of the Schroer Lab, winner of the 2006 Danny Lee award for outstanding promise, talent, motivation, and achievement in scientific research. Both of these prestigious awards are presented each year to graduating seniors majoring in the Biological Sciences
FEBRUARY 2006
Congratulations to our three graduate students who won teachings awards for this past semester. Lori Orosco won the Dupont Teaching Award for Fall 2005 for General Biology. Casey Hemmis and Amber Hartman were co-recipients for Biochemistry for Fall 2005.
JANUARY 2006
Abbie Casper and Jennifer Barrila have been awarded a 2006-2007 Dean's Teaching Fellowship. Congratulations to you both!
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