UCF Biology News

The most recent student highlights are listed below. If you are a UCF Biology and you would like to notify the department about your good news, email the webmaster at cosweb@mail.ucf.edu

Undergraduate, September, 2009: James Angelo, a Biology MS student, has been selected to receive an award of $500 to support his participation in the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America. This award is sponsored by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), the U.S. Department of Defense's corporate environmental research and development (R&D) program, planned and executed in full partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Graduate, June, 2009: James Angelo (Bio MS) was selected to receive an award of $500 to support his participation in the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America. This award is sponsored by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), the U.S. Department of Defense's corporate environmental research and development (R&D) program, planned and executed in full partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Graduate, April, 2009: Melinda Donnelly (Con Bio PhD) was awarded Sigma Xi's Grants-in-Aid of Research funding support for a grant proposal she submitted with Dr. Linda Walters. This highly competitive program awards approximately 20% of those who apply.

Graduate, April, 2009: Steve Shippee (Con Bio PhD) and Dr Graham Worthy received $80K from the Mississippi-Alabama SeaGrant Consortium to Shippee's research on "Assessment of depredation by bottlenose dolphins in the Northwest Florida and Alabama sport fishery"

Graduate, April, 2009: Mary Beth Manjerovic (Con Bio PhD) was selected as one of three winners for Best in Category: Life and Health Sciences for her poster presentation at the 2009 Graduate Research Forum.

Graduate, April, 2009: Katherine Grablow (Con Bio PhD) was selected as one of three winners for Best in Category: Life and Health Sciences for her poster presentation at the 2009 Graduate Research Forum

Graduate, April, 2009: Melinda Donnelly (Con Bio PhD) was selected as one of three winners for Best in Category: Life and Health Sciences for her poster presentation at the 2009 Graduate Research Forum.

Graduate, April, 2009: Melinda Donnelly (Con Bio PhD) was awarded the University Graduate Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistannt.

Graduate, March, 2009: Melinda Donnelly (Con Bio PhD) was selected for the College of Sciences' 2009 Award for Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistannt. This award recognizes students who have done a exceptional job serving as an assistant to the instructor of an undergraduate course. With this recognition, she will be nominated for the university award by the same name.

Graduate, March, 2009: Kelly Borrowman (Bio MS) was selected for the College of Sciences' 2009 Award for Outstanding Master's Thesis. With this recognition, she will be nominated for the university award by the same name

Graduate, March, 2009: Simona Ceriani (Con Bio PhD) was awarded a $30,850 reserach grant from Sea Turtle Grants Program, administered through the Caribbean Conservation Corporation for her proposal titled, "Investigating the Relationship Between Feeding Ecology and Reproductive Output in Loggerhead Turtles Nesting at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge."

Graduate, March, 2009: Simona Ceriani, a second year Conservation Biology PhD student, was awarded $30,850 grant from Sea Turtle Grants Program administered through the Caribbean Conservation Corporation for her proposal entitled "Investigating the Relationship Between Feeding Ecology and Reproductive Output in Loggerhead Turtles Nesting at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge"

Graduate, March, 2009: Jennifer Navarra was awarded the 2009 Catherine H. Beattie fellowship from the Center for Plant Conservation. This scholarship provides $4000 to support plant research in the southeastern United States.

Graduate, January, 2009: Shannon Segelsky (Bio MS), under the supervision of Dr. Linda Walters, was recently awarded a $1000 scholarship by the Astronaut Trail Shell Club.

Graduate, December, 2008: Tyler Hether and Mary Beth Manjerovic have both been awarded grants by the Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research program.

Graduate, December, 2008: Melinda Donnelly, PhD Candidate in Conservation Biology, received an Outstanding Presentation Award at the Restore America's Estuaries Conference in October in Providence, Rhode Island.

Undergraduate, November, 2008: Recent undergraduate, Wei Yuan, won the outstanding undergraduate poster competition at Southeastern Estuary Research Society (SEERS). The meeting took place in Tampa. Wei graduated in August.

Graduate, May, 2008: Melinda Donnelly (Con Bio PhD) received $1,300 in funding support from the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council for her proposal "Recruitment, growth and survival of the exotic Brazilian pepper Schinus terebinthifolius at restored mosquito impoundments in Mosquito Lagoon, Volusia County, FL."

Graduate, May, 2008: Steve Shippee (Con Bio PhD) and Dr Graham Worthy received $12,435 from SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund to support Shippee's research on "Changes in habitat use and distribution of bottlenose dolphins in the Choctawhatchee Bay estuary following recent red tide episodes"

Graduate, May, 2008: Elizabeth Stephens was awarded the Florida Native Plant Society Endowment Grant Research Award.

Graduate, April, 2008: Mary Manjerovic (Con Bio PhD) was selected as one of three winners for Best in Category for her presentation titled, "Consequences of Promiscuity on Ejaculate Characteristics and Immune Function" in the Life and Health Sciences category at the 2008 Graduate Research Forum.

Graduate, April, 2008: Tonya Speight (Bio MS) was selected as one of three winners for Best in Category for her presentation titled, "Quantifying Nesting Responses to Hurricane Erosion: A Unique Application of LiDAR Remote Sensing" in the Life and Health Sciences category at the 2008 Graduate Research Forum.

Undergraduate, April, 2008: Congratulations to Alexandra Orlova who received the Founders? Award: Alexandra Orlova, a Biology student, was born and educated in Russia. After winning a contest to complete her senior year of high school in the United States, she realized her love for veterinary medicine and relocated to America to pursue her higher education. Her professors describe her as a diligent student who loves to learn and who sets a high standard that other students find hard to achieve. Orlova mentors younger students, volunteers as a technician in a local clinic and helps distressed animals. She has been accepted at several veterinary schools.

Graduate, April, 2008: Steve Shippee (Conservation Biology Ph.D. with Graham Worthy) received best Ph.D. Student Poster presentation at the recent SEAMAMMS conference in Charleston SC. This was for his research entitled "High -flyers vs Low-riders: a performance analysis of radio tag attachments on bottlenose dolphins" which was coauthored by Eric Zolman, Wendy Noke Durden, Forrest Townsend, and Greg Bossart.

Graduate, March, 2008: James Angelo (M.S. student in the GAMES Lab) received the best student poster award at the Southern Forestry and Natural Resource Management GIS Conference (SOFOR GIS 2008) in Kissimmee, FL for his study entitled: Using LiDAR and Field Data to Analyze Canopy Structure in a Sand Pine Forest. Co-authors were John F. Weishampel, Hilary M. Swain, and Edwin M. Everham III.

Undergraduate, March, 2008: Congratulations to Nancy Gillis 2008 OSM - Outstanding Student Poster Awards at the Ocean Sciences Meeting, she was selected to receive an Outstanding Student Poster Award. This is quite an achievement- these awards were reserved for the top 6% of student presentations (21 out of 366 eligible student posters) as selected by volunteer judges.

Graduate, January, 2008: James Angelo (Biology MS) received funding from the NSF-sponsored National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) for his project entitled: Identification of Optimal Habitat for the Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) Using ALSM Data.

Undergraduate, January, 2008: Day McClanahan (Biology MS), a student working in Dr. Fauth's laboratory, recently received a $20,000 contract from Seminole County to support her thesis research on "Amphibians as Bioindicators of Habitat and Water Quality of Central Florida Lakes."

Undergraduate, November, 2007: Congrats to: Julia (JJ) Leissin's award from the 2007 Estuarine Research Federation Conference in Providence, RI earlier this month. There were over 1200 presentations and 2000 attendees, and JJ's oral presentation was voted "first place undergraduate presentation". It came with $500 and a certificate. The title of the talk was: Allelopathic Effects of the Exotic Brazilian Pepper Schinus terebinthifolius on Growth of Native Saltmarsh Flora. Co-authors were Nicole Martucci (Undergraduate), Danielle Green (Undergraduate McNair scholar), Melinda Donnelly (Ph.D. candidate) and Linda Walters (faculty mentor).

Graduate, April, 2007: Michelle Alvarez (PhD) won Best in Category for her Oral Presentation in the Life and Health Sciences at the 2007 Graduate Research Forum for her presentation titled "Age Determination: The Identification of Biological Age Using Messenger RNA Profiling Analysis."

Graduate, December, 2006: Andrea Barber (Biology MS, admitted fall 2005) recently received two research awards: $1500 from the Astronaut Trail Shell Club (this is the second award she has received from this organization) and $2000 from Florida Sea Grant Alyesworth Fund.

Graduate, October, 2006: Elizabeth Boughton (Conservation Biology PhD admitted fall 2004) received 2nd place in the poster competition for new doctoral students at the EPA Graduate Fellowship Conference. He presentation was titled "Factors affecting invasion success of native and exotic wetland plant species." outlining reearch on factors that promote exotic plant invasions and decrease persistence of native plant species in wetlands influenced by agricultural management.

Graduate, August, 2006: Ann Spellman (Conservation Biology PhD, admitted fall 2004), working with Dr. Graham Worthy, was awarded the 2006 Manatee Conservation Award from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Graduate, August, 2006: Nicole Browning (Conservation Biology PhD admitted fall 2004), working under Dr. Graham Worthy, received a Lerner Gray Fund for Marine Research Award from the American Museum of Natural History.

Graduate, April, 2006: Kristine Schad Gross (M.S. Biology) received a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research to support her thesis research on the "Benefits of tree calls in the pine woods treefrog (Hyla femoralis)."

Undergraduate, March, 2006: Katherine R. Brown (undergraduate senior) has been accepted to participate in the UCF Graduate RAMP Fellowship program, beginning in fall 2006. She also received a $1000 research grant for her upcoming work from the Wildlife Society. Katherine is also the only College of Science inductee into the prestigious UCF Order of Pegasus for 2006.

Graduate, March, 2006: Michelle Boudreaux (graduated from the Biology Master of Science program Fall 2005) was awarded the University Award for Outstanding Masters Thesis. She will be recognized at the University Awards Breakfast on March 31, 2006.

Graduate, March, 2006: Melinda Donnelly (Biology MS, admitted spring 2004) won Best Oral Presentation in the Life and Health Sciences category of UCF's 2006 Graduate Research Forum for her presentation titled "Success of Water Dispersal as a Secondary Dispersal Vector for Brazilian Pepper(Schinus terebinthifolius)in a Florida Estuary".

Graduate, March, 2006: Carlos Anderson (Biology MS, admitted fall 2005) won Best Poster Presentation in the Life and Health Sciences category of UCF's 2006 Graduate Research Forum for his presentation titled "Reliability of Identifying Individual Polar Bears Using Whisker Spot Patterns".

Graduate, January, 2006: Brandon Barton (graduated from the Biology Master of Science program in Spring 2005) and his advisor, James Roth, were quoted in an article in the January 20th edition of Science. The article incorporated Barton's thesis research on turtle egg predation by racoons and ghost crabs. Barton is now a doctoral student at Yale University.

Graduate, January, 2006: Michelle Boudreaux (graduated from the Biology Master of Science program Fall 2005) was awarded the Outstanding Masters Thesis Award from the College of Sciences.

Graduate, November, 2005: David Breininger (Conservation Biology Ph.D, admitted fall 2004) will publish a paper in Biological Conservation titled, "Landcover characterizations and Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) population dynamics" (first author, in press) and published a paper in September 2005 in Biological Conservation titled "A rapid approach to modeling species*habitat relationships" (third author).

Graduate, November, 2005: Biology MS candidate Melinda Donnelly received the Outstanding Presentation Award at the Annual Sigma Xi Research Conference in Seattle, WA in November 2005 for her poster entitled, "Is the exotic Brazilian pepper, Schinus terebinthifolius, a threat to mangrove ecosystems in Florida?"

Graduate, October, 2005: Michelle Boudreaux (Masters student admitted Fall 2003) was given an award of Outstanding Student Presentation at the 18th Biennial Conference of the Estuarine Research Federation, in Norfolk, VA (October 16-21 2005). Her presentation was part of her masters research and was entitiled "Competition between oysters and barnacles: The impact of native and invasive barnacle density on native oyster settlement, growth, and survivorship."

Graduate, October, 2005: Lisa McCauley (Conservation Biology PhD, admitted fall 2004) and David Jenkins had an article accepted for publication in the journal Ecological Applications titled, "GIS-based estimates of former and current depressional wetlands in an agricultural landscape." (volume 15, pp. 1199-1208)

Graduate, October, 2005: Elizabeth Boughton (Conservation Biology PhD, admmitted fall 2004) is a co-author of an article that was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Vegetation Science titled, "Association of relative elevation and fire with ecotones in an upland Florida landscape." This study was conducted using a unique method called the split-moving windows analysis to detect ecotones. The researchers found that vegetation formed a continuum in composition along the elevational gradient in the absence of fire while the natural fire regimes maintained position and width of ecotones.

Graduate, August, 2005: Joyce Marie Brown (Conservation Biology PhD, admitted fall 2004) was recently awarded an Environmental Protection Agency: Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship. This award provides full tuition support and a $20,000 stipend for three years as well as an annual $5,000 budget for research, travel, conferences and supplies. Her research will focus on the effects of forest management practices on amphibian assemblage composition and species interactions.

Graduate, July, 2005: Alex Suazo (Biology M.S., admitted fall 2001) and Angelique DeLong (Biology M.S., admitted spring 2003) along with Alice Bard (Biology M.S., graduated summer 1989) and Donna Oddy (Biology M.S., graduated fall 2000) have published a paper in the Journal of Mammalogy titled, "Repeated capture of beach mice (Peromyscus polionotus phasma and P. p. niveiventris) reduces body mass."

Graduate, June, 2005: Amanda (Mandy) Cooper (Conservation Biology Ph.D.) received a prestigious NASA Earth System Science Fellowship for $72,000 ($24,000 a year for 3 years). Her proposal, entitled "Detecting changes in vertical canopy structure of tropical rainforests using LiDAR," will focus on Costa Rican rainforests. [ See the NASA Announcement ]

Graduate, June, 2005: Kristine Gross (Biology MS, admitted fall 2003) just received a student travel award from the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, to support her participation in their 2005 meeting in Tampa, Florida. Kristine will present a paper titled, "Tree calls of three hylid treefrogs: environmental triggers of calling frequency."

Graduate, June, 2005: Lisa McCauley (Conservation Biology Ph.D., admitted fall 2004) has a paper in press in Ecological Applications entitled "GIS-Based Estimates of Former and Current Depressional Wetlands in an Agricultural Landscape." Ecological Applications is ranked 14 of 107 in the Journal Citation Reports rankings of Ecology-related journals.

Graduate, June, 2005: Elizabeth Boughton (Conservation Biology Ph.D., admitted fall 2004) received a $1000 grant from the Florida Native Plant Society. She will use this grant to work on her dissertation.

Graduate, March, 2005: Christian Glardon (admitted into the Biology MS in Spring 2003) was selected for the College of Arts and Sciences 2004-2005 Award for Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistant. This recognition nominated him to the university level, where Mr. Glardon was selected by the UCF Graduate Council as the recipient of the University Award for Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistant.