Department
of Biological Sciences •
alumni About
250
Ph.D. students have graduated from the Department of Biological
Sciences
since 1980: 42% are currently members of academic faculties, 32% are in
research and development positions in private companies or state and
federal
government;of the others many include recent graduates who are
post-doctoral
fellows in programs throughout the United States. Our
postdoctoral
associates and undergraduate student researchers also have done well
for
themselves. Below we feature a diverse group of our alumni.
LSU
graduate
students
Sid
Aaron completed a PhD in Biochemistry at LSU, and from there he
moved over to the Life Sciences Building to do postdoctoral research in
genetics with Bill Lee. He is at Pharmacia where he is in
charge of a functional genomics research group. Sid visits the campus
twice
a year as a member of the College of Basic Sciences Development
Council.
Andy
Baldwin University of Maryland Andy, a
PhD student of Irv Mendelssohn, is in the Department of Biological
Resources
Engineering.
J.
Steven
Brewer University of Mississippi Steve
studied
the effects of differences in fire season on the population biology of
the dominant forb (Pityopsis graminifolia) in longleaf pine
sandhills
in north Florida for his dissertation research. Steve's research was
funded
by a NSF doctoral dissertation improvement grant and resulted in four
papers
in refereed journals. Steve worked with Dr. Mark Bertness at Brown
University
as a postdoctoral researcher before joining the faculty at the
University
of Mississippi. Recently, Steve has worked in seepage habitats in
longleaf
pine savannas of southern Mississippi, focusing on quantitative and
experimental
study of abiotic and biotic conditions that affect the population
dynamics
of carnivorous plant species.
Roger
A. Byrne Department of Biology, State University of New York
at Fredonia,came to LSU from Dublin, Ireland, where he had
received his undergraduate and master's degrees. He
received
a PhD in 1988 in Physiology with Tom Dietz as his advisor. Roger
is currently Associate Professor and Chair of his department at
SUNY
Fredonia, NY. In July 2001 he will become the Interim Dean
of Natural
and Social Sciences
and Professional Studies
for one
year. Roger is interested in ion regulation, acid/base balance
and
respiratory physiology of freshwater bivalves. He and his students also
are investigating the role of oxygen on uptake of organic pollutents in
zebra mussels in Lake Erie.
Steven
Cassar from Michigan obtained an MS degree studying asexual
fungi
associated with insects. He now is at Abbott Laboratories
where he continues to publish and to pattent an occasional gene.
G.
Thomas ChandlerUniversity of South Carolina Tom
is
currently Chairman of the Department of Environment Health Sciences at
the University of South Carolina. His M.S. and Ph.D. research at
LSU on population and community dynamics of meiofauna lead to an
interest
in contaminant effects that is the basis of his current EPA
funding.
After LSU, Tom held a Fulbright post-graduate award in Germany and a
post-doctoral
position at the University of South Carolina.
John
V. Constable Slippery Rock University to
California
State University, Fresno in Fall 2002
Patricia
Cox
University of Tennessee
Alan
W. Decho University of South Carolina,is
currently an associate professor in the Department of Environmental
Health
Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Alan's dissertation
work examined the diet of benthic copepods and lead to an interest in
the
role of bacterial exopolymers in oceanic systems. He
published
an extensive review on the subject, and he currently has NSF funding to
continue this research. After LSU, Alan held a Fulbright
post-graduate
award in Australia and then did post-doctoral work at the USGS in Menlo
Park, California and at SUNY Stony Brook.
James
W. Demastes studied with Mark Hafner and received the
M.S.
degree in 1990 and the Ph.D. degree in 1996, both in Zoology. Jim
is currently a faculty member in the Department of Biology at the
University
of Northern Iowa, where he studies host-parasite coevolution and
mammalian
phylogenetics.
Andrew
W. Douglas University of Mississippi completed
a PhD with Shirley Tucker. After postdoc toral work in Australia
and The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Andy was
hired
at Ole Miss.
Anna
M. Findley
University of Louisiana at Monroe
Mark
Ford Ecologist, Senior Researcher for the Louisiana
Environmental
Research Center (LERC), McNeese State University , Director ,
Wetlands
Station, and Executive Director and President , Earth Ecology
Institute.
David
Garton Georgia Tech University
Laura
Gough
University of Texas at Arlington
Steven
Hand Louisiana State University, completed a
masters
degree with Bill Stickle at LSU before going on to receive a PhD at
Oregon
State University. In 1999 he returned to LSU as chair of the
combined
biological sciences departments.
Elizabeth King-Lotufo completed a degree
with Kevin
Carman and Ken Brown in 1998. After LSU she went to the University of
Michigan,
where she completed a master's degree in Clinical Nutrition.
Today
she works as a nutritionist doing counseling and interviews for the WIC
program with high-risk mothers and babies. Elizabeth is employed
by the Mississippi State Department of Health.
Charlie Kwit
Charles Lamb South Dakota State University
Scott
Lanyon University of Minnesota and Bell Museum
Alan
Lievens Texas Lutheran University
John
E. Linz Michigan State University
Guilherme Lotufo got a Ph.D. with John Fleeger is
working with environmental toxicology at Waterways Experiment
Station
in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
John
McCall - Chair , Department of Biological and
Environmental
Sciences, University of West Alabama. PhD 1992 with
John Fleeger.
David
A. McClellan studied with Mark Hafner and received his
Ph.D.
degree in Zoology in 1999. both in Zoology. He is currently a
faculty
member in the Department of Zoology at Brigham Young University,
where he studies molecular evolution.
Nancy
D. Moncrief studied with Mark Hafner and received her
Ph.D.
in Zoology in 1987. She is currently Curator of Mammalogy at the
Virginia Museum of Natural History, where she studies molecular
phylogeography
of rodents with a special interest in the endangered Delmarva Fox
Squirrel.
M.
Ray Neyland McNeese State University
Cheryl
A. Nickerson Tulane University Health Sciences Center finished
a PhD in Microbiology with Eric Achberger in 1994. After
postdoctoral
study at Washington University Medical School, St. Louis, she joined
the
Department of Microbiology and Immunology. In fall 2001 she received a
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Susan Pell is the laboratory
manager of the
Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies
at the New York Botanical Garden. Susan was a student with Lowell
Urbatsch. She plans to complete her PhD in the coming year
(2002-2003).
Michael
Postek National Institute of Standards and Technology
Alec
Pridgeon Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew John
Pruski Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis,
is a curator for the Flora Mesoamerica. Project. As an assistant
curator with a speciality in Asteraceae (sunflower family), his main
responsibility
is to coordinate, edit, and write treatments of the Asteraceae for the
Flora Mesoamericana, including the web version of the Flora.
Previously, Pruski contributed to the Asteraceae to the Flora of
theVenezuelan
Guayana project and was an associate editor of the journal Brittonia
from 1983-1993.
David
L. Reed (http://darwin.biology.utah.edu/reed.html) studied with
Mark Hafner and received the M.S. degree in 1994 and the Ph.D. degree
in
2000, both in Zoology. David is currently an NSF Postdoctoral
Fellow
working in Dale Clayton's
laboratory
in the Department of Biology at the University of Utah.
John
Scheide Department of Biology, Central Michigan University,
Mount
Pleasant, received both master's and PhD degrees at LSU.
After
postdoctoral study at New York University Medical Center, he went to
Central
Michigan University where he now is Chair, Department of Biology.
John is interested in ionic balance during stress of both freshwater
vertebrates
and invertebrates, especailly zebra, quagga, and unioid mussels.
Beth Schussler
L.
David SibleyWashington University, School of
Medicine
Aravind
Somanchi received his PhD in Plant Biology in 1998
working
on the CO2 concentrating mechanism of Chlamydomonas
reinhardtii
with
Jim Moroney. He will continue his career in a tenure track
position
in the Program of Cell and Molecular Biology, Department of
Biological
Sciences at Auburn University, Auburn, AL. Aravind was a
postdoctoral
investigator at Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla California,
working
with Stephen Mayfield on the light regulation of translation of
chloroplast
mRNAs from 1998 until Fall 2002.
Joseph
W. Spatafora is one of our few recent graduates who is a
Louisiana
native. After completing a PhD (1992) in mycology at LSU funded
in
part by an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement grant, Joey received a
post doctoral fellowship at Duke University where he worked with Rytas
Vilgalys. In 1995, Joey was hired at Oregon State University
in Corvallis, where he is doing research in fungal systematics,
especially
on species of insect-pathogenic Cordyceps. A new
generation,
represented by Jamie Carr, Joey's first PhD student, has already
completed
her degree and is on a postdoc at Berkeley.
Richard
K. Speairs, Jr. completed a PhD in mycology with Bernard
Lowy in 1957. He taught in the Department of Biological Sciences
at LSU in Shreveport, and currently is professor emeritus. He has
been active in recent years in developing the Ouachita Mountains
Biological
Station located near Mena, Arkansas.
Theresa
A. Spradling studied with Mark Hafner and
received
her Ph.D. in Zoology in 1997. She is currently a faculty member
in
the Department of Biology at the University of Northern Iowa, where she
studies mammalian molecular evolution.
William
J. StrohlMerck & Co.
Dan
Tallman Northern State University
Judy Teague
Beverly
Dixon WadeSouthern University
Richard
Zechman California State University, Fresno
LSU postdocs
Mark
Buchheim Department of Biological Science, University of
Tulsa,
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Terry
HeddersonUniversity
of Cape Town, South Africa
Kyle
Hoagland Water Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Kevin
Jones Department of Biology, University of Virginia -
Wise
Anthony
J. Kinney Dupont Agricultural Experiment Station
Tony was a postdoc with Tom Moore in the Department of Botany. He
is a Principal Investigator at Dupont and is working on genetic
engineering
engineering, including manipulation of plant fatty acid biosynthetic
pathways
to produce novel fatty acids for industrial uses.
Rod Millward is now at Waterways
Experiment
Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Steven
A. Nadler University of California, Davis
Axayácatl
Rocha Olivares Investigador, Departamento de
Ecología,
División de Oceanología, Centro de
Investigación
Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada
(CICESE),
Ensenada, MéxicoCICESE, former postdoctoral researcher with John
Fleeger and David Foltz (1998-2001).
Xuemin
(Sam) WangKansas State University
was
a post doc with Tom Moore in the Department of Botany. He
is
a Professor of Biochemistry at Kansas State where he studies signal
transduction
pathways involving lipid and lipid-derived messengers in plants.
Alexander
WeirSUNY College of Environmental Science and
Forestry
LSU undergraduate students
Timothy
B. Harrington Associate Professor, Warnell School
of Forest Resources, Universitry of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, received
a BS degree in Botany from LSU in 1980. His PhD is from Oregon State
University
in Silviculture.
Daniel
Henk PhD student, Duke University
J.
Troy Littleton Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, was an undergraduate at LSU and did research on the
chemical senses of fish (at LSU) and lobsters (on a summer REU, Whitney
Marine Lab, University of Florida) for four years before going to
Baylor
Medical School for MD and PhD degrees. He's now completing a
postdoc
at the University of Wisconsin and will go to a tenure track position
at
MIT in January.
Lucile
McCook
Curator of the Herbarium, University of Mississippi
Kenyon
Mobley, an LSU undergraduate, is now a graduate student at
Georgia
Southern University. Kenyon's undergraduate research at LSU
was
in marine biology. He had support from a Sea Grant sponsored
program
called UROP that is designed to stimulate undergraduate research.
His research examined the behavior and diet of a species of blenny that
lives on jetties along the Gulf coast, and a manuscript reporting this
work has been accepted for publication. He currently is doing
research
as a graduate student at Georgia Southern University on coral
populations
along the Florida Keys.
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September 2005
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to Meredith
Blackwell Mycology
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