tag:underc.nd.edu,2005:/news-and-events/newsUNDERC | News2023-12-13T09:33:00-05:00tag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1587342023-12-13T09:33:00-05:002023-12-13T09:33:06-05:00Contemplation and Action at Land O’Lakes<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-e0fe3357-7fff-2697-ce40-a6412d438e70"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/XltZ8G3OHxbOdqFJF8bHqP4cAMMISq2TzozB7_m6ldKNH-E-hm-Y5k51S0UuHX4cuFne00MCQZuULphYtTfYdh_EzQNi8vcO8SLVRVuBT_QS_OS-dV2WZNzhB3EGDp8kBAAIbqIrdEdIF1xSp1WcX9c" width="624" height="416"></strong>…</p><p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-e0fe3357-7fff-2697-ce40-a6412d438e70"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/XltZ8G3OHxbOdqFJF8bHqP4cAMMISq2TzozB7_m6ldKNH-E-hm-Y5k51S0UuHX4cuFne00MCQZuULphYtTfYdh_EzQNi8vcO8SLVRVuBT_QS_OS-dV2WZNzhB3EGDp8kBAAIbqIrdEdIF1xSp1WcX9c" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>“I was hooked on the place the first time I saw it,” said Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., former president of the University of Notre Dame, referring to Land O'Lakes, a University-owned 8,000-acre site on the border of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He called it a “wonderful relaxing hideaway,” a “marvelous retreat close to nature,” and a place to escape “the interruptions and distractions of busy life.”</p>
<p>Over the decades, however, Hesburgh and other leaders arrived at Land O’Lakes to do more than hide away. In addition to launching fishing boats into the shimmering waters, they have used this remote locale to launch new visions—both for education and for equality—that have reshaped American society.</p>
<p>The first of these landmark visions appeared like a mirage slipping away in the hot summer of 1959. Hesburgh was serving as a politically independent member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which also included three Republicans and three Democrats. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Commission was sharply divided, struggling to complete the task it had been assigned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower: to investigate complaints of racial discrimination and issue a report with recommendations.</p>
<p>After holding hearings and gathering facts in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, the Commission gathered in Shreveport, Louisiana, to create its final report. At the time, Louisiana was racially segregated, so in an effort to work in an unsegregated location, the Commission was forced to stay at Barksdale Air Force Base. But after listening to noise from passing jets and attempting to work in the stifling heat, Hesburgh proposed a “much better place”: Land O’Lakes, the site he and other members of the Congregation of Holy Cross had long used for rest and contemplation.</p>
<p>Hesburgh arranged for a plane provided by a Notre Dame donor to pick the Commissioners up and transport them to the cooler air of northern Wisconsin. He also arranged for an important bit of relationship-building before the Commissioners got down to serious business, including a fishing excursion and strategically ensured the segregationist former governor of Virginia, John S. Battle, and George M. Johnson, the dean of the law school at Howard University—a pair that held the most sharply opposing views—were placed in the same boat.</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-c9b10e35-7fff-f2d4-effa-a599c5b4ff80"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/LUHwONPLWJ4Upe9deCTOJRgKgpLrwwxDhPP1ryV0n22e3m-3NBnQTOJtan3wat6B6Ek0ry_Wa4Izes7fhNHJNvOmGuIsiSI0If2a8jSnXhrNeeUWbREyhWSmk9fAATR-FYwFPqvTxcJPS6PUHqN9EI0" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>With relationships strengthened, the Commission was able to progress on its Presidential-mandated task. Together with the help of legal assistants, the members completed its report, which outlined a case for federal intervention against racial discrimination consisting of 12 recommendations related to voting, education, and housing. All but one of the recommendations received unanimous support from the Commissioners.</p>
<p>Battle’s legal assistant later wrote to Hesburgh:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My association with you and the other Commissioners are unforgettable experiences of which the Land O'Lakes meetings were the high point…I feel that the area of agreement and understanding that was the product of these last meetings couldn't have been reached at any other place or under other conditions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After receiving the report from the Commissioners, President Eisenhower admitted he was surprised. “I didn’t think you fellows would agree on anything,” he told Fr. Hesburgh, “Three of you are Democrats, three Republicans.” Father Hesburgh replied, “Mr. President, you didn’t appoint three Democrats and three Republicans; you appointed six fishermen.” Eisenhower reportedly told Father Hesburgh, “We've got to put more fishermen on commissions and have more reports written at Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin.”</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-6e2c9c3d-7fff-b4b9-10ae-423b06a4336e"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/HTMNI7YunN3AkaLCpPt77QAmS0tUc4EueQ7byE36tUaGq-Irzb9d1iJVs92iat-vxFvj5GntxoyzHziUsc93YdGc5q9_hkS2ylaNrFlpm0B4lnIIUgUaRWZo6lH2_cCQHWZOiDfOXvKQE0GKtzwBQ90" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>The Commission’s recommendations eventually served as the basis for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the nation’s benchmark civil rights law, which legally ended the segregation that had been institutionalized by Jim Crow laws. The recommendations also influenced the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.</p>
<p>But, impactful and productive meetings at Land O’Lakes did not end with the Commission on Civil Rights meetings. Almost exactly eight years later, Fr. Hesburgh was serving as the president of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU). He and a group of 26 Catholic priests and educators were set to discuss the nature and role of the contemporary Catholic university. A special focus was the relationship between Catholic universities and the Catholic Church in light of the modernization of Church teaching brought about by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-ba9b8047-7fff-1137-da6b-193f256a672d"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/FYs0tdTJxp1u9wI4c7kclq4M_bepgS1WMjYE64-MDSa56f9s5enr28Qxcx8H1-T2V6Bboeu3y226xt0ayETcAVc6JaoEV15wofhRvbsLLKSuuUYGGYtnZKcsGoUDtWEplUNHK_6pXPAEZZqNRaKgPSU" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>In July of 1967, the IFCU convened a meeting at Land O’Lakes and released an influential manifesto called “<a href="https://archives.nd.edu/episodes/visitors/lol/idea.htm#:~:text=In%20a%20Catholic%20university%20all,given%20due%20honor%20and%20respect.">The Idea of the Catholic University</a>,” which today is widely known as the “Land O’Lakes Statement.” The document declared that a Catholic university must be a “true modern university” defined by ”institutional autonomy and academic freedom.” At the same time, the document argued, a Catholic university will also be “an institution, a community of learners or a community of scholars, in which Catholicism is perceptibly present and effectively operative.”</p>
<p>In the words of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., “The document’s limitations left questions to be addressed, but the vision in broad outline is one that makes truly serious Catholic research universities possible for our time.” More than 50 years later, the “Land O’Lakes Statement” continues to provide a model for Catholic education in the modern world.</p>
<p>Today, the site still serves as a retreat for visiting Holy Cross priests, but the majority of summer visitors to Land O’Lakes are Notre Dame undergraduate students participating in a unique field biology program. But whether they arrive for rest, recreation, or research, visitors tend to agree with Fr. Hesburgh’s statement that “I love the quiet and the wilderness because we live in a very noisy world.” Thanks in no small part to his legacy, Land O’Lakes remains not just a place to hide away but a place for drawing contemplation back into one’s action and for bringing a little quiet back into the noisy world.</p>
<p>Contact:</p>
<p>Brett Beasley / Writer and Editorial Program Manager</p>
<p>Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame</p>
<p>bbeasle1@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183</p>
<p>research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch</p>
<p>About Notre Dame Research:</p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Brett Beasley</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://research.nd.edu/news-and-events/news/contemplation-and-action-at-land-olakes/">research.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">December 12, 2023</span>.</p>Brett Beasleytag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1587332023-12-13T09:32:00-05:002023-12-13T09:32:27-05:00"Paradise in wilderness": Celebrating 90 years of science and stewardship at Notre Dame’s Land O'Lakes<figure class="image image-default"><img src="https://research.nd.edu/assets/551292/fullsize/2016_land_o_lakes_152.jpg" alt="2016 Land O Lakes 152" width="1200" height="800"></figure> <p>“Paradise in wilderness” is how Rev. John Francis (later Cardinal) O’Hara, C.S.C, described the property today known…</p><figure class="image image-default"><img src="https://research.nd.edu/assets/551292/fullsize/2016_land_o_lakes_152.jpg" alt="2016 Land O Lakes 152" width="1200" height="800"></figure>
<p>“Paradise in wilderness” is how Rev. John Francis (later Cardinal) O’Hara, C.S.C, described the property today known as Land O’Lakes on the Wisconsin-Michigan border after his first visit to the area. The year was 1934, the same year he became President of the University of Notre Dame. Soon after O’Hara’s visit, the owner of Land O’Lakes, Martin J. Gillen, promised to bequeath his “paradise” to the University. O’Hara’s plan was for members of the University’s founding religious order, the Congregation of Holy Cross, to use it as a retreat location. Gillen also hoped the site could be a boon for the “scientific purposes of Forestry, Botany, Biology and allied sciences.”</p>
<p>Gillen would go on to spend much of the rest of his life enlarging the property and securing it as a resource for the future. He arranged deals with the federal government and with lumber companies to add thousands of additional acres to his original gift. He even served as the legal counsel for the University in opposing efforts to turn a fire lane on the property into a public road.</p>
<p>As a result of Gillen’s efforts to safeguard Land O’Lakes, it remains a unique location—nearly eight thousand acres pristine in environmental quality. Its mix of wetlands and forests dotted with over two dozen lakes stretches along the border between Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula and is bisected by Tenderfoot Creek.</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-cb31035e-7fff-5255-4e24-ca1c5f818c1c"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/pTrKcdHiegCrDPDjTOGSBEAhz8y60IlQ3bOwC_qSk5Ir4hb8afPJjUW9RxIMq1ZIQMBUx9x8xRF1KPgrL57Y11JKAgvy3PV4rHpnAXwJXaVMZpbe5ZbyhjSzwAR49BQ3nlS1u4cYV0-kD0CSEaUK_Bc" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>Its location—a day's drive from the University’s main campus in South Bend, Indiana—meant that Land O’Lakes was suitable only for specific types of research prior to the construction of scientific facilities on site. Nevertheless, Edward Birge, former President and professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recognized the Notre Dame site as “the finest and most unique piece of scientific property in the north, for experimental purposes” in biology, botany, and zoology. In 1951, Arthur D. Hasler, a pioneering freshwater ecologist at UW-Madison, used the site to perform the first whole-lake ecosystem experiment by using a dike to divide the two sides of an hourglass-shaped lake. He used one side of the lake as a reference ecosystem to determine the effects of alterations on the other.</p>
<figure class="image image-default"><img src="https://research.nd.edu/assets/551288/fullsize/2016_land_o_lakes_106.jpg" alt="2016 Land O Lakes 106" width="1200" height="280"></figure>
<p>In 1968, the University announced new plans to expand research at Land O’Lakes, and throughout the 1970s, research by Notre Dame faculty began to accelerate on site. The driving force behind much of that research was George B. Craig, Jr., who was one of the world’s foremost experts on mosquitos and the first Notre Dame faculty member to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. For more than two decades, Craig brought Notre Dame students to study and work at Land O’Lakes, where they could catch his “contagious” passion for biological research.</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-4ee9b8ee-7fff-cb69-38a8-56372c333d8f"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/JaDJbyiqIeI5SJLevUZE7hbWhS16fao6PwKd27fW45wTQC5IJc1rdzQ4fpKxJNPNnEEEfhlhL5HLZnhOnIeDEnekPdPkzKdYVet6NPgVYLZr2Qlmwu2WnGopX6SQNsAT7KaySEC9TyEhHIhejsC9y84" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>Eventually, with support from class of 1951 alumnus Bernard J. (Jerry) Hank, the University constructed a modern research center at Land O’Lakes known as the <a href="underc.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center</a> (UNDERC), which coordinates research activities on the site. UNDERC’s signature educational offering is its summer field biology program, which enables students to live and study for ten weeks at Land O’Lakes for an unparalleled, hands-on experience in field biology. In addition, graduate students and faculty from other universities, including Duke, Yale, and more use the site to investigate the interactions between organisms, the environment, and planetary health.</p>
<p>Students receive a structured introduction to vertebrate ecology, invertebrate ecology, aquatic ecology, and forest ecology while also gaining an understanding of Native American perspectives on the environment. More experienced students work with an UNDERC-affiliated faculty mentor on an ecology research project of their own. Years of assiduous protection of the Land O’Lakes property have ensured that students can study vibrant populations of flora, including aspens, pines, mosses, and ferns, and fauna, including beavers, porcupines, black bears, and deer. Scientists have used the site’s <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/underc">iNaturalist page</a> to register sightings of threatened species, such as the common loon, and species of special concern, such as the trumpeter swan, as well as endangered species, such as the cougar.</p>
<p>In recent decades, Land O’Lakes has also emerged as a key site for national efforts to document environmental change. In 2008, the site was included as the core terrestrial and aquatic site for the Great Lakes region in the National Science Foundation’s National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a network of field research sites that provides open data on ecosystems across the United States. Land O’Lakes was selected because it represents the "ecoclimate characteristics" of the Great Lakes region with "little or no degradation from humans." NEON conducts extensive ecological monitoring at the site, ranging from field data collection to remote sensing to passive data collection via a canopy tower.</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-4319cdf9-7fff-1d3e-0a6f-951c960546bb"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/K3yKYDoRLcQZmdnQjjO9J3jnTGkfhwIwOp6Au5CdFTt5f49JZLRUi9-YaVesK9uBKI68adopCZVNgJSQetFSIjmo2EqztEXiap7gURNa8jAYVwZ3QvIoPlGfd2DJoWNotyJSz4qhzXOK4WPc8kFyRUA" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>UNDERC is also part of a project funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that pairs images from the International Space Station with genomic research on trees in an effort to gain a picture of overall forest health. The use is also part of a Smithsonian Institution ForestGEO program of long-term forest monitoring around the world, where nearly 80 research groups use standardized methods of tagging, measuring, and identifying tree species.</p>
<p><a href="https://research.nd.edu/people/jeffrey-rhoads/">Jeffrey F. Rhoads</a>, vice president for research and professor in the <a href="https://ame.nd.edu/">Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering</a>, explains that “the combination of natural resources and data infrastructure available at Land O’Lakes has made the site more valuable than ever to environmental research. Since the property has been preserved and protected for decades, the data researchers collect there serves as a crucial baseline to compare with ecological systems elsewhere.”</p>
<p><strong id="docs-internal-guid-cf704b61-7fff-9dbc-2df8-3ea18830b47a"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/vmYscW19t85rDe-mW6UwsyqWvJ_PA_Q_EVaXxhOqotQOeV-emoLn_BPhQJMTEppMZibetXUrxeB--217lnQnqDkoCrdrDScOo7vW0IcCMPWyaH6EY10BvG038Eo2Q6f3mmi0X2s2vTll-Qg-xeTcNdI" width="624" height="416"></strong></p>
<p>Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., former president of Notre Dame, recognized that Land O’Lakes might have its greatest role in helping the University have a voice in efforts to understand and respond to human alteration of the natural environment. Hesburgh called it a “perfect giant agar [Petri] dish for the study of the environment” that stood in contrast to the threats of “water we could not drink, air we could not breathe, climate we could not tolerate, and land we could not farm.”</p>
<p><a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/nathan-g-swenson/">Nathan Swenson</a>, a biological sciences professor and the director of UNDERC, says the Petri dish metaphor is an apt one: “To make use of this land, to learn from it, we have to protect it from human encroachment,” he says. “That is our challenge today—just as it has been the challenge of those who have gone before us—to be both scientists as well as stewards of this truly unique place.”</p>
<p>Contact:</p>
<p>Brett Beasley / Writer and Editorial Program Manager</p>
<p>Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame</p>
<p>bbeasle1@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183</p>
<p>research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch</p>
<p>About Notre Dame Research:</p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Brett Beasley</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://research.nd.edu/news-and-events/news/paradise-in-wilderness-celebrating-90-years-of-science-and-stewardship-at-notre-dames-land-olakes/">research.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">December 12, 2023</span>.</p>Brett Beasleytag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1564202023-09-13T16:00:00-04:002023-09-14T11:16:19-04:00A Picture of Drought: ND ecologist matching NASA images with field data to measure forest health<figure class="image image-right"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539155/nate_swenson_a_biological_sciences_professor_and_the_director_of_underc_holds_his_pole_clipper_and_ignores_the_mosquitoes..jpeg" alt="Nate Swenson, a biological sciences professor and the director of UNDERC, holds his pole clipper and ignores">…</figure><figure class="image image-right"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539155/nate_swenson_a_biological_sciences_professor_and_the_director_of_underc_holds_his_pole_clipper_and_ignores_the_mosquitoes..jpeg" alt="Nate Swenson, a biological sciences professor and the director of UNDERC, holds his pole clipper and ignores the mosquitoes." width="600" height="400">
<figcaption>Nate Swenson, a biological sciences professor and the director of UNDERC, holds his pole clipper and ignores the mosquitoes.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nate Swenson strides so quickly through the Wisconsin forest while carrying a large pole clipper that postdoctoral researcher Vanessa Rubio usually follows the 40 feet of rope dragging behind him.</p>
<p>When they reach the designated plot, Swenson extends the clipper about 30 feet high and pulls the rope to snip off a leafy twig from the canopy of a tall, tagged tree. The twig floats down through the dappled sunlight and lands in his hand.</p>
<p>It would be a majestic scene but for the mosquitoes. Hundreds and thousands of them, swarming everything that smells like warm blood.</p>
<p>Swenson cuts twigs from nine sample trees in each plot where the reflection of light from the leaves could show up in a space-based image. Rubio selects one leaf from each twig, folds it into a labeled test tube, and drops it in a metal canister of liquid nitrogen.</p>
<figure class="image image-right"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539153/vanessa_rubio_who_earned_her_doctoral_degree_from_nd_in_may_flash_freezes_a_leaf_in_liquid_nitrogen_to_preserve_its_rna..jpeg" alt="Vanessa Rubio, who earned her doctoral degree from ND in May, flash freezes a leaf in liquid nitrogen to preserve its RNA." width="600" height="400">
<figcaption>Vanessa Rubio, who earned her doctoral degree from ND in May, flash freezes a leaf in liquid nitrogen to preserve its RNA.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This flash freezing will preserve its RNA, which degrades quickly otherwise. Later in his campus lab, Swenson can study the leaf’s gene expression, which changes as it is stressed by drought later in the summer.</p>
<p>Another leaf from the same twig is removed at the lab at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (<a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">UNDERC</a>) near Land O’Lakes on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Rubio and Swenson shine a field spectrometer on the leaf to get a computer reading of its spectral reflectance and reveal its chemical and structural content, which likewise change due to drought stress.</p>
<p>It’s a painstaking process that will be repeated over hundreds of tagged trees at UNDERC in June and again in August. For trees too tall for the pole clipper, students shoot a line over a branch with an air cannon. The goal is to match what can be seen in a single pixel from the International Space Station with the actual measurements taken on the ground.</p>
<p>“What we’re doing is sampling trees inside those known pixels, measuring their gene expression and their spectral reflectance,” explained <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/nathan-g-swenson/">Swenson</a>, a biological sciences professor and the director of UNDERC. “We’re doing that on the ground and trying to match that up with what the space station’s detecting—and testing how well we’re doing.”</p>
<p>The end game is to disentangle an individual <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> pixel from space into its parts on the ground of about 30 by 30 meters, which would make it possible to monitor drought signals from large swaths of forest. Compared to hand-measuring each tree in a land plot, the resulting models will mark a major leap forward in predicting forest health and potential wildfires.</p>
<p>Without braving the thirsty mosquitoes.</p>
<figure class="image image-default"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539154/a_drone_shot_shows_a_sample_of_the_forest_and_lakes_at_the_university_of_notre_dame_environmental_research_center_underc_..jpeg" alt="A drone shot shows a sample of the forest and lakes at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC)." width="600" height="400">
<figcaption>A drone shot shows a sample of the forest and lakes at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC).</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“The advantage here is instead of me out in the canopy with a little instrument measuring the chemical and structural content in a single leaf,” he said, “now you can fly a plane or satellite over the whole property and just like that, predict the chemical and structural content of every little pixel in the forest. And that’s been a pretty big revolution.”</p>
<h2><strong>Integrating emerging science</strong></h2>
<p>Swenson grew up camping in similar forests in Minnesota and was surprised to find in college that he “could get a job looking at trees all day.”</p>
<p>He was a forest ecologist at the University of Maryland when the pandemic started in 2020. He had been studying gene expression in the leaves of Eastern forests for years, noting what leaf genes do when they are happy with plenty of snowmelt and rain during the May-June growing season. This changes in July and August when there is more heat and less rain, and the color and reflectance of the leaves respond to drought.</p>
<p>“Our <a href="http://www.swensonlab.com/">lab</a> is one of the few in world to look at how genes are expressed in a natural forest for many species, rather than just one species,” he said. “We developed methods and analysis to compare gene expression across species and time.”</p>
<p>Under pandemic confinement, he read scientific papers about new developments in remote sensors taking spectral images from planes or space. Spectral imagery collects information beyond the visible spectrum by analyzing a range of wavelengths to reveal chemical and structural makeup along with the spatial information in an image.</p>
<p>He realized there was an opportunity to integrate this emerging field with his genetic research on the ground. He proposed a grant to NASA that would match their spectral imagery with his genomic work to predict forest health. It was a revolutionary but untested idea.</p>
<figure class="image image-right"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539151/a_field_spectrometer_shines_light_through_a_leaf_to_get_a_reading_of_its_spectral_reflectance_and_reveal_its_chemical_and_structural_content..jpeg" alt="A field spectrometer shines light through a leaf to get a reading of its spectral reflectance and reveal its chemical and structural content." width="600" height="400">
<figcaption>A field spectrometer shines light through a leaf to get a reading of its spectral reflectance and reveal its chemical and structural content.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Around the same time, a group of Japanese researchers published a study about spectral signatures in rice fields. Drone flights measured spectral signatures to see how a single rice plant gene was responding to phosphorus in the rice paddies, proving that spectral imagery could be used this way on a landscape scale.</p>
<p>“The big quantum leap we'll make now is—instead of one species in a monoculture with a single gene—we’ll be looking at 20 or so species in a mixed stand of trees,” Swenson said. “And somewhere around 20,000 to 40,000 genes that are expressing themselves in a leaf at any given time.”</p>
<p>He acknowledged that the project means big data analytics with both plant genomes and spectral imaging. NASA was interested but only decided to fund the project after a leading DNA sequencing platform company, Illumina, stepped in to help support the research. The project will run for three years with just over $1 million in funding.</p>
<p>In 2019, Swenson saw the job opening at UNDERC in the type of forest he grew up in and knew that Notre Dame's facilities and students offered world-class opportunities. The 7,500-acre property with 30 lakes is one of a kind. He arrived at the place he would direct a day before teaching his first class there.</p>
<p>“I was amazed, when you drive through the main gate and keep driving for over a mile, and then you see the labs—it's incredible that the University has this kind of facility,” he said.</p>
<p>He also knew UNDERC was part of several larger studies with overlapping data. Through a partnership since 2008 with the <a href="https://www.neonscience.org/">National Ecological Observatory Network</a>, a plane flies over the property taking spectral images in three of every five years. UNDERC is also part of a Smithsonian Institution <a href="https://forestgeo.si.edu/">ForestGEO</a> program of long-term forest monitoring around the world, where nearly 80 research groups use standardized methods of tagging, measuring, and identifying tree species.</p>
<figure class="image image-left"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539158/this_tree_tag_is_part_of_a_forestgeo_project_that_aims_to_tag_and_study_about_80_000_trees_at_underc..jpeg" alt="This tree tag is part of a ForestGEO project that aims to tag and study about 80,000 trees at UNDERC." width="600" height="400">
<figcaption>This tree tag is part of a ForestGEO project that aims to tag and study about 80,000 trees at UNDERC.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In June, Swenson and Rubio gathered samples from nine trees in each of 15 random plots at UNDERC, as well as another 15 plots at the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest an hour south. The process will be repeated in August and again next year to increase scientific accuracy.</p>
<p>“We try to do about five plots a day, so it takes about three days to complete,” said Rubio, who is from Colombia and completed her doctoral degree at Notre Dame in May. “Working on this project is helpful for my future because I’m learning new techniques for ecology.”</p>
<h2><strong>Land O’Lakes gem</strong></h2>
<p>Swenson said the team, facilities, and previous work at UNDERC make the research possible. But it actually started with controlled experiments in the Galvin Life Science Center on campus. In a greenhouse, Swenson grew trees in two groups, with a control group and one that is deprived of water to create stress.</p>
<figure class="image image-right"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539152/junior_hunter_gonzalez_uses_a_mallet_and_sensors_to_create_a_sonic_tomograph_in_a_tree_at_underc..jpeg" alt="Junior Hunter Gonzalez uses a mallet and sensors to create a sonic tomograph in a tree at UNDERC." width="600" height="400">
<figcaption>Junior Hunter Gonzalez uses a mallet and sensors to create a sonic tomograph in a tree at UNDERC.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“What we measure in the greenhouse and predict from images from space, is it any good?” Swenson said. “You don’t have an answer until you go out and measure it. So we’re doing that now.”</p>
<p>Ongoing ForestGEO work has tagged about 40,000 trees at UNDERC, essentially any tree that's over an inch in diameter. Hunter Gonzalez, a junior from southern Illinois, was part of that effort last year and this summer is doing an independent research project.</p>
<p>He and another student wearing special jackets with mosquito net hoods were spending the day examining trees for heart rot in their cores. In a circle around the trunk, they pounded in sensor spikes connected by wires to a <a href="https://www.utilityproducts.com/test-measurement/article/14281241/sonic-tomography-for-trees-what-it-can-do-for-utilities">sonic tomograph</a>. By hitting each spike in succession with a mallet, the tomograph creates a picture like an MRI of the trunk interior.</p>
<p>“I'll probably get 20 trees done in a good, productive day,” said Gonzalez, a first-generation student whose passion for rivers morphed into tree research. “I'm used to the mosquitoes.”</p>
<figure class="image image-right"><img src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/539149/a_sonic_tomograph_is_like_an_mri_of_a_tree_s_interior_which_can_reveal_whether_it_is_healthy_or_suffers_from_heart_rot_disease..jpeg" alt="A sonic tomograph is like an MRI of a tree’s interior, which can reveal whether it is healthy or suffers from heart rot disease.." width="600" height="400">
<figcaption>A sonic tomograph is like an MRI of a tree’s interior, which can reveal whether it is healthy or suffers from heart rot disease..</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the work isn't specifically connected to Swenson’s research, it will provide overlapping data by showing whether the trees in the spectral images suffer from disease.</p>
<p>Swenson also teaches the forest ecology unit of a 10-week course at UNDERC for about 30 undergraduate students, half from Notre Dame and half from other schools. Other units include aquatic, vertebrate, and insect ecology.</p>
<p>In an hour-long morning class, Swenson taught the students how to use forest composition to learn its history. Different species have varying strategies for survival, with some trees racing to the canopy top for light and other longer-lasting types biding their time in the understory. Afterward, the students went out in the forest to identify maple or basswood from cedar or ash, and then check their answers with a phone app called <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/">iNaturalist</a>.</p>
<p>Michael Parent, a sophomore from the Boston area, explained how to find Ostrya virginiana, an ironwood tree that has one runt leaf in a group with two larger ones.</p>
<p>“We'll take this sample and measure its fluorescence on a device and put that in a graph to see how it's growing,” Parent said. “Fluorescence is based on growth rate, so we can see if it’s doing well enough to survive.”</p>
<p>While UNDERC in the summer is a hotbed of environmental science research, the property also has a prominent place in Notre Dame lore. Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., a former University president, loved to fish the lakes and sometimes convened meetings there when a thorny problem required focus and seclusion.</p>
<p>In July 1959, Father Hesburgh convened the evenly split members of the <a href="https://hesburghportal.nd.edu/story-report.html">U.S. Commission on Civil Rights</a> at UNDERC and managed to forge an agreement on 12 recommendations that became the foundation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. President Dwight Eisenhower, shocked by their agreement, reportedly told Father Hesburgh, “We've got to put more fishermen on commissions and have more reports written at Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin.”</p>
<p>In 1967, Father Hesburgh convened Catholic educators there to discuss the role of the Catholic university in relation to the Catholic Church. The still-debated outcome promoting intellectual freedom and autonomy is often called the <a href="https://cushwa.nd.edu/assets/245340/landolakesstatement.pdf">Land O’Lakes Statement (PDF)</a>.</p>
<p>Professor <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/23/us/george-craig-65-entomologist-who-studied-mosquito-control.html">George Craig</a>, entomologist and vector biologist, started bringing students to the property in 1976. Since then, the family of Bernard “Jerry” Hank ’51, a benefactor and family friend of Craig's, has made extensive improvements and donations, including a fund to pay the students doing research and study there.</p>
<p>Now, UNDERC research could help ecologists monitor forest health and show where conditions need mitigation to prevent wildfires.</p>
<p>“We should be able to have something that the Forest Service and other property managers could look at and say, ‘We know from molecular and reflectance information that these places are lighting up as particularly drought stressed,’” Swenson said. “What we don't know is how far we can scale this out once we have information on this forest. We just don't know yet.”</p>
<p><em>Originally published at <a href="https://www.nd.edu/stories/a-picture-of-drought/">nd.edu/stories</a></em><em> on September 13, 2023.</em></p>ND Storiestag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1527952023-04-26T10:00:00-04:002023-04-26T09:26:11-04:00Opportunities to Support Research on Notre Dame Day<p>Notre Dame Day, the University's annual day of giving, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. From April 25th to 26th, alumni, parents, students, and friends of Notre Dame will have the chance to support the causes, clubs, and residence halls that inspire them—including the University’s research…</p><p>Notre Dame Day, the University's annual day of giving, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. From April 25th to 26th, alumni, parents, students, and friends of Notre Dame will have the chance to support the causes, clubs, and residence halls that inspire them—including the University’s research centers and facilities.</p>
<p>As part of this year's Notre Dame Day celebration, Notre Dame Research (NDR) is proud to showcase the research and innovation efforts that align with our mission to advance human understanding through research, scholarship, and creative endeavor. Your support helps researchers foster knowledge and innovation to address some of the world's most pressing challenges.</p>
<p>Several of NDR’s reporting units can be supported during Notre Dame Day, and each has a unique focus and expertise. Gifts to these units can help support cutting-edge research and provide valuable resources for Notre Dame's researchers, faculty, and students. Below is a list of the units that can be supported:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/analytical-sciences-and-engineering-at-notre-dame-asend" target="_blank">Analytical Sciences and Engineering at Notre Dame (ASEND)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/institute-for-precision-health" target="_blank">Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health (BIPH)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/center-for-research-computing" target="_blank">Center for Research Computing (CRC)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/eck-institute-for-global-health" target="_blank">Eck Institute for Global Health (EIGH)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/environmental-research-center-underc" target="_blank">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/harper-cancer-research-institute" target="_blank">Harper Cancer Research Center (HRCI)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/institute-for-advanced-study" target="_blank">Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study (NDIAS)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/notre-dame-energy" target="_blank">Notre Dame Energy (NDE)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/notre-dame-integrated-imaging-facility" target="_blank">Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility (ND-IIF)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/ndnano-center-for-nano-science-technology" target="_blank">Notre Dame Nanoscience and Technology (NDnano)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/notre-dame-radiation-laboratory" target="_blank">Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory (NDRL)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/notre-dame-turbomachinery-laboratory" target="_blank">NDTL Propulsion & Power (Notre Dame Turbomachinery Laboratory)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/organizations/w-m-keck-center-for-transgene-research" target="_blank">W.M Keck Center for Transgene Research</a></li>
</ul>
<p>To contribute, please visit the <a href="https://notredameday.nd.edu/" target="_blank">Notre Dame Day website</a> and donate to the specific research unit they wish to support. Donors can also track progress on the Notre Dame Day website and social media pages, and participate in various events and activities related to the days of giving.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>About Notre Dame Research:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see <a href="http://research.nd.edu">research.nd.edu</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/UNDResearch">@UNDResearch</a>.</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Courtney Sniadecki</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://research.nd.edu/news-and-events/news/opportunities-to-support-research-on-notre-dame-day/">research.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">April 25, 2023</span>.</p>Courtney Sniadeckitag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1515272023-03-07T13:00:00-05:002023-03-07T12:13:09-05:00University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center announces new cohort of graduate research fellows<p>A new cohort of students will get the chance to participate in Graduate Fellowships at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (<a href="https://underc.nd.edu">UNDERC</a>) this summer. UNDERC, part of Notre Dame Research (<a href="https://research.nd.edu">NDR</a>), has announced…</p><p>A new cohort of students will get the chance to participate in Graduate Fellowships at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (<a href="https://underc.nd.edu">UNDERC</a>) this summer. UNDERC, part of Notre Dame Research (<a href="https://research.nd.edu">NDR</a>), has announced the names of six graduate students who will conduct research at its field research station, which crosses the boundaries of Michigan’s upper peninsula and Wisconsin. There, the fellows will collect data connected to their research interests and to ongoing projects in on-campus labs.</p>
<p>In addition to data collection, each fellow will mentor at least one undergraduate student who is undertaking their own independent research projects. Fellows will also partake in weekly seminars followed by a research symposium at the end of the summer.</p>
<p>The Gillen Director of UNDERC and professor in the <a href="https://biology.nd.edu">Department of Biological Sciences</a>, <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/nathan-g-swenson/">Nathan Swenson</a>, noted how valuable field experience is for budding ecologists. He said, “The graduate students will benefit from this opportunity to go up to the UNDERC and be in a natural field setting for an extended period of time. These fellowships allow students to conduct world-class research while gaining mentoring experience and building connections with other students and faculty.”</p>
<p>The fellows in the 2023 cohort include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Cesar Bertinetti, a Ph.D. student in Assistant Professor <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/julian-torres-dowdall/">Julian Torres-Dowdall's</a> Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences, will investigate visibility conditions across aquatic ecosystems driving the adaptive evolution of visual systems in North American sunfish and the molecular mechanisms involved in this process.</li>
<li>Debit Datta, a Ph.D. student affiliated with the <a href="http://www.swensonlab.com">Swenson Lab</a> in the Department of Biological Sciences, is quantifying the heart rot (fungal decay of heartwood) of hardwood tree species using sonic wave measurements and linking these data to hyperspectral reflectance data taken from leaves.</li>
<li>Laurel Anne Lown, a Ph.D. student with Assistant Professor <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/cristian-koepfli/">Cristian Koepfli’s Lab</a> in the Department of Biological Sciences, will collect data about mosquito populations at UNDERC, including describing mosquito diversity and determining host feeding behaviors.</li>
<li>Chathuranga Senevirathne, a first-year Ph.D. student in Associate Professor <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/adrian-rocha/">Adrian Rocha’s</a> Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences, is researching how tree heart rot impacts forest carbon fluxes.</li>
<li>Puja Sharma, a Ph.D. student affiliated with Associate Professor <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/david-medvigy/">David Medvigy’s</a> Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences, aims to quantify the ability of xylem to conduct water changes over time across tree species with varying growth strategies.</li>
<li>Greyson Wolf, a first-year graduate student with Professor <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/stuart-e-jones/">Stuart Jones’s </a>Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences, will be studying the effects of density dependence on largemouth bass population dynamics.</li>
</ul>
<p>The fellowship program is oriented towards Notre Dame graduate students, but UNDERC also hosts <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/education/undergraduate-field-courses/">undergraduate field courses</a> each summer, where students are able to take courses and participate in research projects. Applications for both programs typically open in the fall of the academic year. To learn more about the available opportunities, please visit underc.nd.edu.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>About UNDERC:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) provides world-class destinations for environmental research, unsurpassed undergraduate education programs, and innovative graduate student training. UNDERC is a unique research location with exceptional facilities that permit descriptive studies and manipulative experiments. UNDERC researchers strive to enhance the world’s understanding of natural and human-altered environments that translate into better management and policy for the environment.</p>
<p><strong>Contact:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://research.nd.edu/people/brett-beasley/">Brett Beasley / Writer and Editorial Program Manager</a></p>
<p>Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame</p>
<p><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=bbeasle1@nd.edu" target="_blank">bbeasle1@nd.edu</a> / <a href="tel:+1-574-631-8183">574.631.8183</a></p>
<p><a href="http://research.nd.edu/">research.nd.edu</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/UNDResearch">@UNDResearch</a></p>
<p><strong>About Notre Dame Research:</strong></p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.</p>Bella Laufenbergtag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1431902022-02-03T13:00:00-05:002022-02-03T13:42:19-05:00Professor Nathan Swenson: Eco-Curiosity that Drives a Career<p>From being a self-described “outdoorsy kid” to becoming a full-time researcher of forest biodiversity, <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/nathan-g-swenson/">Professor Nathan Swenson</a> has dedicated his career to studying trees. </p> <figure class="image-right"><img alt="Nathan Swenson" height="480">…</figure><p>From being a self-described “outdoorsy kid” to becoming a full-time researcher of forest biodiversity, <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/nathan-g-swenson/">Professor Nathan Swenson</a> has dedicated his career to studying trees. </p>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Nathan Swenson" height="480" src="https://science.nd.edu/assets/459079/nathan_swenson.jpg" width="600"></figure>
<p>His transformative experience began as an undergraduate at St. Olaf College, when he took a month-long field course on desert ecology. “What was wonderful about that course was the field experience where we were asked as undergrads to come up with our own research questions and try and gather some rudimentary data to answer them,” the biologist said. “That really led me to dive all in on ecology.” </p>
<p>From there, he was further captivated by his study abroad experience in India and Malaysia: “Being a kid from Minnesota, and just seeing the incredible biodiversity of a rainforest for the first time, I was hooked.” </p>
<p>Now, his research has led him to study forests all over the world, most recently as the Gillen Director of the <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC)</a> at Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin. He examines how the environment impacts individual tree growth and mortality rates, and how these individual differences can subsequently affect the growth and decline of populations. Ultimately, the goal is to understand how these dynamics affect the overall biodiversity of forested ecosystems. </p>
<p>The research site at UNDERC allows Swenson and his team to conduct detailed observations and experiments in a natural environment. Last year, for example, they constructed mini shelters over certain trees to block them from rainfall. Simulating a drought allowed the researchers to examine the effect it would have on the individuals’ seedlings. The study relates to an intertwined research interest for Swenson: how trees will respond to aspects of climate change, such as drought. When studying what governs forest biodiversity, long-term observational studies with large data sets reveal how trees are changing in response to human-related effects.</p>
<p>One of his favorite parts about working at UNDERC, though, is the opportunity to train undergraduates there every summer. It reminds him of his own undergraduate field ecology experience that helped him evolve from a student curious about the environment to a passionate field ecologist. “It’s been a nice little kind of closed loop for me that I can help people have those same kinds of experiences,” he said.</p>
<p>More than his work at UNDERC, Swenson was drawn to Notre Dame for the potential to collaborate with talented undergraduate students and world-class faculty colleagues. </p>
<p>Outside of his time at work, Swenson likes to ride his bike and play soccer with his kids. In some ways, though, his work is a hobby, too. “I feel really lucky to do what I do: it almost feels like a hobby to go around and go out into the forest and ask questions,” he said.</p>
<p>The outdoorsy kid still lives in him: “The things I loved as a kid, I still do, and that’s great.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Lily Brouder</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://science.nd.edu/news/professor-nathan-swenson-eco-curiosity-that-drives-a-career/">science.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">February 03, 2022</span>.</p>Lily Broudertag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1299892020-10-12T08:55:00-04:002020-10-12T08:56:08-04:00Former acting director to serve as Program Director for National Science Foundation<p>Ecologist Gary A. Lamberti has been named a rotating program director for the Division of Environmental Biology of the National Science Foundation.</p><figure class="image-right"><img alt="Lamberti 250" height="250" src="https://science.nd.edu/assets/290015/lamberti_250.jpg" width="250"></figure>
<p>Ecologist <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/gary-lamberti/">Gary A. Lamberti</a>, professor and former chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a rotating program director for the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=DEB">Division of Environmental Biology</a> (DEB) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Program directors develop new funding programs for the division, manage review panels for grant submissions, and make final funding decisions for the NSF. The position entails substantial time on-site at the NSF building in Alexandria, Virginia, in addition to site visits to NSF-funded programs around the nation.</p>
<p>“Gary’s long-standing commitment to the discipline of ecology, understanding threats to the environment, and developing ways to solve those problems, make him an ideal choice for program director of DEB at the NSF,” said Jason Rohr, Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Notre Dame. “This award acknowledges Gary’s expertise in environmental science and recognizes him as a leader in the field. I am pleased to call him my colleague and look forward to seeing the impact that he will have on the future of environmental biology.”</p>
<p>Lamberti will be embedded within the Ecosystem Science program of DEB, which supports research on natural, managed, and disturbed ecosystems, including those in terrestrial, freshwater, wetland, coastal, and human-dominated environments. DEB runs core solicitations for grant proposals along with special programs in areas deemed to be particularly important for scientific research such as long-term environmental monitoring, young investigator career development, and rapid response such as environmental disasters. </p>
<p>“I am thrilled and honored to be selected by the NSF to serve in this capacity” says Lamberti. “The NSF has been pivotal in supporting my own research over the years, and I felt it was time for me to help support the next generation of ecologists as they tackle the big environmental issues of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. The NSF also made it clear to me that they wanted me to continue my own research at Notre Dame, which was key to my decision.”</p>
<p>Lamberti’s current <a href="https://swel.nd.edu/">research</a> focuses on the ecology of rivers and wetlands undergoing rapid change due to environmental stressors, such as invasive species, land-use change, global warming, and emerging contaminants. He works in coastal ecosystems of the Great Lakes and Alaska to assess how energy, nutrients, and contaminants cycle through aquatic ecosystems that have been disrupted by human activities, with a particular focus on the roles of fish. His research program has been supported by the <a href="https://environmentalchange.nd.edu/">Environmental Change Initiative</a> at Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Lamberti earned a B.S. from the University of California-Davis and a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley. He conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at Oregon State University before joining Notre Dame. He has served as the director of the <a href="https://reilly.nd.edu/graduate-programs/globes-certificate/">GLOBES</a> program and as Gillen Acting Director of the <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center</a>.</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Tammi Freehling</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://science.nd.edu/news/lamberti-to-serve-as-program-director-for-national-science-foundation/">science.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">October 12, 2020</span>.</p>Tammi Freehlingtag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1295932020-09-29T10:00:00-04:002020-09-29T10:33:40-04:00Nathan Swenson, tree ecologist, to join biology department and lead UNDERC<p>Nathan Swenson, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, has been named a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Gillen Director of the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC).</p><p>Nathan Swenson, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, has been named a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Gillen Director of the <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/" target="_blank">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC).</a></p>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="Nathan Swenson" height="450" src="https://science.nd.edu/assets/406036/img_6544.jpg" width="600">
<figcaption>Nathan Swenson</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Swenson, a tree ecologist originally from the Minneapolis suburbs, will begin his work at Notre Dame in January 2021.</p>
<p>“This job is interesting to me, because being from the Midwest, I can go back to my roots,” Swenson said, adding that he spent most of his summers in the north woods with his family, which gave him a love of forests. “The type of forest at UNDERC is basically like the forests I grew up with in Minnesota, and they’re deep inside my heart, and why I’m motivated to do work as a biologist.”</p>
<p>UNDERC East boasts 7,500-acres of forest and wetland property on both sides of the state line between Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Part of the property was a gift to the University from philanthropist Martin J. Gillen in the 1930s, and Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, former University of Notre Dame president, expanded upon it. Biology researchers began visiting the property in the 1960, and the first class was held there in 1976. The University also operates UNDERC West, located on the Flathead Reservation in Montana.</p>
<p>Swenson’s parents, who grew up in rural Minnesota prior to moving to the Twin Cities area, wanted him to become a physician. But after his first field experience during his third year of study at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, he knew that he wanted to become an ecologist.</p>
<p>“Until I had a field experience, I didn’t realize that field ecology was a science worth pursuing – you don’t just have to hike around and enjoy nature; you can actually study it, and help solve some problems for the world,” Swenson said. “So because UNDERC has a huge mission that includes undergraduate training, I can blend these things that really motivated me to be a trained biologist in the first place.”</p>
<p>After earning his bachelor’s degree in biology, he earned his masters from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and his doctoral degree from the University of Arizona, Tucson. He was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum.</p>
<p>He was listed as a “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2018, was named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2014, and won the Ebbe Nielsen Prize from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility in 2012.</p>
<p>In addition to his role at UNDERC and his research, Swenson will teach a course on campus, likely based on plant biology.</p>
<p>“There are really outstanding plant ecologists on campus already,” Swenson said. “It’s another reason I was really interested in moving to Notre Dame; I knew I would have really great colleagues to be around.”</p>
<p>Swenson replaces <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/gary-lamberti/" target="_blank">Gary Lamberti, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences</a>, who has served as UNDERC’s acting director since 2019.</p>
<p>“Professor Swenson brings a national network and a complementary ecological perspective to UNDERC. We are very pleased to have him join our faculty and look forward to working with him. I also want to thank Professor Lamberti for serving as the acting director for the past twelve months," said Robert Bernhard, vice president for research at Notre Dame. "Due to the pandemic, he ended up with much more responsibility than we thought when he signed on. He did an outstanding job of navigating the unpredictable impacts of the pandemic, and the Notre Dame community appreciates his leadership and commitment to UNDERC’s staff, students, and researchers.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Deanna Csomo McCool</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://science.nd.edu/news/nathan-swenson-tree-ecologist-to-join-biology-department-and-lead-underc/">science.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">September 29, 2020</span>.</p>Deanna Csomo McCooltag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1291572020-09-18T09:30:00-04:002020-09-18T09:10:19-04:00UNDERC Fellows investigate stability of recreational fisheries in northern Wisconsin<figure class="image-left"><img alt="Dassow fishing" height="275" src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/403259/img_20190727_201652.jpg" width="600"> <figcaption>UNDERC Fellow Colin Dassow uses line sampling to study recreational fisheries at UNDERC.</figcaption> </figure> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">University of Notre Dame…</p><figure class="image-left"><img alt="Dassow fishing" height="275" src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/403259/img_20190727_201652.jpg" width="600">
<figcaption>UNDERC Fellow Colin Dassow uses line sampling to study recreational fisheries at UNDERC.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p style="margin-bottom:11px">University of Notre Dame graduate students and UNDERC Fellows Colin Dassow and Camille Mosley recently spoke with <a href="http://www.wxpr.org/post/northwoods-lake-research-shows-how-angler-catch-rates-can-stay-high-abruptly-crash#stream/0">Wisconsin Public Radio</a> about research they are conducting in conjunction with the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies on lakes at UNDERC and the surrounding area. Using catch-release data, Colin modeled hyperstability in this well-used recreational fishery, and found that catch rate may not be a good indicator of population sizes for harvested fish species, such as largemouth bass.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:11px">Colin has worked at UNDERC since 2014, when he worked with the Cascade research group as an undergraduate at St. Norbert College. Upon graduation, he moved to the University of Notre Dame, where he started in the doctorate program in the Department of Biological Sciences under the direction of Stuart Jones. He has mentored eight undergraduates in the UNDERC summer program from 2016-2019.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:11px">Camille started her work at UNDERC in the summer of 2019, when she joined the laboratory of Stuart Jones as a doctoral student. She received her bachelor degree in Environmental Science from Emory University. She was awarded an UNDERC Fellowship this past spring to continue her research investigating how habitat use by fish may affect angler catch rates in these recreational fisheries.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:11px">Additional information:</p>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 11px;"><a href="http://www.wxpr.org/post/northwoods-lake-research-shows-how-angler-catch-rates-can-stay-high-abruptly-crash#stream/0">Wisconsin Public Radio story</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 11px;"><a href="http://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/press-release/fishing-good-then-its-gone">Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies story</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Twitter: follow Colin Dassow (@CDassow41), Camille Mosley (@CamilleMosley14) and Stuart Jones (@joneslabND). Also check out UNDERC (@NDFieldEcology) and the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies (@caryinstitute)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 11px;"><a href="http://www3.nd.edu/~sjones20/">Jones Lab website</a></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 11px;">Read the original publication in the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2019-0245">Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences</a>
</li>
</ul>Michael Cramertag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1077052020-02-06T18:30:00-05:002020-02-06T18:02:07-05:00UNDERC offers opportunity for graduate student research in summer 2020<p>UNDERC Summer Graduate Fellowships<br> Call for Applications<br> <br> We invite current graduate students to apply for a University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) summer graduate fellowship for 2020 to study at our world-class field station in northern Wisconsin/Michigan (UNDERC-East;…</p><p>UNDERC Summer Graduate Fellowships<br>
Call for Applications<br>
<br>
We invite current graduate students to apply for a University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) summer graduate fellowship for 2020 to study at our world-class field station in northern Wisconsin/Michigan (UNDERC-East; up to 8 fellowships) or at our facilities in western Montana (UNDERC-West; up to 2 fellowships). These fellowships are available on a competitive basis to graduate students interested in any area of the environmental sciences (e.g., ecology, environmental genomics, ecological modeling, disease ecology, environmental chemistry, anthropology, environmental engineering, hydrology, geoscience, sustainability, etc.).<br>
<br>
<strong>Award Components</strong>: Fellowships will provide up to $8750 for the summer ($7750 for 3-month stipend from May 15 through Aug. 15, and up to $1000 for research expenses). In addition, summer housing at the field station for the same period will be provided free of charge along with suitable laboratory space and access to on-property field vehicles.<br>
<br>
<strong>Advising Requirement</strong>: UNDERC graduate fellows are required to advise the independent research of at least two undergraduates enrolled in the UNDERC summer undergraduate course, which can be related to the research of the graduate fellow. Projects will be developed during the spring semester.<br>
<br>
<strong>How To Apply</strong>: Candidates should apply to <a href="mailto:underc@nd.edu" target="_blank">underc@nd.edu</a> by Friday, February 21, 2020, with:<br>
- A brief cover letter describing your general interest in an UNDERC graduate fellowship.<br>
- A 2-page single-spaced research proposal following the general guidelines of the NSF GRFP program. (We only request the proposal and not the personal statement required by the GRFP.)<br>
- A 1-page single-spaced document describing potential undergraduate projects for advisees.<br>
- A brief letter from your advisor confirming their support for your proposed UNDERC research.<br>
- A curriculum vitae detailing your background, experience, and accomplishments.<br>
- Awards will be announced by Friday, March 6, 2020.<br>
<br>
Additional Aspects of the Fellowship:<br>
- Applicants for the UNDERC fellowships are encouraged to clearly indicate how UNDERC resources (field sites, laboratories, data bases, NEON, etc.) will be used in the proposed research.<br>
- A 1-page research report will be due to <a href="mailto:underc@nd.edu" target="_blank">underc@nd.edu</a> by December 31, 2020, and UNDERC should be acknowledged on all resulting theses and publications.<br>
- Graduate fellows are expected to engage closely with undergraduate advisees and to critique presentations and research reports.<br>
<br>
For More Information or to discuss your proposed research, contact either:<br>
- Dr. Michael Cramer, Assistant Director, UNDERC-East: <a href="mailto:mcramer@nd.edu" target="_blank">mcramer@nd.edu</a><br>
- Dr. David Flagel, Assistant Director, UNDERC-West: <a href="mailto:dflagel@nd.edu" target="_blank">dflagel@nd.edu</a><br>
- Dr. Stuart Jones, Associate Director of Research: <a href="mailto:sjones20@nd.edu" target="_blank">sjones20@nd.edu</a><br>
- Dr. Gary Lamberti, Gillen Acting Director of UNDERC: <a href="mailto:glambert@nd.edu" target="_blank">glambert@nd.edu</a></p>Michael Cramertag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1581152020-01-01T09:41:00-05:002023-11-17T09:42:10-05:00His Passion Was Contagious<p>During his lunch hour, George Craig, Notre Dame’s Clark Professor of Biology, wasn’t about to dine all alone in his office, wasting time. If he was going to eat, so were his research subjects.</p> <p>Surrounded by books, journals and newspapers, Craig, a bear of a man with a round, expressive face…</p><p>During his lunch hour, George Craig, Notre Dame’s Clark Professor of Biology, wasn’t about to dine all alone in his office, wasting time. If he was going to eat, so were his research subjects.</p>
<p>Surrounded by books, journals and newspapers, Craig, a bear of a man with a round, expressive face framed with dark-rimmed glasses, ate with his forearms resting on stout, cylindrical, paper boxes topped with mesh. Inside, mosquitoes fed on his arms while he ate his own lunch.</p>
<figure class="image-left"><img src="https://magazine.nd.edu/assets/414569/300x/georgecraig.jpg" alt="Georgecraig" width="300" height="368"></figure>
<p>“That was pretty amazing to see, walking into his office and there he was, feeding all the mosquitoes,” says Ronald Hellenthal, biology professor emeritus. “That’s a testament to his dedication. I don’t know how many people would have done that.”</p>
<p>Even though his mother wanted him to become a doctor, Craig had fallen in love with entomology while working on his master’s degree at the University of Illinois, guided by a prominent entomologist there, William Horsfall, who fostered Craig’s interest in mosquitoes. After earning his doctorate from Illinois in 1956, Craig was recruited to Notre Dame the following year by Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC, who was seeking to position the University as a powerhouse in the sciences.</p>
<p>At the time, the universities of Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida were the main academic centers for entomological research, according to Craig’s daughter, Sarah Craig Pratt ’98MSA. Colleagues told him, “You’re cutting off your career; there’s no entomology there.” But, she says, he liked the campus lakes and the University’s proximity to the woods and beaches along Lake Michigan. “He ignored their comments and said, well, he’d just go and build his own thing at Notre Dame.”</p>
<p>Craig was an entomologist and vector biologist whose interest in mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit to people was as contagious as the pathogens themselves. Hesburgh could not have chosen a more driven faculty member. In his 38 years at Notre Dame, before he died in 1995 at an Entomology Society of America conference in Las Vegas, Craig cultivated a legacy in a field that was in its infancy.</p>
<p>His personality attracted even more people dedicated to eliminating mosquito-borne diseases, and the circle widened in unexpected ways. The Chicago native directed more than 40 doctoral students and mentored 38 postdoctoral researchers. He created Notre Dame’s Vector Biology Laboratory — vectors pass diseases from one organism to another — with a focus on the<em> Aedes</em> genus of mosquitoes. He became Notre Dame’s first member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS). And he developed a program that has turned out hundreds of new field biologists who have gone onto careers in academia and public health.</p>
<p>“Most vector biologists can trace their path back to Notre Dame,” says Nora Besansky, the Gillen Professor of Biological Sciences, who says that assessing the importance of vector biology at Notre Dame is “like saying, ‘Why is football important at Notre Dame?’”</p>
<p>Besansky, who this year was inducted into the NAS for her own study of the evolutionary, ecological and functional genomics of malaria vectors, adds, “All you have to do is travel around the world — Kenya, Tanzania, Australasia — and look at the people who are placed now in high governmental positions in vector biology and epidemiology, who have often gotten their Ph.D.s at Notre Dame.”</p>
<p>“George had an infectious enthusiasm for learning and teaching which piqued the curiosity of anyone who crossed his path to ask the question, ‘why?’” says Carol Hank Hoffmann, a member of the Board of Trustees whose mother, Joyce Hank, grew up with Craig. “Once in his presence you would discover an interest in mosquito-borne illnesses you never knew you had before.”</p>
<hr class="break">
<p>The English translation of <em>Aedes</em> — Craig’s preferred genus of mosquito — from Greek is “unpleasant.” The description is appropriate for the raised, itchy welt many people experience after being bitten by a mosquito, but that relatively minor reaction fails to represent the potential danger that mosquito-borne diseases can transmit to people.</p>
<p>Of the more than 3,000 varieties of mosquitoes in the world, about 200 to 300 bite humans; of these, only a few carry deadly diseases. Two, <em>Aedes aegypti</em> and <em>Aedes albopictus</em>, transmit a variety of viral pathogens that cause human diseases, including dengue, Zika and chikungunya. (Another genus, <em>Anopheles</em> mosquitoes, transmits malaria and other potential killers.)</p>
<p>Only female mosquitoes, which can live for up to a month, do the biting. They seek the nutrients from blood, such as proteins and iron, to produce the approximately 300 eggs they’ll lay in their lifetimes. During the brief period when they bite, they visit multiple hosts: monkeys, chipmunks, horses, birds and others, as well as humans. When a mosquito bites a victim that harbors a virus or parasite, that pathogen can be taken up by the mosquito’s body. Rather than be digested and excreted, the pathogen will replicate and travel to the insect’s salivary glands, infecting them.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of Craig’s first accomplishments was finding morphological traits — genetically determined physical characteristics — in mosquitoes and mapping them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When the mosquito dips her proboscis — her biting mouth part — into the next victim’s skin, she injects some of her saliva, which contains compounds that counteract blood clotting and inflammation as well as the pathogen that can infect the new host. The saliva, and not the transfer of blood — as with a syringe — is what transmits the disease to a new victim, which is why mosquitoes don’t transmit blood diseases like HIV or, in most cases, hepatitis, although recent research indicates that hepatitis C cells may grow inside mosquito cells, too.</p>
<p>Craig liked working with <em>Aedes</em> mosquitoes because they were relatively easy to rear, historically prominent and docile enough for the laboratory. He pioneered the study of mosquito genetics so they could be adapted and controlled independent of repellents or insecticides, which remain important tools that save millions of lives each year. Despite being deadly pests, mosquitoes are important to the ecosystem. They’re excellent pollinators and serve as important food sources.</p>
<p>However, if researchers can alter the genes and manipulate populations of mosquitoes, the insects might not be able to transmit disease at all.</p>
<p>One of Craig’s first accomplishments was finding morphological traits — genetically determined physical characteristics — in mosquitoes and mapping them. “Very basic tools,” says Besansky. “We’re doing the same thing now, at a molecular level.”</p>
<p>By 1962 Craig and his students had described nine inherited factors that can cause the bodies of mosquitoes to be modified, according to Craig’s 1998 NAS biography. By 1967, with colleague W.A. Hickey, he identified 87 mutants based on inbreeding for recessive alleles (alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation). Linkage maps generated by his lab revealed 28 mutations on three chromosome pairs. He energized the field of vector biology through his work on <em>Aedes</em> ecology, population genetics, genetic mapping and the use of morphological mutants. The World Health Organization entrusted Craig and Notre Dame with its “library” of medically important <em>Aedes </em>mosquitoes from around the world.</p>
<p>He later abandoned his genetic-control methods for multiple reasons, including political ones — Besansky cites the example of propaganda that created fear that the genetically modified mosquitoes were “Trojan horses” designed to kill people in India where the work was being tested. But Craig and others were at the forefront of approaches being considered in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases today. One, a type of genetic-engineering technology called “gene drive,” uses molecular tools to replace a natural gene with a new gene — more advanced technology than what was available to Craig — to alter the chances that a specific gene will pass down to mosquitoes’ offspring, diminishing their ability to transmit a pathogen to humans.</p>
<p>“Many of us have spent our entire careers building on and advancing Craig’s research and vision; it is reflected in the wide range of genetic tools being developed, or in actual field testing today,” says entomologist David Severson, biology professor emeritus at Notre Dame.</p>
<hr class="break">
<p>George Brownlee Craig Jr. was born in Chicago on July 8, 1930, the only child of George Brownlee Craig and Alice Madelaine Craig, who were part of the early environmental movement and members of the Prairie Club of Chicago. Craig’s mother, who was the family’s primary breadwinner, had an iron will and a hard-driving work ethic and became an educator in the Chicago Public Schools. She held school for her son — after he came home from school.</p>
<figure class="image-right"><img src="https://magazine.nd.edu/assets/414571/300x/aedesaegypti.jpg" alt="Aedesaegypti" width="300" height="217"></figure>
<p>Craig Sr., in and out of work during the Great Depression, built a cottage in Harbert, Michigan, where the family spent its summers. The younger Craig met his lifelong friend, Joyce Hank, through their parents’ involvement in the Prairie Club, and they enjoyed spending time at each other’s cottages on Lake Michigan in later years. Hank’s mother was the principal of the high school where Alice Craig taught.</p>
<p>“He was an absolutely fantastic reader, and long before even the term ‘speed reading’ had evolved, in a sense, he was doing that,” recalls Hank, who graduated from Saint Mary’s College in 1952. “He knew what he read, too. It wasn’t just eyes moving over letters, but he could literally ingest what he was reading. It was just fascinating.”</p>
<p>Craig went on to the University of Chicago Laboratory School, located in Hyde Park, where he graduated from high school in three years at age 16. In 1951, he completed an undergraduate zoology degree at Indiana University, then did his graduate work at Illinois. Military service took him to Maryland—a tour with the U.S. Army Preventive Medicine Detachment at Fort Meade and work as a research entomologist at what was then the U.S. Army Chemical Center — before he landed at Notre Dame.</p>
<p>By the mid-1970s, Craig held one of Notre Dame’s first endowed professorships and was on his way toward his NAS nomination and other awards, including the National Institutes of Health Merit Award for the productivity of his research. Continually financed through grants, his professional life was running smoothly and intensely. He left household management and child-rearing duties to his wife, Betty, but he had a special relationship with one of his children, Mary, who was his “mini-me,” Sarah Craig Pratt recalls. Like their father, Mary was highly intelligent and on the pre-medical track at Notre Dame as a freshman.</p>
<p>Sick, but with the cause elusive, Mary Craig was taken to the University of Michigan, where she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. The devastating childhood cancer starts in the nerve cells of the sympathetic nervous system, which directs the stress-response circuitry often called the fight-or-flight response. Even though Betty Craig shuttled her daughter to Ann Arbor for treatments for two years, Mary died on February 4, 1978, while South Bend was digging out from one of the worst blizzards in U.S. history.</p>
<p>Betty Craig responded to the death of her daughter by talking about Mary to anyone who would listen; George Craig did not. Some colleagues didn’t know that Mary died of cancer; most said Craig worked even harder after her death. “He buried himself in his work,” says Pratt, who was 15 at the time, even though “he was already unbelievably driven.” Her father, she says, “could never mention her name again, ever.”</p>
<p>The loss made Craig even more compassionate with others who may have lost loved ones to disease, says Edward “Ned” Walker, now a professor at Michigan State University, who was a postdoctoral researcher for Craig in the 1980s. He could empathize with them because he had experienced such loss himself.</p>
<hr class="break">
<p>At Notre Dame, Craig snapped up the skills of promising students — even undergraduates — to assist with his studies. In the early 1990s, he was investigating the transmission of La Crosse Encephalitis, a disease caused by the virus passed by<em> Aedes triseriatus</em> — tree hole mosquitoes — through chipmunks. People who contract the disease, most common in the upper Midwest, might be free of symptoms, but children may develop seizures or even go into comas. About 1 percent of La Crosse Encephalitis cases are fatal.</p>
<p>As an undergrad, John Grieco ’90, now a medical entomologist and associate research professor at Notre Dame, would schlep daily at 5 a.m. — snowstorm or sunshine — from his Fisher Hall room to Galvin Life Science Center to watch chipmunks in cages react to mosquitoes. “Dr. Craig wanted us to be there every day,” says Grieco. “He said that living organisms don’t take a day off, so you can’t take a day off, either. Nature doesn’t follow your same patterns, just because you went to a party the night before.”</p>
<p>Previous research had indicated that chipmunks don’t react to mosquitoes. However, chipmunks respond to human movement by freezing in place, which created observer bias in previously published research. Researchers in Craig’s lab built a remote-controlled chamber in a room so they could discreetly watch the chipmunks.</p>
<p>Of course the chipmunks reacted. And more than once, the students documented chipmunks eating the mosquitoes. “That was the first time anyone had documented that behavior,” says Grieco, who with his wife, Nicole Achee, a research professor at Notre Dame, landed a $33.7 million research award in 2019 to study spatial repellents to ward off mosquitoes. “The primary route for La Crosse would be through a bite,” he explains, but this discovery opened up another possible route: ingestion.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He also inspired students to change their own paths, and led them to some of the highest positions in their fields.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Craig was literally also the first in the country to signal the alarm that an Asian species of mosquito, <em>Aedes albopictus</em>, a black mosquito with a striped body and legs, had entered the country at the Port of Houston in a shipment of used tires. Research determined the mosquito was cold-hardy enough to spread to the Midwest.</p>
<p>Craig’s students, including John Gimnig ’91, now a research entomologist with the Division of Parasitic Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, helped manage the colonies of these mosquitoes, which like to breed in wet habitats like rock pools and the tires. Craig appeared on the national news to make the appeal that the threat was grave. He even gave the insect a new moniker, the Asian Tiger Mosquito. “He wanted to scare people with that name; to put fear in peoples’ minds,” Pratt says.</p>
<p>Craig’s obituary in<em> The New York Times</em> would say he felt the federal government ignored his warnings about the Asian Tiger Mosquito. “Their position is to wait for an epidemic, then do something about it,” Craig reportedly said. “That’s like jumping out of the Empire State Building and saying you’re all right 99 percent of the way down.”</p>
<p>As usual, Craig wasn’t wrong. The species also transmits Zika as well as Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), which has taken the lives of a dozen people and numerous horses, 90 percent of which die if infected.</p>
<p>In the 1980s Craig had become interested in EEE and its spread, advocating for better tracking. States provided little or no payment for farmers to have their deceased horses tested, and testing could be traumatic — it involved removing a horse’s head. But Craig felt so strongly about the issue that in 1995, a month before his death, he paid the $76 diagnostic fee for a horse that proved to be infected with EEE, then wrote a scathing letter to the State of Michigan, blaming officials for failing to take the disease seriously.</p>
<hr class="break">
<p>George Craig rarely shied away from disagreements, but his former colleagues and students recognize that his strong will was, in fact, a leading reason he and Notre Dame became so well known for vector biology. “If he thought you weren’t interested in insects, that wasn’t good,” James Elser ’81, now a member of the National Academy of the Sciences, says with a chuckle. “Then he might not have so much time for you. If you were interested in insects, then it was great.”</p>
<p>Craig could have a temper, leading to professional disagreements and a healthy fear of his wrath, Ned Walker recalls. “But he had a tender heart, and I got along with him, even when I sometimes didn’t meet his standards or expectations,” he says. “But his drive was one of his strongest qualities, and he had very good work habits that made other people work even harder.”</p>
<p>He also inspired students to change their own paths, and led them to some of the highest positions in their fields. Dr. Thomas Quinn ’69, ’71M.S. attended Notre Dame planning to become a practicing physician, but a parasitology class with Craig pointed him toward medical research. “He’d take charge of the class like no other professor I’ve ever experienced.”</p>
<p>Quinn became founder and director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Health and the chief of the International HIV/STD Section of the National Institutes of Health. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and was one of the first researchers to investigate diseases that later were linked to the HIV epidemic. His work, which has ranged from malaria research to HIV/AIDS and now COVID-19, has earned him more than 20 major awards in his field.</p>
<p>After his first class with Craig, Quinn requested his advice on next steps for his career. The Vietnam War was raging, and even though Quinn wasn’t explicitly interested in mosquitoes, Craig suggested he complete a M.D./Ph.D. program at Northwestern University. Quinn began work on his dual degree in Craig’s lab. However, by spring 1970, he was called for duty in Vietnam. “I was freaking out. I wanted to go to medical school,” he says. He had already been accepted, and entering medical school immediately provided an exemption from serving — but meant he couldn’t finish the doctoral part of the program.</p>
<p>“I had to tell Dr. Craig that I wouldn’t be completing the Ph.D., and it was such a disappointment for him,” Quinn remembers. “I told him that either I’m drafted or I go to medical school.” Craig put him in touch with a researcher at Northwestern, which allowed Quinn to continue some laboratory research while he was in medical school. “That sort of completed the cycle and to this day, I still run a research lab,” Quinn says, and laughs. “I always loved tropical medicine, and it’s all George Craig’s fault.”</p>
<p>Besansky, Notre Dame’s newest member of the NAS, had only seen Craig once — from across the room at an Entomology Society of America meeting — but his larger-than-life presence still had a hand in her career. She applied to work with him in 1984, and he offered her a fellowship. In the end, she declined. Craig was more interested in mosquitoes’ physiology, ecology and development, while Besansky wanted to explore the use of molecular biology tools in mosquito research.</p>
<p>Instead she went to Yale to work with Jeff Powell ’69, who was working with genetic tools to understand how <em>Aedes aegypti</em> was susceptible to yellow fever. When she arrived, she discovered that Powell had been one of Craig’s undergraduate researchers. Besansky eventually created one of the first genetic libraries of another mosquito, <em>Anopheles gambiae</em>.</p>
<hr class="break">
<p>Craig spent a lot of time with students at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) in Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin, which is now 7,500 acres of forest and wetland property on both sides of the state line between Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Craig had begun using the property for teaching purposes in 1976.</p>
<p>Father Hesburgh also enjoyed the remoteness of the land and fishing its lakes for all species of north-woods fish, including his favorite, muskie. At first, the property was used almost exclusively by Holy Cross priests, but Hesburgh developed a new vision for it as a teaching and research station.</p>
<p>Hesburgh, ever the connector, knew Craig was close with Joyce Hank and her husband, Bernard J. “Jerry” Hank ’51, who were Notre Dame benefactors. Hesburgh eventually invited Jerry Hank to visit the property and get involved with a committee that helped manage it.</p>
<p>Though the property was pristine, living and working conditions there were not. Three or four students lived in each of four minimally appointed trailers parked on a hill. Classes met in a small boathouse building or in a log cabin behind the trailers, says James Elser, who developed his interest in field work during a four-week course at UNDERC after his sophomore year in 1979. “I remember a blue van that was used for transporting students, and we’d jump in the back and we didn’t even have seats,” he recalls.</p>
<p>Craig didn’t ride with the students, Elser says. Instead, he followed closely in his Saab. He’d get out of the car, wearing his “uniform” of a blue shirt and black or navy pants and waders, and tell students where to search for aquatic insects, like stoneflies, caddisflies and other entomological treasures. “He’d be pointing his cane — ‘Go over there! Go over there!’”</p>
<p>Craig had mapped the best spots. “The students would go charging across the field with their waders on and jump into the pond,” Elser remembers. “It wasn’t that different from being a 9-year-old again, discovering aquatic insects for the first time. It was pretty fun.”</p>
<p>A donation from the Hanks helped keep UNDERC pristine while adding a modern laboratory and improved living facilities, including Craig House, the faculty residence. Even before the improvements, UNDERC was “certainly the most important thing that happened to me at Notre Dame,” Elser says. Not only did it introduce him to a career studying lakes, but he also met his wife there, during that course after his sophomore year.</p>
<hr class="break">
<p>Craig knew how to step outside his campus laboratory and was a constant presence at Notre Dame athletic events. “I remember numerous times going to hockey games, and I would see Dr. Craig across the rink,” John Grieco says. “He’d be banging his cane across the glass. He was at every basketball game and every football game.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, his research helped Hesburgh realize his vision of a scientifically prominent Notre Dame while garnering the highest honors in his discipline. Ron Hellenthal, who served as director of UNDERC from 1985 to 2000, adds that he and a colleague named a species of chewing louse for him — <em>Geomydoecus craigi</em>, found on a certain kind of pocket gopher.</p>
<p>Craig’s death of a heart attack at the 1995 conference stunned the entomology community, even as many suspected he’d had health issues because of his weight.</p>
<p>Ned Walker had brought his wife and 1-year-old daughter, Monica, to the conference that year, and remembers holding her during the last session of the day. He met Craig’s eyes from across the room, and Craig made a cradling motion with his arms and gave him a smile.</p>
<p>“That evening, we flew back to Michigan, and when I found out he died, I was crushed; I was in tears,” Walker says. “It was quite a shock, because he had been so vigorous. It was very unexpected.”</p>
<p>While taking one’s last breath at an entomology conference might sound appropriate for a career as storied as Craig’s, Grieco suspects his mentor would have preferred to depart this life from a place even more special in his heart. “He loved Notre Dame, and he loved the students,” Grieco says. “He was a true representative of a Notre Dame person, through and through.”</p>
<hr>Deanna Csomo McCooltag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1066192019-12-20T13:50:00-05:002019-12-20T13:51:01-05:00Notre Dame science alumnus inducted into the National Academy of Sciences<p>James Elser '81, who majored in biology at the University of Notre Dame, became a member of the <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/" target="_blank">National Academy of Sciences (NAS)</a> in 2019.</p><p>Biologist James Elser ’81 knew he didn’t want to be a doctor when he first came to Notre Dame as a freshman, even as he pursued a major in biological sciences.</p>
<figure class="image-right"><img alt="James Elser Portrait" height="681" src="https://science.nd.edu/assets/346745/500x/james_elser_portrait.jpg" width="500"></figure>
<p>“My father was a doctor, and I knew I wasn’t cut out for that,” said Elser, who became a member of the <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/" target="_blank">National Academy of Sciences (<span class="caps">NAS</span>)</a> in 2019. The <span class="caps">NAS</span> is an organization in which members are elected for life by current members, based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in scientific research. For scientists, being elected into the <span class="caps">NAS</span> can be compared with the prestige of being inducted into the <span class="caps">NFL</span> Hall of Fame, crossed with an invitation to play in the Pro Bowl.</p>
<p>Of course, Elser was not necessarily aiming for this honor when he arrived on the Notre Dame campus. “I wanted to do something with nature, or be a park ranger, or something, but I really had no idea,” he said.</p>
<p>He is now best known for his work in developing and testing the theory of ecological stoichiometry, which is the study of the balance of energy and multiple chemical elements in ecological systems. This approach has had major impact in changing how ecologists study all sorts of ecosystems from streams and lakes to deserts and grasslands.</p>
<p>What set him on his path was a trip after his sophomore year to the <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/" target="_blank">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (<span class="caps">UNDERC</span>)</a>, located in the Northwoods region between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Once there, one of his first classes was with George Craig, a world-renowned entomologist and Notre Dame professor who was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. Elser also completed undergraduate research during his senior year with former Notre Dame professor Stephen Carpenter, another National Academy of Sciences member who is now a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.</p>
<p>Elser is the Bierman Professor of Ecology of the University of Montana, and the director of the university’s Flathead Lake Biological Station at Yellow Bay. Before working in Montana, he was previously a professor at Arizona State University, where he still holds a part-time research faculty position in the School of Sustainability.</p>
<p>But limnology – the study of inland aquatic ecosystems – got into Elser’s blood during his time at Notre Dame.</p>
<p>“Everything else was history after that,” said Elser, who grew up in Naugatuck, Connecticut. “This was a whole science dedicated to going out on lakes and doing research – once I found out about that, there was nothing else that I wanted to do.”</p>
<p>After graduating from Notre Dame, Elser earned his master’s degree from the University of Tennessee and his doctoral degree from the University of California-Davis. His co-authored book about ecological stoichiometry is considered to be the backbone of the field.</p>
<p>Not only did his brother graduate from the University two years before he did, but Elser also met his wife, Monica (Mueller) Elser ’80 at the University, and their son Stephen Elser ’14 graduated with a degree in environmental sciences. He is pursuing his doctoral degree from Arizona State.</p>
<p>James Elser’s latest work focuses on lakes in Glacier National Park that have been formed because of climate change and retreating glaciers. He and collaborators have been sampling the lakes, describing them, and recording initial observations.</p>
<p>“We’re trying to turn this into something more than a descriptive study, but this is a place to start,” Elser said.</p>
<p>Elser, who is Catholic, said his undergraduate experience at Notre Dame shaped the philosophical direction of his career.</p>
<p>“Notre Dame has a progressive social ethic that you carry to your daily life in the Catholic tradition of service,” Elser said. “And I think that’s something that scientists can sometimes forget about, because they get narrowly focused on their science and can often neglect their broader obligations to society.”</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Deanna Csomo McCool</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://science.nd.edu/news/notre-dame-science-alumus-inducted-into-the-national-academy-of-sciences/">science.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">December 19, 2019</span>.</p>Deanna Csomo McCooltag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1050372019-10-17T10:00:00-04:002019-10-17T10:56:41-04:00University names Lamberti as acting director of UNDERC<p><a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/gary-lamberti/">Gary A. Lamberti</a>, professor in the <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/">Department of Biological Sciences</a>, has been named the Gillen Acting Director of the <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center </a>(UNDERC). Lamberti will oversee the center’s two facilities: UNDERC-East, located between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and UNDERC-West, located in western Montana on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Lamberti will be supported by <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/stuart-e-jones/">Stuart E. Jones</a>, associate professor in the Department of Biological sciences, in the role of associate director of research at UNDERC.</p><p class="image-right"><img alt="Gary Lamberti" src="https://research.nd.edu/assets/339781/250x/gary_lamberti.jpg">Gary A. Lamberti</p>
<p><a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/gary-lamberti/">Gary A. Lamberti</a>, professor in the <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/">Department of Biological Sciences</a>, has been named the Gillen Acting Director of the <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center </a>(<span class="caps">UNDERC</span>). Lamberti will oversee the center’s two facilities: <span class="caps">UNDERC</span>-East, located between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and <span class="caps">UNDERC</span>-West, located in western Montana on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Lamberti will be supported by <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/stuart-e-jones/">Stuart E. Jones</a>, associate professor in the Department of Biological sciences, in the role of associate director of research at <span class="caps">UNDERC</span>.</p>
<p>“I am excited by the opportunity to lead this outstanding environmental research center while we search for a new, permanent director,” said Lamberti. “The <span class="caps">UNDERC</span> facilities offer world-class education and scholarship opportunities and I look forward to working with Notre Dame Research and Professor Jones to grow teaching and research activities at the center over the next year.”</p>
<p>Lamberti’s research aims to better understand the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems on a changing planet. His lab studies wide-ranging and important questions in aquatic ecology, with a primary focus on stream and wetland ecosystems and the human impacts on those systems. His laboratory’s research examines the interactions of native and introduced species of fish, the ecology and control of invasive species, the restoration of freshwater habitats, and the cycling of environmental contaminants.</p>
<p>“Lamberti is a recognized expert in stream and wetland ecology and his research expertise will benefit the center in a number of ways,” said <a href="https://www.nd.edu/about/leadership/council/robert-bernhard/">Robert J. Bernhard</a>, Vice President for Research and professor in the <a href="https://ame.nd.edu/">Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering</a>. “Further, he is a veteran university administrator and he is an excellent teacher in the classroom, as well as in the field. We are grateful to Professor Lamberti for his willingness to take on this role.”</p>
<p>As director, Lamberti will also lead UNDERC’s educational programming, which offers 10-week summer field courses to undergraduate students at <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/underc-east/"><span class="caps">UNDERC</span>-East</a> and <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/underc-west/"><span class="caps">UNDERC</span>-West</a>. As part of the experience, participants each complete an independent research project under the direction of a faculty or graduate student mentor.</p>
<p>Since 2001, <span class="caps">UNDERC</span> and its educational programs have been led by <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/gary-e-belovsky/">Gary E. Belovsky</a>, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and now retired director of <span class="caps">UNDERC</span>.</p>
<p class="image-right"><img alt="Belovsky" src="https://research.nd.edu/assets/339782/250x/belovsky.jpg">Gary E. Belovsky</p>
<p>“The University is deeply indebted to Professor Belovsky for the leadership and hard work he has provided <span class="caps">UNDERC</span> over the last 18 years. The undergraduate educational programs for field ecology have consistently been some of the finest in the country. In addition, he has made significant contributions to Notre Dame’s strong research reputation in ecology and the environment. We thank him for his many years of service to the <span class="caps">UNDERC</span> program,” said Bernhard.</p>
<p>The University is currently accepting applications for the Gillen Director of <span class="caps">UNDERC</span>. This position will oversee research and teaching at both <span class="caps">UNDERC</span>-East and <span class="caps">UNDERC</span>-West as well as promote and facilitate scientific use of the facilities by faculty at Notre Dame and other institutions. The search committee will begin consideration of applications on October 15, 2019, but the position will remain open until it is filled.</p>
<p>To learn more about the position, please visit <a href="https://apply.interfolio.com/68249">https://apply.interfolio.com/68249</a>.</p>
<p><span class="caps">UNDERC</span> provides world-class destinations for environmental research, unsurpassed undergraduate education programs, and innovative graduate student training. <span class="caps">UNDERC</span> locations are unique, pristine areas with exceptional facilities that permit descriptive studies and manipulative experiments. To learn more about <span class="caps">UNDERC</span> facilities and research, please visit <a href="http://underc.nd.edu">underc.nd.edu</a>.</p>
<p>Contact:</p>
<p>Brandi Wampler / Communications Specialist</p>
<p>Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame</p>
<p><a href="mailto:brandiwampler@nd.edu">brandiwampler@nd.edu</a> / 574.631.8183</p>
<p><a href="http://research.nd.edu">research.nd.edu</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/undresearch">@UNDResearch</a></p>
<p>About Notre Dame Research:</p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see <a href="http://research.nd.edu">research.nd.edu</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/undresearch">@UNDResearch</a>.</p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Brandi Klingerman</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://research.nd.edu/news/university-names-lamberti-as-acting-director-of-underc/">research.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">October 17, 2019</span>.</p>Brandi Klingermantag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1044422019-10-02T16:00:00-04:002019-10-02T16:25:29-04:00Field Biology Programs at UNDERC for Summer 2020<p>Applications are now being accepted for UNDERC Summer 2020 programs. These programs promote understanding of field biology and how field research is conducted through 10 weeks in the wilds. It begins with a summer at UNDERC-East in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and then the opportunity for a second summer…</p><p>Applications are now being accepted for UNDERC Summer 2020 programs. These programs promote understanding of field biology and how field research is conducted through 10 weeks in the wilds. It begins with a summer at UNDERC-East in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and then the opportunity for a second summer at -West in Montana. UNDERC-East is open to 28 sophomores/juniors from any college/university. Once students complete the UNDERC-East program, they are eligible for a second summer at UNDERC-West (class size: 8). Each summer, participants receive three-credits and a stipend. UNDERC provides tuition, housing, travel between the Notre Dame campus and the site. Also, UNDERC covers all project supply costs up to $500.</p>
<p> </p>
<p class="image-right"><img alt="UNDERC students measure stream flow as part of the Aquatic Ecology module." src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/308782/kakabika_flow_sampling.jpg"></p>
<p>UNDERC-East (May 18 – July 24): 8000 acres of lakes, streams, wetlands, and forests owned by Notre Dame and a core site in the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) that are home to abundant wildlife (including beaver, porcupine, black bear, deer, loon). Program modules include Vertebrate Ecology, Invertebrate Ecology, Aquatic Ecology and Forest Ecology with each providing background information, field research exercises, and group research projects designed by the class. Five or more weeks are spent by each student designing and conducting their own field research project with the assistance of faculty or graduate student mentors. Projects have ranged from fish, insect and mammal behavior and ecology to forest, lake and stream ecosystem ecology to local Native American ecosystem use. Stipend = $5000</p>
<p class="image-right"><img alt="West Student3" src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/135079/west_student3.jpg"></p>
<p>UNDERC-West (June 6 – August 14): More than a million acres on the National Bison Range and Flathead Reservation that includes grasslands, montane forests, streams and lakes that are home to abundant wildlife (including bison, elk, bighorn, and pronghorn). The program includes modules in Wildlife and Grassland Ecology, Montane Ecology, and Environmental History/Native American Ecology (in part during the cross-country drive to and from –West). Each student conducts an independent research project in collaboration with a faculty or graduate student mentor that is more advanced given the skills learned at UNDERC-East. Recent projects have included invasive plant ecology, animal behavior and habitat relationships, grassland, forest, wetland and stream dynamics, and Native American plant and wildlife use. Stipend = $5500</p>
<p> </p>
<p class="image-left"><img alt="UNDERC students conducting grasshopper research with their mentor." src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/175173/research_at_grasshopper_nation.jpg"></p>
<p>Applications are available online (underc.nd.ed<a href="https://underc.nd.edu/education/applying-to-underc/">u/education/applying-to-underc/</a>). Further information can be obtained at the UNDERC website, or from Dr. Michael Cramer, UNDERC East Assistant Director (<a href="mailto:mcramer@nd.edu" target="_blank">mcramer@nd.edu</a>), or Dr. David Flagel, UNDERC West Assistant Director (<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=dflagel@nd.edu" target="_blank">dflagel@nd.edu</a>). </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Application deadline is Friday, November 8, 2019. Notification of acceptance will be provided by Monday, December 9, 2019. Acceptance is based on past academic performance and a statement of purpose. Preference is given to students pursuing a career in ecology or environmental science. Applicants are required to be present for the duration of course.</p>Michael Cramertag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1038842019-09-21T17:00:00-04:002019-09-21T17:33:22-04:00UNDERC accepting applications for Endowed Director position<p>The University of Notre Dame invites applications for an Endowed Director of the<a href="https://underc.nd.edu/"> University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC</a>). We seek an outstanding scientist with credentials suitable for a tenured academic appointment in the<a href="https://biology.nd.edu/"> Department</a>…</p><p>The University of Notre Dame invites applications for an Endowed Director of the<a href="https://underc.nd.edu/"> University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC</a>). We seek an outstanding scientist with credentials suitable for a tenured academic appointment in the<a href="https://biology.nd.edu/"> Department of Biological Sciences</a> to lead this internationally recognized and NEON-affiliated field station and its education and research programs.</p>
<p>The Director will (1) oversee research and teaching at the field station, which is supported by an endowment, (2) promote and facilitate scientific use of UNDERC by faculty at Notre Dame and other institutions, including <a href="https://www.neonscience.org/">NEON</a>, and (3) sustain and advance a long-established research training program for undergraduate students.</p>
<p>As a faculty member, he/she is expected to also lead a vibrant internationally-recognized, collaborative, well-funded research program in ecology, evolution, or environmental science that builds upon the platform provided by UNDERC resources and the University of Notre Dame Land o’ Lakes Facility. Excellent collaborative opportunities exist within the region, including with the USFS Ottawa National Forest, other field stations, and NGOs. UNDERC also houses a NSF-supported NEON core monitoring site for the Great Lakes Domain thereby providing rich avenues for engagement of the broader scientific community.</p>
<p>The Land o’ Lakes property, including UNDERC, consists of 7500 acres of forested land in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan including 30 lakes, wetlands, and streams with a combined surface area of 1350 acres. UNDERC maintains a Director’s residence, winterized laboratory and classroom building, a “wet” laboratory, housing for up to 60 students and researchers, and year-round property management.</p>
<p>The Director is expected to be actively engaged at UNDERC during summer months and at Notre Dame during the academic year, have strong interpersonal and communication skills, and supervise year-round staff associated with UNDERC. It is essential that the Director have the skill set and desire to mentor and motivate research and other staff at an off-campus location, while also being able to effectively liaise with the Land o’ Lakes Facility Manager, Advisory Board, and the other users of the facility.</p>
<p>Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply by submitting 1) a cover letter addressing administrative philosophy and interest in field station development, 2) curriculum vitae, 3) brief statements of research interests and teaching philosophy through the Interfolio/Notre Dame online application system <a href="https://apply.interfolio.com/68249">:http://apply.interfolio.com/68249</a>. The search committee will begin consideration of applications on October 15, 2019 but the position will remain open until it is filled. </p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to building a culturally diverse and inclusive community. We strongly encourage applications from female and minority candidates. For more information, visit <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">UNDERC</a> and the <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/">Department of Biological Sciences</a>, or contact the search chair, Dr. Jennifer Tank, at <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=jtank@nd.edu" target="_blank">jtank@nd.edu</a>.</p>Michael Cramertag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/1044812019-09-19T14:40:00-04:002019-10-03T15:27:56-04:00Finding the sweet spot<p>Competitors arriving at the 1st hole of the U.S. Senior Open are greeted by Juday Creek. Flowing through Warren Golf Course, the stream is home to an important ecosystem, and is a valuable resource for Notre Dame researchers today.</p><script id="asp-embed-script" data-zindex="1000000" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="https://spark.adobe.com/page-embed.js"></script>
<p><a class="asp-embed-link" href="https://spark.adobe.com/page/WD85MupKMSQWA/" target="_blank"><img alt="Finding the Sweet Spot" border="0" src="https://spark.adobe.com/page/WD85MupKMSQWA/embed.jpg?buster=1561380651300" style="width:100%"></a></p>
<p class="attribution">Originally published by <span class="rel-author">Brandi Klingerman</span> at <span class="rel-source"><a href="https://research.nd.edu/news/finding-the-sweet-spot/">research.nd.edu</a></span> on <span class="rel-pubdate">June 24, 2019</span>.</p>Brandi Klingermantag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/968562019-02-19T13:55:00-05:002019-06-10T08:48:17-04:00Students selected for University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center summer program<p class="image-right"><img alt="2016 Land O Lakes 097" src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/308833/2016_land_o_lakes_097.jpg">A student takes water samples at UNDERC-East.</p> <p>The <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center</a> (UNDERC) has selected 36 undergraduate students from…</p><p class="image-right"><img alt="2016 Land O Lakes 097" src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/308833/2016_land_o_lakes_097.jpg">A student takes water samples at UNDERC-East.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center</a> (UNDERC) has selected 36 undergraduate students from 21 different colleges and universities to participate in their summer program. The students will engage in a 10-week, three credit summer ecology field course where they will conduct independent research projects under the direction of a faculty or graduate student advisor.</p>
<p>“Both UNDERC programs – UNDERC-East located on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and UNDERC-West located in Montana – provide unique field research opportunities for undergraduate students from Notre Dame’s campus and beyond,” said <a href="https://biology.nd.edu/people/gary-e-belovsky/">Gary Belovsky</a>, Gillen Director of UNDERC and professor of biological sciences. “Through these programs we have built collaborative relationships with institutions like the University of Puerto Rico and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, which has allowed us to attract diverse applicants with a variety of perspectives and therefore more holistically shape the experience for students.”</p>
<p>At <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/underc-east/">UNDERC-East</a>, students will have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial habitats and the diverse organisms that live in these environments. Students at <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/underc-west/">UNDERC-West</a> will cover topics including grassland, forest, and Native American ecology. Once students have completed the UNDERC-East program, they become eligible to apply for the UNDERC-West program.</p>
<p>The students who will conduct field ecology research at UNDERC-East are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Margrethe Andreasen, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Matthew Aubourg, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Seth Dangle, sophomore at Lock Haven University</li>
<li>Matthew Donahue, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Mark Ellman, junior at St. John’s University</li>
<li>Michael Ellman, junior at St. John’s University</li>
<li>Katherine Franz, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Matthew Gerber, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Margaret Gleason, junior at St. Mary’s College</li>
<li>Daniel Griffin, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Elizabeth Hargis, junior at Southern Nazarene University</li>
<li>Jospeh Jaros, junior at the University of Pittsburgh</li>
<li>Jenna Johnston, sophomore at Valparaiso University</li>
<li>Ryan Larkin, junior at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University</li>
<li>Alexandra Lugo-Arroyo, junior at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez</li>
<li>Sylvie Martin-Eberhardt, sophomore at Indiana University</li>
<li>Matthew Millado, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Joseph Nowak, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Michelle Nowak, junior at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse</li>
<li>Alejandra Porras Maturana, senior at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile</li>
<li>Carolina Quiles Bengochea, junior at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras</li>
<li>Katherine Sestrick, junior at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Mariana Silva, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Amy Smith, sophomore at Texas State University</li>
<li>Abigail White, sophomore at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Harrison Wojitas, junior at Michigan State University</li>
<li>Hunter Wojitas, junior at the University of Michigan</li>
<li>Sabrina Woo, sophomore at Arizona State University</li>
</ul>
<p>The students who will conduct field ecology research at UNDERC-West are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Suheily Arce Lugo, senior at the University of Puerto Rico, Humacao</li>
<li>Adriana Cintron-Santiago, senior at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras</li>
<li>Ellen Johnson, senior at St. Mary’s College</li>
<li>Eric Laate, sophomore at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute</li>
<li>Shirley LeClair-Bernal, senior at Haskell Indian Nations University</li>
<li>Eileen Reeves, senior at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Madeline VerHey, senior at Notre Dame</li>
<li>Mary Walther, senior at Bowling Green State University</li>
</ul>
<p>To learn more about UNDERC’s educational programming, please visit <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/education/">https://underc.nd.edu/education/</a>. </p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) aims to promote environmental research and education. The center strives to gain a better understanding of natural and human-altered environments that translate into better management and policy for the environment. To learn more about UNDERC, please visit <a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">underc.nd.edu</a>.</p>
<p>Contact:</p>
<p>Sherry DePoy / Administrative Assistant</p>
<p>University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center / University of Notre Dame</p>
<p><a href="mailto:sdepoy@nd.edu">sdepoy@nd.edu</a> / 574.631.7186</p>
<p><a href="https://underc.nd.edu/">underc.nd.edu</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/NDFieldEcology">@NDFieldEcology</a></p>
<p>About Notre Dame Research:</p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in <a href="https://southbendin.gov/">South Bend</a>, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see <a href="https://research.nd.edu/">research.nd.edu</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/UNDResearch">@UNDResearch</a>.</p>Klingerman, Branditag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/968462019-02-19T12:30:00-05:002019-02-19T12:11:47-05:00UNDERC Is Hiring For Summer Positions!<p>UNDERC has three positions open for summer teaching and mentoring opportunities.</p> <p>1. UNDERC TA - East:</p> <p class="image-right"><img alt="UNDERC students measure stream flow as part of the Aquatic Ecology module." src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/308782/kakabika_flow_sampling.jpg"></p> <p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;">…</p><p>UNDERC has three positions open for summer teaching and mentoring opportunities.</p>
<p>1. UNDERC TA - East:</p>
<p class="image-right"><img alt="UNDERC students measure stream flow as part of the Aquatic Ecology module." src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/308782/kakabika_flow_sampling.jpg"></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><strong>Teaching Assistant</strong> needed for 10-week summer course at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) in northern Wisconsin and the Michigan Upper Peninsula. This undergraduate course, Practicum in Environmental Field Biology, runs from May 20 – July 26, 2019. The course includes both teaching and research components to educate 28 sophomore and junior undergraduate students. The teaching component is broken up into 4 week-long modules (Vertebrate Ecology, Aquatic Ecology, Insect Ecology, and Forest Ecology), taught by instructors from the University of Notre Dame and other collaborating universities. Students also work with mentors and TAs to design and carry out independent ecological research projects. See UNDERC’s web page for specifics about the course: underc.nd.edu/underc-east/courses/</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">TA will work to assist professors during each teaching module, as well as provide guidance on a daily basis to enrolled students. Additionally, the TA will directly mentor 2 student projects during the summer. The project topics will be directed towards the mentor’s strengths and research interests in ecology (e.g., herpetology, ornithology, forestry, entomology, limnology, etc.). Past projects are posted on our website: underc.nd.edu/education/recent-student-projects-2018/nd.edu/education/recent-student-projects-2018/</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Modern apartment-style housing will be provided at no cost at UNDERC. Field vehicles provided throughout the course. Other amenities (24-hr computer lab, wireless internet access in apartments, free laundry facilities) are accessible on property.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Qualifications: M.S. in Ecology or related field is preferred, but B.S. in Ecology plus 1 year post-graduate work experience in teaching or biological research may substitute. Basic knowledge of 4 modules (listed above) and univariate statistics preferred. If applicable, please include a list of relevant coursework you have completed.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Salary is negotiable, based on level of experience. Minimum $6000 for the class (10 weeks).</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Please submit cover letter (including topics of potential independent projects), CV/resume, and the contact information for three references (e-mail submission preferred) to:</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Dr. Michael J. Cramer</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Assistant Director, East</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Environmental Research Center</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">University of Notre Dame</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Notre Dame, IN 46556</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><a href="mailto:mcramer@nd.edu">mcramer@nd.edu</a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">(574) 631-0970</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">http://underc.nd.edu</p>
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<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">Review of applications will begin 1 March 2019, and continue until the position is filled.</p>
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<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">2. UNDERC TA - West</p>
<p class="image-right"><img alt="West Student3" src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/135079/west_student3.jpg"></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><span style="background:white"><strong>Teaching Assistant </strong>needed for the 10-week (June 8<sup>th</sup> through August 14<sup>th</sup>, 2019) summer course involving the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center (UNDERC) – West. These ten weeks include eight weeks at our central research location in western Montana. The course includes both teaching and research components to educate 8-10 junior and senior undergraduate students. The teaching component is broken up into 3 week-long modules (Grassland Ecology, Montane/Forest Ecology, and Native American Ecology). Students in the course work with instructors, TA, and a graduate student to design and carry out independent ecological research projects.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><span style="background:white">TA is expected to assist the instructor(s) with teaching modules, assist in field trip execution, and provide guidance and field assistance to enrolled students on a daily basis. Additionally, the TA will directly mentor two student projects during the summer. Project topics of assigned mentees will be matched as closely as possible with mentor’s strengths in ecology.<br>
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UNDERC-West is located in western Montana near the National Bison Range. The TA will be provided housing with the undergraduates (a small house or double-wide on a working cattle ranch).</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><span style="background:white">Preferred Qualifications: M.S. in Ecology or related field is preferred, but B.S. in Ecology plus 1 year post-graduate work experience in teaching or biological research may substitute. Experience working in grassland systems is preferred. Basic knowledge of modules (listed above), univariate statistics (t-tests, ANOVA, etc.), and statistical programs (R or Systat) also preferred. If applicable, please include a list of relevant coursework you have completed. <br>
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Salary is negotiable, based on level of experience. Minimum $6000 for the class (10 weeks).<br>
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Please submit a cover letter (which includes topics of potential independent projects), CV/resume, and the contact information for three references (e-mail submission preferred) to:</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><span style="background:white">Dr. David G. Flagel<br>
Assistant Director, West <br>
Environmental Research Center<br>
University of Notre Dame<br>
Notre Dame, IN 46556<br>
<a href="mailto:dflagel@nd.edu" target="_blank">dflagel@nd.edu</a><br>
<a href="tel:%28574%29%20631-2612" target="_blank">(574) 631-2612</a><br>
<a href="http://underc.nd.edu/" target="_blank">http://underc.nd.edu</a><br>
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Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. </span></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><span style="background:white">3. UNDERC-East Native American Mentor Fellowship</span></p>
<p class="image-right"><img alt="Students learn tree identification" src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/221172/looking_for_trees.jpg"></p>
<p class="CM6" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">We invite graduate students to apply for UNDERC (University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center) fellowships. The fellowships are available to any Native American graduate student. These are restricted to graduate students studying environmental sciences (e.g., ecology, biology, anthropology, engineering, geology, etc.). </p>
<p class="CM1" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><strong>Advisement Requirement </strong></p>
<ul>
<li class="CM6" style="margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:12.0pt; margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">UNDERC fellows are required to advise at least two undergraduates’ independent research projects that are part of the UNDERC undergraduate summer course, BIOS 35502. <strong><em>This advising requires extended residence at UNDERC-East (60% of the ten-week course, May 20 – July 26) and should entail a minimum of one day per week, on average, working with the students.</em></strong> Even when not physically on property, mentors should maintain contact electronically with their students and be available to offer advice and assistance remotely. Employing undergraduates as labor in the graduate student’s project will not fulfill this requirement; rather, the graduate student should consider how small ancillary projects conducted by UNDERC undergraduates might benefit his/her graduate research. The undergraduate projects must be exclusively conducted on the UNDERC property and must “stand alone” so that the students achieve closure in their projects. This requirement is independent of the amount of funds awarded or whether the graduate student’s faculty advisor requires his/her graduate students to help advise the faculty member’s undergraduate research advisees at UNDERC. Undergraduate research projects must be completed before the end of the UNDERC summer course with the last 2 days of the course (July 23-24) being a symposium where each student presents his/her results in a 15-minute presentation and provides a written version of the presentation; grades will be assigned at this time – <strong><em>the graduate student advisor is required to attend these presentations to evaluate their student’s performance</em></strong>. <strong><em>Working with these undergraduates must be taken seriously. </em>Each undergraduate research project will be allowed $500 for supplies. </strong>Equipment purchased with an UNDERC research fellowship is the property of UNDERC following completion of the project. In addition, UNDERC fellows are required to work with their undergraduate students on designing their projects and preparing research proposals during the spring semester that is due at the end of the first week of the course (May 25).</li>
<li class="CM6" style="margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:12.0pt; margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">
<p class="CM1" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><strong>Provisions: </strong>Housing will be provided. This will be a bed in a shared apartment on the UNDERC property. Exclusive use of a bedroom or apartment, however, must be paid for at the assessed rates, if space is available. Living off-property will not be subsidized.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="CM6" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm">This summer graduate fellowships pays $7200 and do not require the student to conduct research on the UNDERC-East property. However, the graduate student must mentor at least two undergraduates from the UNDERC-East summer program (BIOS 35502) in their research projects on the UNDERC-East property. This will require the graduate student to be in residence at UNDERC-East for at least 60% of the ten-week summer course (May 20 – July 26), so that students can get advice, and spend a minimum of one day per week, on average, working with the two undergraduate students. Even when not physically on property, mentors should maintain contact electronically with their students and be available to offer advice and assistance remotely.</p>
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<p class="CM1" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt; margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-top:0cm"><strong>Application Requirement </strong></p>
<ul>
<li class="CM1" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">A proposal no longer than 1 page, double-spaced describing each potential student project. Up to $500 will be allowed for supplies used in each project.</li>
<li class="CM6" style="margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:13.75pt; margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">Submitted to the UNDERC office (097 Galvin Life Sciences) or e-mailed to <a href="mailto:underc@nd.edu">underc@nd.edu</a> by<strong> Friday, March 8, 2019. </strong> </li>
<li class="CM6" style="margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:13.75pt; margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">A letter of support from your advisor should be attached to the proposal. </li>
<li class="CM6" style="margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:13.75pt; margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt">Decisions will be announced by March 15, 2019.</li>
</ul>Michael Cramertag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/851392018-03-23T18:00:00-04:002018-11-29T13:13:52-05:00UNDERC Students Receive Science Policy Award from the Ecological Society of America<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-top:0in">UNDERC was pleased to discover a couple of familiar names on the list of recipients of the Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award (GSPA) presented by the Ecological Society of America (ESA). Stephen Elser and…</p><p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-top:0in">UNDERC was pleased to discover a couple of familiar names on the list of recipients of the Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award (GSPA) presented by the Ecological Society of America (ESA). Stephen Elser and Chelsea Merriman were both participants in UNDERC-East and UNDERC-West.</p>
<p class="image-right"><img alt="Stephen Elser, recent recipient of the ESA Graduate Student Policy Award, attended UNDERC in 2012-2013." src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/270322/elser_1_.jpg"></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-top:0in">Stephen was an UNDERC student at East in 2012 and West in 2013. He also worked as the lead technician for Stuart Jones’ Aquatic Monitoring project in 2014. At UNDERC-East, Stephen worked with graduate student (and UNDERC alum) Jake Zwart on a project investigating the effect of dissolved organic carbon on daily movements of macroinvertebrates (specifically <em>Chaoborus</em>). At UNDERC-West he worked with Dr. Angela Laws on a field / laboratory project considering the effects of water and nitrogen content on feeding preferences of grasshoppers. Stephen is currently pursuing a PhD in environmental life sciences at Arizona State University, where he is a graduate fellow in the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network. His research is focused on understanding the role that green infrastructure plays in providing ecosystem services, and has spent the last 9 months studying urban wetlands in Valdivia, Chile. Fun fact: Stephen's parents met at UNDERC in 1979.</p>
<p class="image-left"><img alt="Chelsea Merriman, recent recipient of the ESA Graduate Student Policy Award, attended UNDERC in 2013-4." src="https://underc.nd.edu/assets/270321/merriman_1_.jpg"></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-top:0in">Chelsea attended UNDERC-East in 2013 and West in 2014. Her project at UNDERC-East, under the tutelage of Dr. Anthony Joern, examined the effects of bird predation and nitrogen on herbivory by grasshoppers. She worked with Dr. Laws at UNDERC-West characterizing the effects of woody shrub encroachment on the National Bison Range. In addition, she received a College of Science Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship to study the effects of invasive plants on ground-nesting birds with UNDERC Research Fellow Kerri Citterbart Martin. She is currently in the graduate program at Boise State University, studying the sagebrush ecosystem from a variety of perspectives, including animal behavior, landscape ecology, and plant physiology. She is especially interested in the relationships between foraging ecology and reproductive success in Greater Sage-Grouse. Fun fact: Chelsea is the only student in the history of UNDERC to be bitten on the nose by a Painted Turtle.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:8pt; margin-left:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-top:0in">For more information about the award and to learn more about the recipients, check the <a href="http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecology-in-the-news/2018-graduate-student-policy-award-recipients/">ESA announcement</a>. </p>Michael Cramertag:underc.nd.edu,2005:News/803522017-10-02T15:00:00-04:002018-11-29T13:13:52-05:00UNDERC Researcher Stuart Jones Receives 1.5M NSF Grant<p>Stuart Jones, Associate Professor of Biology and Associate Director of Aquatic Research at UNDERC, is one of several Principal Investigators on a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation to study the health of recreational fisheries in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.…</p><p>Stuart Jones, Associate Professor of Biology and Associate Director of Aquatic Research at UNDERC, is one of several Principal Investigators on a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation to study the health of recreational fisheries in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This is a multiorganizational interdisciplinary study, including other researchers from other institutions: Chris Solomon from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Marco Janssen of Arizona State University, Olaf Jensen of Rutgers University, and Sunny Jardine of the University of Washington. </p>
<p><a href="https://research.nd.edu/news/researchers-receive-15-million-nsf-grant-to-study-sustainability-of-recreational-fisheries/">Read more about the project...</a></p>Michael Cramer