LGBTQ+ in STEM? Join oSTEM UNC!
We hold social and professional events, and we partner with queer graduate students to provide one-on-one mentorship opportunities.
Come meet us virtually at Queer Fall Fest on Wednesday, August 12th from 7-8:30pm. Access the Zoom event at https://tarheels.live/queerfallfest/. If you can’t make it, join our listserv by emailing ostem.unc@gmail.com for future events.
Kacy Gordon was recently featured in the Journal of Developmental Biology for the article Recent Advances in the Genetic, Anatomical, and Environmental Regulation of the C. elegans Germ Line Progenitor Zone. According to the abstract, “This review describes the recent progress that has been made in characterizing the undifferentiated germ cells and gonad anatomy, and presents open questions in the field and new directions for research to pursue.”
Congrats Kacy!
Kacy Gordon joined the UNC Department of Biology from a postdoctoral program at Duke University. Gordon attended graduate school in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago and obtained her undergraduate degree at Dartmouth.
The Journal of Developmental Biology “is a peer-reviewed open access journal on the development of multicellular organisms at the molecule, cell, tissue, organ and whole organism levels, and is published quarterly online by MDPI.”
To read more, visit this link.
A peer-reviewed paper that the Taylor lab submitted titled “Bioinspired Navigation Based on Distributed Sensing in the Leech” was accepted to be presented at the Living Machines 2020 conference (which is being held remotely). The paper is a culmination of the work of Sebastian Nichols (Quantitative Biology undergraduate) in BIOL 395, Dr. Brian Taylor, and Dr. Cynthia Harley of Metropolitan State University, a minority-serving and Beyond the Yellow Ribbon institution.
Follow this link to learn more about the Living Machines 2020 conference. Congratulations Sebastian and Dr. Taylor!
Dr. Allen Hurlbert was recently a guest on KAXE’s Morning Show. Hosted by Heidi Holtan, Maggie Montgomery, John Bauer, and Katie Carter, the Morning Show is part of 91.7 KAXE, a radio station based in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. According to their website, the Morning Show is a “mix of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and local features including Arts, Nature, Sports, Weather and More.”
Dr. Hurlbert was a guest on the show on June 30, 2020 to speak on his organization, Caterpillars Count. Caterpillars Count is a “citizen science project for measuring the seasonal variation, also known as phenology, and abundance of anthropods like caterpillars, beetles, and spiders found on the foliage of trees and shrubs.” The project encourages everyone to get involved and their website provides many tips on how to do your part!
To listen to the excerpt from the show, check out the Morning Show’s podcast, available on iTunes at this link.
Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy have been featured in the advice section of InsiderHigherEd.com. Their article, authored with Calvin Sims, outlines more than a dozen ways in which white and non-Black educators of color can support the Black Lives Matter movement and create inclusive learning environments. Please read this very important article and work to make these changes in each classroom!
Congratulations to Lela Lackey (Alain Laederach’s Lab), the People’s Choice Winner for hackseq 2020. Hats off to team OpenASO led by Lela Lackey and her members for taking the cake and being crowned the bio-hackers supreme. The OpenASO team shall receive a $1,000 cash prize. You can read about all hackseq 2020 projects at https://www.hackseq.com/projects. Ivan Jimenez-Ruiz and Jayashree Kumar were also members of team openASO.
Congratulations to Dr. Gregory Copenhaver’s lab who, together with their collaborators at Fudan University in Shanghai, published a new study in PLOS Genetics. The paper reveals novel roles for SCC2 – a protein that helps hold chromosomes together during meiosis. The first author, Hongkuan Wang, was internationally co-advised by Dr. Copenhaver and the paper is the culmination of his Ph.D. work.
Read the article here.
Congratulations to UNC Biology’s Andrius Dagilis and Daniel Matute for their Perspective featured in Science magazine!
The article highlights a new paper by Dagilis and Matute which touches on important sights into the evolution of species barriers and hybrid incompatibility. Congrats!
Andrius Dagilis is a post-doc in the UNC Department of Biology and Daniel Matute is an assistant professor with a focus on genetic and ecological basis of reproductive isolation.
Check out the article here.
Follow the UNC Biology Department’s new Instagram: @uncbiology. Here, we will post all things UNC and biology, so make sure to follow to keep updated!
Congratulations to Jamie Antinori on being chosen as a Top 10 Scholar-Athlete for 2019-2020! These ten students, five male and five female, are the graduating student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade point averages.
As noted on the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes (ASPSA) website, Jamie is a member of the gymnastics team and is from Park City, Utah. She is majoring in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Neuroscience. Jamie has been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and has been on the Dean’s List each of her semesters at UNC. She has been conducting research on air pollution and lung health at the Alexis Lab in the Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology. After graduating this month, she will continue her work full time at the Alexis Lab while she is applying to medical school. In five years, she will be about to start her residency.
Jamie selected Biology’s Dr. Gidi Shemer as a faculty member that made a significant contribution to her academic and personal success! You can see more in the following video, including a special thank you from Jamie to Dr. Shemer. Congratulations to both!