News

Press

Dr. Ken Stedman and his student Geoffrey Diemer (PhD) won the 7th BioMed Central Research Award, supported by antibodies-online.com.  The researchers received their award for their article titled "A novel virus genome discovered in an extreme environment suggests recombination between unrelated groups of RNA and DNA viruses."

PhD student Amanda Kelley was featured in an NSF press release for her work in Antarctica with an all-female research group. 

 YouTube trailer for "Edge of Life: Virus Among Us" starring Dr. Ken Stedman

Press for Rosenstiel et al. Nature paper: Science, Scientific American, Oregonian, OPB, New York Times

Nature News Blog: "Hot Spring Yields Hybrid Genome."  Click here to read more.

Dr. Deb Duffield was featured in the Oregonian for her work with two whales that washed up on shore recently. You can read about it here.

Published

Tidwell, K. S., D. J. Shepherdson, and M. P. Hayes. 2013 Interpopulaton Variability in evasive Behavior in the Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa). Journal of Herpetology. 47: 93-96.

Tidwell, K. S. and M. P. Hayes. Difference in Flight Initiation Distance of Recently Metamorphosed Oregon Spotted Frogs (Rana pretiosa) and American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus). Herpetological Conservation Biology. Accepted.

S. Cancellieri, M. Murphy. "Experimental examination of nest reuse by an open-cup nesting passerine: savings of time/energy, or nest site shortage?" Animal Behaviour. Accepted.

A. Shipley, M. Murphy, and A. Elzinga. "Residential edges as ecological traps: Postfledging survival of a ground-nesting passerine in a forested urban park"  The Auk. Accepted.

Bartos-Smith, S., J. E. McKay, Jennifer K. Richardson, and M. T. Murphy.  2012. "Edges, trails and reproductive performance of Spotted Towhees in urban greenspaces." pp. 167-181, In Urban Bird Ecology and Conservation (Eds. C. A. Lepczyk and P. S. Warren). Studies in Avian Biology No. 45

Redmond, L. J., and M. T. Murphy.  2012.  Using complementary approaches to estimate survival of juvenile and adult Eastern Kingbirds.  Journal of Field Ornithology  83:247-259.

Ceballos, RM, Marceau, CD, Marceau, JO, Morris, S, Clore, AJ, Stedman, KM (2012). "Differential Virus Host-Ranges of the Fuselloviridae of Hyperthermophilic Archaea: Implications for Evolution in Extreme Environments." Frontiers in Extreme Microbiology.

Cheeke, T.E., Coleman, D. C., Wall, D.H. (Editors) 2012. "Microbial Ecology in Sustainable Agroecosystems. Advances in Agroecology Research." CRC Press.

Rosenstiel, TN, Shortlidge, EE, Melnychenko, AN, Pankow, JF, and Eppley, SM (2012). "Sex-specific volatile compounds influence microarthropod-mediated fertilization of moss." Nature.

Diemer, J. and Stedman, K. "A novel virus genome discovered in an extreme environment suggests recombination between unrelated groups of RNA and DNA viruses." Biology Direct, 2012; 7 (1): 13 DOI: 10.1186/1745-6150-7-13

Kautz S, Ballhorn DJ, Kroiss J, Pauls SU, Moreau CS, et al. (2012). "Host Plant Use by Competing Acacia-Ants: Mutualists Monopolize While Parasites Share Hosts." PLoS ONE 7(5): e37691. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037691

Lutterschmidt, D.I.  "Chronobiology of reproduction in garter snakes: Neuroendocrine mechanisms and geographic variation."  General and Comparative Endocrinology, in press. Invited Review.

Deshler, J., and M.T. Murphy. 2012. "The breeding biology of the Northern Pygmy-owl: Do the smallest of the small have an advantage?" Condor. 114:314-322.

Student News

Duffield lab members Matthew Holdgate (PhD) and Kessina Lee (MS) both won poster awards at the GIS in Action 2013 Conference held at PSU Apirl 29-May 1.  Matthew won the Spatial Choice Award for his poster titled, "Can GPS be used to improve zoo animal welfare? A case study of Asian and African zoo elephant movement." Kessina won the Real World Problem Solving award for her poster titled, "Sea lion mortality in Oregon & Washington, April to July 2012: GIS analysis of confirmed and suspected human interaction."

Undergraduate Jess Millar recently received two awards. One was a $800 travel grant from Harvard to attend an undergraduate professional development conference: America's Next Top Infectious Disease Model: HIV and Influenza; Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics in Chicago.  She also received $4,000 for an Opportunities in Genomic Research Undergraduate Scholars Fellowship to study at the Genome Institute this summer.

Catherine Dayger (PhD) and Kyle Tidwell (PhD) tied for second place in the Graduate Biological Sciences division at the Sigma Xi Student Research Symposium held on April 5. Catherine's poster was titled, "Body Condition Modulates Responses to Capture Stress and Exogenous Corticosterone in Female Garter Snakes" and Kyle's title was "Quantifying the effect of the Invasive Bullfrog (L. catesbeianus) on the Oregon Spotted Frog (R. pretiosa)."

Geoffrey Diemer (PhD) won the 'Computational and high-throughput studies in genomics and systems biology' category award from the BioMed Central's Annual Research Award for his article, "A novel virus genome discovered in an extreme environment suggests recombination between unrelated groups of RNA and DNA viruses." Geoffrey will compete with nine other subject-specific category winners for the prestigious BioMed Central Research Award.

Luke Remond (Phd) won the Best Student Paper in the Journal of Field Ornithology for 2012. 
Redmond, L. J., and M. T. Murphy.  2012.  Using complementary approaches to estimate survival of juvenile and adult Eastern Kingbirds.  Journal of Field Ornithology  83:247-259.

Amanda Kelley (PhD) was awarded a $500 travel grant to attend the 2013 SICB meeting in San Francisco where she will present her research on the ecophysiology of the invasive European Green Crab.

S.B. Sim, M. Mattsson, Jasmine L. Feder, D.H. Cha, W.L. Yee, R.B. Goughnour, C.E. Line Jr., Jeffrey L. Feder (2012). "A field test for host fruit odour discrimination and avoidance behaviour for Rhagoletis pomonella flies in the western
United States." Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Kiley Hicks' (PhD student, Estes Lab) manuscript, "In vivo quantification reveals extensive natural variation in mitochondrial form and function in Caenorhabditis briggsae", was accepted for publication in PLoS One.

Sam Smith (MS Student, Estes Lab) was honored to receive the 2012 PSU Commendation Award and the President's Award for Outstanding University Service for his contributions to the Biology Department and to the university.

Fatema Fareh (Undergraduate Student in Biology) won the Cancer Research Training Award offered by NIH/NCL.  

Matthew Holdgate (MS, Duffield Lab) was awarded the Pittsburgh Zoo's "PPG Industries Sustainability & Conservation" grant to study lateral recumbency in zoo elephants. 

Catherine Dayger (PhD, Lutterschmidt Lab) received an ASIH Gaige Award for her research on "The role of corticosterone in reproduction: Implications for understanding the physiological impacts of climate change". 

Christina Howard (MS, Lutterschmidt Lab) received an ASIH Gaige Award for her proposal entitled "Do melatonin and arginine vasotocin interact to regulate reproductive behavior?"

Matthew Holdgate (MS, Duffield lab) received "best poster" in the technical innovation category at the "GIS In Action" conference.  The title of Matthew's poster is " Have Trunk, Will Travel: Using GPS to Understand Zoo Elephant Movement ." 

Erin Shortlidge (PhD, Eppley lab) received an NSF doctoral dissertation improvement grant for work "Testing mutualistic function in a multi-trophic mating system in mosses."

Julia Ruppell, PhD, Murphy was recently awarded a Fulbright for her work with the crested gibbon in Laos. You can see her talk about her research here. 

Nicole Paterson, an undergraduate researcher in the Stedman lab was just awarded a $5000 NASA Oregon Space Grant Undergraduate Research Scholarship for work on a novel DNA polymerase from an acidic hot lake.