Biology

The WKU Biology Department and Graduate Program Committee are excited to announce the First Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium. Thesis MS students who anticipate graduating during spring or summer 2013 will present brief synopses of their research projects to faculty, staff, and fellow students. The purpose of the symposium is to showcase the exciting research being done by biology graduate students, and to give previews of upcoming thesis defense topics.

Each seminar will be a brief thesis project overview (ca. 7 minutes) that will include introduction/objectives, methods, results, and discussion/implications of the work. Student presenters will field audience questions at the end of the symposium.

Student presenters, their primary Advisor, and project titles (in alphabetical order):

Molly DuVall (Dr. Stokes) - An examination of the abundance and diversity of wildlife entering farmlands in Southern Africa, and the effectiveness of a novel 'scarecrow' device at deterring crop raiding behavior

Jacob Fose (Dr. Lienesch) - Reproductive interference by yellow bass and hybrid striped bass on native white bass in Barren River Lake

Julia Freeman (Dr. Rice) - Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms linked to Essential Hypertension in Kasigau, Kenya

Gillian Jones (Dr. Srivastava) - Understanding the effects of Lunasin overexpression on normal development and tumor progression in Drosophila melanogaster

David Kem (Dr. Meier) - The Effects of Fire on the Vernal Herbs of an Eastern Mesic Forest

Emily McIntire (Dr. Schulte) - Evaluating Personality and Leadership in African Elephants (Loxodonta africana)

Chandra Pranav (Dr. Sharma) - Effect of Coconut Oil on ulcerative colitis in the mouse model

Amanda Seaton (Dr. King) - Defining the requirements for bacteriophage HK639 early gene expression

Shawn Smiley (Dr. Doerner) - Genome Assembly and Syntenic Analysis of Clostridium scatologenes ATCC 25775

Kevin Tewell (Dr. Johnson) - Landscape genetics of marbled salamanders at Mammoth Cave National Park