The vitality of our curriculum has been reflected in record numbers of biology majors. This June, the department graduated 57 senior majors, and next year we will have a combined total of 128 junior and senior majors.
Each year at graduation, the Biology Department awards prizes to five outstanding majors. We are pleased to announce that this year's recipients were Susan Gurgel `97, who received the Conant-Harrington Prize for exemplary performance in the biology major; Franklin Mullins `97 and Karen Lee `97, who were awarded, respectively, the First and Second Benedict Prize for excellence in Biology; Hannah Arps, who received the Dwight Prize as the ranking student in botany; and Jason Meyer, who was awarded the Grant Prize for the student demonstrating excellence in a broad range of areas in biology. In addition, among 28 Honors students, 12 were awarded Highest Honors for outstanding performance on the senior thesis. Ten students were nominated for induction into Sigma Xi, the National Research society.
After a number of years as Chair of the department, William DeWitt will give up the chairmanship to return to full-time teaching. He will be replaced by Daniel Lynch.
During the summer of 1996, Prof. Elizabeth Adler with the assistance of Annaliese Beery (1997) and Mara Steinkamp (1998) continued her research on the role of calcium in use-dependent changes in neurotransmitter release and neuropeptide gene expression. Annaliese continued her research on calcium regulation of Neuropeptide Y gene expression as an honors student in her lab, and Carter Jones (`97) joined the lab as an honors student in September, doing work in relation to Neuropeptide Y release in a line of cells grown in tissue culture.
In September 1996, Prof. Adler attended the Workshop on Funding Strategies for Scientists Who Combine Research and Teaching: Integration of Research and Education held at Wellesley College (organized by Mary M. Allen and George M. Langford, Members BIO Advisory Committee). This work shop culminated in the generation of a list of recommendations made to NSF. One of Prof. Adler's suggestions to establish a Research Mentors Program to provide small grants to researchers who significantly involve undergraduates in their research was adopted as one of the workshop's recommendations to NSF. Prof. Adler also gave a talk on her research "Remembrance of Ions Past" as part of the Bronfman Summer Science Lunch series.
This past year Prof. Marsha Altschuler taught Advanced Molecular Genetics (BIOL 306) and Human Biology and Social Issues (BIOL 132). She also attended the 6th International Congress of Cell Biology in San Francisco in December.
Prof. Altschuler's research continues to focus on genome mapping in Tetrahymena thermophila. She was assisted in this effort by two Honors students, Kristen Hilty `97 and Sylvia Park `97. Kristen constructed two fragmentation vectors to aid in determining the location of cloned pieces of DNA on the somatic chromosomes of this ciliated protozoan. Sylvia began an investigation of the somatic genome location of PCR markers known to map to germline chromosome 5; thus giving a more global picture of the genome processing involved in the generation of the somatic genome from the germline genome. During WSP, Dan Suver `99 analyzed the somatic genome organization of cloned DNA generated in previous years.
Prof. Henry Art completed the final summer of a 3-year project assessing long-term changes in the Hopkins Memorial Forest, Williamstown, MA. A grant to the Center for Environmental Studies has enabled four students in each of the past three summers to engage in this research. The periodic inventory of the Hopkins Forest dates back to 1935 when the US Forest Service established the system of 440 quarter-acre permanent plots. The senior theses of Tim Billo `97 and Susan Halback `97 are outgrowths of this research project. Partial results of a series of collaborations with honor students over the past 4 years on the distribution of spring wildflowers in Williamstown were reported by Professor Art in a paper "Biogeography of Vernal Herbs in Old-Age and Secondary Woodlots" at the Ancient Eastern U.S. Old Growth Forest Conference in June, 1997 at Clarion University, Clarion, PA.
Prof. Art continued his research on long-term changes and deer-vegetation interactions in maritime forests at Fire Island National Seashore, NY as a Research Ecologist, North Atlantic Region, National Park Service, delivering a research paper entitled "Fire Island Deer Exclosure Study 1985-1995" at the Fire Island National Seashore Science Conference in January, 1997. He also led an alumni trip To Big Bend National Park, Texas to study the natural history of the region.
This past year Prof. Art taught Environmental Studies 302 Environmental Planning and Design Workshop, Biology 402 Tutorial: Succession, and Environmental Studies 102 Introduction to Environmental Science with J. Thoman and D. Dethier. He also did a winter study trip with Markes Johnson, Geology and Botany of Baja California. Prof. Art wrote a chapter "To Spray or not to spray" in Invasive Plants: Weeds of the Global Garden, edited by Randall and Marinelli, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbook #149. He was also part of the Hoosic River Watershed Association - Scientists and Artists in the Classroom Project.
Prof. Joan Edwards taught Ecology (BIOL 203) in the fall and Introductory Biology (BIOL 102) in the spring. She was the honors thesis advisor for Jason Wilder `97. She co-authored a paper with Joseph Van Buskirk `82 on significance of wintergreen leaves in ferns which is published in the American Fern Journal (Volume 85: 54-57). In December, she published a paper in Nature with Prof. David C. Smith and three New Zealand colleagues on the pollination of the native New Zealand mistletoe by a small native bee. She continues to pursue her research on plants at Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior. Currently she is studying a group of arctic plants that are unusual because they have small isolated populations on the northern shores of Lake Superior. These plants are significant because they may be good indicators of global warming and they are locally rare. Prof. Edwards is determining their population structure by measuring the genetic diversity in each population and determining the breeding system for each species.
This year Prof. Edwards served as the Division III representative to the Committee on Appointments and Promotions and she was awarded a chaired professorship, the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Biology.
Prof. Marta Laskowski completed her first year at Williams having taught Plant Growth and Development (BIOL308) and Advanced Cell Biology (BIOL 208). Her research interests center on understanding how root systems develop and function in the environment. Prof. Laskowski attended a number of conferences this year, presented a poster titled "Isolation and characterization of AARI, a novel early auxin-response gene in Arabidopsis" at the Gordon Research Conference on Plant Molecular Biology in New Hampton, NH. She also gave a talk titled "Lateral Roots and Auxin biology" at the New England Area Arabidopsis Meeting in Boston.
This past year, Associate Professor Daniel Lynch had a one semester sabbatical in the fall and taught biochemistry during the spring semester. He spent the month of October in Alfred Merrill's lab at Emory University Medical School collaborating on research exploring the effects of plant sphingolipids on cellular processes in mammalian cell cultures, laying the groundwork for future studies aimed at testing whether plant sphingolipids prevent colon cancer. He also advised three honors students (Vy Bui, Trent Guthrie, Jessica Wege) and supervised one independent study project by Kristin Hem.
Prof. Lynch continued his research on plant sphingolipid biochemistry, publishing two papers in Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, with co-authors Greg Crowther `95, Jen Lehoczky `93, Alison Criss `95, and Vy Bui `97. He also served as a reviewer for several journals in the fields of plant biology and biochemistry and for various granting agencies, including the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prof. Lynch delivered a seminar on plant sphingolipid biochemistry to the Biochemistry Department at Emory during his visit. Along with Prof. Nancy Roseman, Prof. Lynch also published a solutions manual to accompany the cell biology text, Asking About Cells by Tobin and Morell.
Professor Gretchen Meyer presented a poster entitled "Compensatory Photosynthesis Following Different Patterns of Leaf Damage in Goldenrod (Solidago altissima)" at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in August 1996. Her honors student, Andre Gerard `95, also attended the meeting and presented a poster entitled "Habitat Preferences of Stream Invertebrates and Their Responses to Experimental Dams." Prof. Meyer presented a seminar about her research on the effects of insect feeding on plant growth and reproduction at Rutgers University in Dec. 1996. She also wrote a manuscript that has been accepted for publication in the journal Functional Ecology. Entitled "Pattern of Defoliation and Its Effect on Photosynthesis and Growth of Goldenrod." Prof. Meyer also wrote an article co-authored with R.B. Root that was published in Ecological Entomology. She served as a manuscript reviewer for the journals American Journal of Botany, Ecology, and Plant Ecology, and also reviewed a proposal for the National Science Foundation.
This past year Prof. Wendy Raymond taught Genetics (BIOL 202), both BIOL 104 lab sections, and BIMO 406. In BIOL 104 she introduced a new series of experiments that used random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis to assess genetic diversity in local populations of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica). The success of these initial experiments may be turned into a larger scale study by future introductory biology classes. Prof. Raymond supervised three honors students, Karen Lee `97, Sheyda Namazie `97 and Le Paliulis `97, who carried out research studying three different genes that yeast employs to complete mitosis properly. She also taught a winter study course Research in Molecular Genetics (BIOL 016), in which nine sophomores searched for, found and characterized many new cell-division mutants that will be studied further in her research lab. The course gave students hands-on research experience early in their college careers.
In the summer of 1996 Prof. Raymond supervised two students, Matt Garland `98 and Alvaro Sagasti `96, doing research on how cells regulate exit from mitosis. Some of this work was presented at the 1996 Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin in August in a poster by Alvaro Sagasti, Prof. Raymond and Thad Schilling `95 entitled "Exploring Exit from Mitosis with a Cold-Sensitive Suppressor of Cdc14." Prof. Raymond gave a Summer Science talk at Williams called "This way out! How Cells Exit from mitosis." She also served as a reviewer for the journal Genetics, and gave an invited seminar at Vassar College.
This past year Prof. Nancy Roseman, along with Prof. DeWitt, taught the introductory biology course (BIOL 101), a winter study called Diet, Exercise, and Metabolism, and in the spring, her sixth year of Immunology (BIOL 313). Prof. Roseman published an article on the enzymatic characterization of the vaccinia dUTPase in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. She also co-authored, with Prof. Lynch, a question and solutions manual for a new introductory biology text called Asking About Cells. Prof. Roseman supervised the honors work of Lauren Burwell, who completed her thesis work in the fall, and two other honors students, Elizabeth Maxwell and Jane Yoo. Elizabeth generated vaccinia dUTPase mutants by disrupting the viral gene in vivo and Jane developed methods for active site mapping by cross-linking and peptide mapping. Professor Roseman was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure this past year.
In his first semester at Williams, Prof. Robert Savage taught Developmental Biology (BIOL 301). In April 1997, he was an invited speaker at the Northeast Regional Developmental Biology Meeting held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. He also presented a seminar at Bennington College. In each of the talks, he discussed the role of important developmental regulatory genes in body axis segmentation in annelids. He also served as a reviewer for the journal Development and for the National Science Foundation.
Prof. David Smith taught Evolution (BIOL 305) in the fall and the advanced ecology course, Communities and Ecosystems (BIOL 302) in the spring. He advised one honors thesis student, David Jaskoski `97. In 1996 Prof. Smith, along with Prof. Joan Edwards and three New Zealand colleagues, co-authored a paper in Nature on the pollination of the native New Zealand mistletoe by a small native bee. In addition, in 1997 he published a paper with his former honors student, Jeremy Fox `95, entitled "Variable Outcomes of Protist-Rotifer Competitions in Laboratory Microcosms (Oikos 79:4890495). In August, he attended the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's Workshop on Molecular Evolution. Prof. Smith continues to study the boreal chorus frog at Isle Royale National Park. He is currently using molecular genetic techniques along with extensive field work to study the evolutionary ecology of this species and to determine the genetic structure of their metapopulations.
In his first year at Williams Prof. Steve Swoap taught Mammalian Molecular Physiology (BIOL309) in the fall and Physiology (BIOL 205) in the spring. He was advisor for one honors student, Rachel Kell `97. Rachel worked on a project characterizing the level of a glycolytic enzyme in response to a slow to fast muscle transition.
Prof. Swoap published a paper in the American Journal of Physiology: Cell, which examined the potential differences in power production from slow and fast twitch muscle. In October, he presented a paper at "Integrative Biology of Exercise" that examined transcriptional processes that define muscle fiber type. Prof. Swoap also attended the annual American College of Sports Medicine meeting and the annual Human Anatomy and Physiology society meeting in June. He served as a reviewer for the Journal of Applied Physiology. In addition, he hosted three minority Williams students in his laboratory, Johanna Castro, Biniam Gebre, and Jean Raphael for three weeks as part of the outreach program funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute.
Prof. Swoap received a three year grant from the National Science Foundation to support research aimed at understanding the genetic mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of muscle fiber type.
Prof. Heather Williams, in conjunction with Neil Mehta `94, submitted a paper to the Journal of Neurobiology entitled "Changes in Adult Zebra Finch Song Require a Forebrain Nucleus That Is Not Necessary for Song Production." This past year she also taught team taught the Introduction to Neurobiology course with Prof. Paul Solomon. Prof. Williams attended the annual meeting for the Society of Neuroscience and presented a paper at the Winter Animal Behavior Conference. She served as a reviewer for the journals Hormones and Behavior and Journal of Comparative Psychology , and wrote a book review for The Auk. Prof. Williams also served as a panelist for the National Institutes of Health.
Prof. Steven Zottoli, Schow Professor of Biology, spent two months at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA conducting a research-based tutorial with four Williams College students, Walter Cheng `97, Beth Copanas `97, Jason Meyers `97 and Debby Palmer `96. The students read original papers and conducted experiments in the research area of a series of neuroscientists spending the summer at the MBL. They then met with the scientists to discuss their research and career opportunities. In addition, the students attended course lectures. The participants developed an undergraduate laboratory exercise that will be submitted for publication in 1998. Prof. Zottoli, in collaboration with Jason Meyers and Beth Copanas, has submitted a manuscript to Brain, Behavior and Evolution entitled: "Comparison of Fast Startle Responses Between Two Elongate, Bony Fish with an Anguilliform Type of Locomotion, the African Lungfish, Protopterus annectens and the American Eel, Anguilla rostrata and the Implications for the Underlying Neuronal Basis of Escape Behavior." In the fall Prof. Zottoli taught the Neurobiology course (BIOL 212) and the Introductory course (BIOL 102) in the spring. He also continues to administer the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grants to Williams College. Prof. Zottoli is a participant in a four year Program Project Grant awarded in 1995 to the Medical College of Pennsylvania by NIH. The grant focuses on central nervous system regeneration. He is also a Trustee and Vice President of the Grass Foundation.
Spring/Fall 1996 Seniors Juniors Sophomores Eli Boritz Anna Bartow Beth Copanas Meghan Burne Susan Gurgel Cordelia Dickinson S. Trent Guthrie Honora Englander Kristen Hilty Mary Frekko David Jaskoski Arminda Gensler Karen Lee Deborah Hirschmann Jason Meyers Matthew Garland Franklin Mullins Megan Moore Leocadia Paliulis Nedim Sahin Sylvia Park Mara Steinkamp Heather Pierce Jonah Wittkamper Dan Zuckerman
Spring/Fall 1997 Seniors Juniors Sophomores Paul Alsdorf Sabrina Assoumou Pam Bromley Leah Doret Mary Frekko Ayesha Johnson Matt Garland Kevin Bolduc Mary Gehring Christine Whitcraft Jody Knight Janet Iwasa Kathleen O'Connell Dan Nehmad Emily Snyder Matt Whalin Katie Teel Jenny Pogoriler Matthew Sandoval Megan Moore