May 1997 the BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY of NEW MEXICO
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.W.Wffi ffi ffiffiffiffiffi&tu ffiffiffiffiffi-.Ww ffiffi ffiffiw f@ffiffi voLUME LZ MAY L997 Terry L. Yates Professorand Chair r.rnDspARTMsrvr had an- process this increasedworkload Page other exceptional year has remained essentially constant. despite the budgetary Among our new projects with DEPARTMENT NEWS ...........2-6 problems experienced by UNM. major funding was the National Geologistsin the Dept.?..........2 We added two new assistant pro- Long-Term Ecological Research fessors,Dns. Scorr C.lnnoll and Network Office, a National Center 5th Annual ResearchDay .......3 GnsrcHENHonvreNn; Dn JrruNEne for Emerging Viruses, and a new Hughes Program Update ........4 Lovr also joined the department as MBRS grant. The department also a ResearchAssistant Professor. has been awarded significant MSB Update .........5 We also experienced increased spacein the old bookstore adja- Linda Contos,New Vet...........5 enrollment, increased extramural cent to Castetter Hall, and Dns. T. funding, continued research pro- LowrnY, R. Plrurul.rrun, H. SNrrr NeurosporaGenome Project .... 6 ductivity, and expanded success and T. YlrEs have been awarded FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS .... 7 -12 in development and enhancement two NSF grants totalling L.3 mil- of our core facilities. Lr fact, the lion dollars to support its renova- The Lewises.................. ............. 7 department was fust in the college tion. All of our undergraduate and Dr. Conant Wins Award.........9 in number of outside grant dollars graduate programs have contin- and generated alnost 20% of the ued to flourish. Adjunct Faculty...................... 10 student credit hours for Arts and Successin recent hirings, sfu- ALUMNI NEWS ..................12-13 Sciences.The scholarly activities dent recruitrnent and retention, in of our faculty during the past year research productivity, at acquiring OTHER ALUMNI, FRIENDS & resulted in the publication of eight outside financial support, and the SUPPoRTERS......................... 13 book chapters,48 articles in schol- extraordinary efforts of our facul- arly journals, five popular articles ty, staff, students and friends have BSNM........ ........'t+15 and 56 abstracts; invited seminars done much to strengthen our ca- and plenary presentations were pacity to meet a steadily increas- given by UNM biologists at 67 ing demand for education in Biol- institutions. ogy at UNM. Given a consistent Outside funding for research lack of adequate support through and teaching programs continued the funding formula, however, our its upward trajectory. Grant dol- resources, both human and fin- lars increasedby 16.3%,with ex- ancial, remain inadequate to keep penditures of almost five million pace with the demand. Your sup- dollars from outside sources. IJn- port of the Department is more fortunately, the staff needed to important now than ever. THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW MEXICO In 1993,Dn. MrcH,c,ilBoce,N and CrNnyRauorNrx arrived at the UNM c.unpus/ bringing with them a federal collection of 35,000verte- Geologistsin the brates from Fort Collins, CO. Twenty years before, after receiv- Departmentof Biology? i^g his PhD from UNM, Mike left Albuquerque to work for the USF- (or the Legacyof 614 CastetterHall) WS'NFWL at the National Muse- um of Natural History in Wash- N Ocronrn L, 1996,lhe sfudents, one of whom was Mike ington, DC. Who would have Departrnent of Interior's Bogan (more on him later). From guessed that he would refurn to National Biological Ser- here, Norm and a cadre of sfu- his alma mater and occupy the vice (NBS) was transferred to the dents and field assistants studied very same room he used as a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and reported on desert ecosys- graduate student? Within months and renamed the Biological Re- tems. Some of these former stu- of their arrival, Mike and Cindy sourcesDivision (BRD). Although dents who passed through the (and l-F00 other federal research- this action has resolved a variety door of Room 61,,4,may sound ers) were transferred to a new of vexing bureaucratic concems,it familiar: Ronrnr RryNoros, Bnucr Department of Interior agency, the may baffle occupants of the Biolo- Wooow^l,no,Plr MrHrnor, Rlcr NBS. This agency was short-lived gy Departrrent who share space SMlnrr, SlNont Llurrucx and and alnnost three years to the day, with these former employees of Cn.nnrn PxNrEn. In later years, NBS became one of four divisions NBS and who were just getting other temporary technicians and within USGS. The official name of "National used to the name Bio- students induded M.e,nnyrsAlrur- the office in Room 6tAis *re Add logical Seryice." Others are won- racn, Lucy AqurNo, Lru FrrzcsR- Lands Field Station.It is adminis- "geologists" dering if really are in l.ro, R.l,NovJENNrNGs,Cnnor Mlr- tered by the Midcontinent Ecologi- the Biology Department. To put coru and JnvrSrulnr. In L98L, cal ScienceCenter (MESC) in Fort things in perspective, it is useful to NFWL merged with the Denver Collins, CO one of L6 science cen- go back 22years when this whole Wildlife ResearchCenter. In 1982, ters in the Biological Resources drama unfolded. Dn. Tou Fnrrrs came from Tulane Division. MESC is under the lead- InL974, NonulN J. Scorr came University to join the USFWS field ership of Dn. RsY SrsNpun. to UNM to establish a southwest- station. He soon added a new Currently, the Arid Lands Field ern field station of the U.S. Fish emphasis to the office (Guam's Station consists of five permanent and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) brown tree snake problem) and employees, Mike Bogan @roject National Fish and Wildlife Labora- together, he and Norm served on Leader), Cindy Ramotnik (Collec- tory (NFWL). Norm set up shop in graduate researchcommittees, tions Manager), J.C. Rrcna,nosoN the basement of Castetter Hall in participated in the growth of the (Office Manager and forsrer em- Room 6LA, a room previously Museum of Southwestem Biology ployee at El Morro National Mon- used by jim Findley's graduate herpetology collection, and contin- ument), Jru Srurnr (Wildlife Biol- ued to study southwestem wild- ogist) and EnMs VAloEz (Wildlife life. Throughout these often hectic Biologist). The staff is supplement- The Bialagical Society of years the one person most respon- ed by additional technicians dur- New :Merco,,ispublished sible for maintaining order (and ing the field season.Station per- some sonnel continue annuallyby the Depart- semblance of sanity) was to study wildlife RlylNN RonrNo,Secretary and issues in the southwest as did ment of Biology,The Office Manager. Tom left in 1988 their predecessors.Examples of Universityof New Mexico, for the National Museum of Natu- some current projects include: AlbuQuerque,NM 87131- ral History, Norm left in L993 for a habitat use of bats in the lerrrez t osi; ioslztz-t411; Fax Califomia field station, and Ray- Mountains; baseline inventories -A304,,rfditor: ann left in 1993for the USFWS for mammals in National Parks on 5CI5i1277 :,Dt. (agait This left the Colorado Plateau; patchsize, ; ). the door open for Donald W. Duszynski; , a new federal presence in Room biodiversity and wildlife values in Editorialfusistant: Anne E. 61A. fragmented Rio Grande bosque; Rice. (continued on the next page) May 1997 THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW MEXICO FifthAnnual Research Day Awards Asr yEAR'srRESENTATIoNs of undergraduate and graduate biology research were held on Friday, March29, 1996. Fifteen oral presentations were made and 34 poster presentations filled the greenhouse hallway of the Biology building. The organizing comrnittee consisted of Cenor BRANDT,Crernr C^l,nrmvrEry Auv Drrro, Dn. AsrnIn Kopnrc-Bnowx, Dn. SmaLoxEn, Dn. Groncu SrcvENs,Dn. ReNpyTnonNHrn and Dn. Trnny Yerrs. M*y other Biology faculty, staff and graduate students served as judges of the presentations. The capstonespeaker for the 1996Research Day was Dn. C.J. Prrrns, Chief, SpecialPathogens Branch, Divi- sion of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases,NCID, CDC, who spoke on "Emerging Infections: Filoviruses as an Exam- ple." Dr. Petershas been affiliated with the U.S. Public Health Service:National Institute of Allergy and Infec- tious Diseases and the Department of Immunopathology: Scripps Clinic and ResearchFoundation, and has received many honors and recognitions, among them the Surgeon General's Award, The Legion of Merit, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services Award. Dr. Peter's research includes the pathogenesis and epidemi- ology of viral diseases,including Hantavirus and hemorrhagic fevers, the development andiesting of anti-viral vaccines,and the geneticsand immunology of host-virus interactions. Financial support for this year's ResearchDay was provided by Dr. George Stevensand the Nerrolrer INsn- TUTESoF Hmr.rn Mruonrry Brourprclr Rrsnlncn Pnocnena. The winners of the oral presentations were: * First Place: Diane L. Rowland * SecondPlace (tie): Matthew E. Crawford; Patrick W. Zwartjes * First Place: Gerald M. Herrera * Second Place: Damien T. Scott * Third Place: fason Lett The winners of the poster presentations were: * First Place: David B. Bates * Honorable Mention: Scott Bur! Wade D. Wilson * First Place: JamesR. Thibault . * SecondPlace (tie): T.M. Malecki; Kirsten Meyer * Honorable Mention: Anne Marie Armijo, Eldon Blueyes, Marianita Gorman, Jason Mitchell, Joe Valentine, Audrey Wells and Sheldwin Yazzie; Stephanie Atencio; Michela Baca; David C. Quintana (Ceologists?continued' from page2) and studies of the effects of forest cludes a unique assemblage of tion with UNM in general, and the meinagement practices on the Sac- fishes from the Colorado River Biology Department and the Mu- ramento Mountain salamander. In Basin and mammals from federal seum of Southwestern Biology in addition to studying systematics lands in the Rocky Mountain- particular. Drop by Room 61A to and ecology of southwestern Lrtermountain West. J.C.has as- say hello and discover for your- mammals, Mike is an Adjunct sumed the responsibility of main- selves that these USGS employees "rock- ResearchProfessor in our depart- taining sanity, Jim provides exper- are in fact biologists in a ment and serves on graduate tise on mammals and helptiles, solid" organization. For additional research committees.