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Research in Ecology 2009 - Staff
Meet our...
Classroom Instructors ~ Undergraduate Facilitators ~ Graduate Mentors ~ Faculty Mentors
Classroom Instructors
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Dr. Dana Krempels
Ecology Instructor and Program Coordinator
As Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the University of Miami Biology Department, Dana teaches Evolution and Biodiversity, Genetics, General Botany, Zoology, and a seminar on the Biology of Gender in humans.
Research in Ecology students spend classroom time listening to short lectures and engaging in hands-on exercises in order to learn the principles of evolution and ecology. Ecology and Evolution lectures and activities can be viewed and downloaded HERE.
Her most notable avocation is Lagomorph Rescue through her tax-exempt corporation, H.A.R.E., Inc..
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Ms. Blythe Nobleman
Scientific Writing Instructor
Blythe Nobleman serves as a Composition Program Lecturer at the University of Miami, where she currently teaches IMPaCT engineering and various science students. She presented at the 2006, 2007, and 2009 Computers & Writing conferences, and received a grant award from the UM Instructional Advancement Center for "Innovative Uses of Podcasting." Since Blythe's areas of Interest include scientific and technical writing, teaching with technology, and new media, she created a wiki for use by our RiE young scientists.
Click here to download a printout of the Writing Instructor Position Description and Duties.
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Ms. Suzy Pappas
Statistics and Computers Instructor
One can't engage in science without understanding probability and statistics. Suzy engages our students with interactive exercises in probability and statistics, using ecological examples.
She also teaches our participants the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, how to effectively search the internet for information, and how to make use of the computer as a tool to enhance scientific research.
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Click here to download a printout of the Undergraduate Facilitator Position Description and Duties.
Here's our team of Undergraduate Facilitators for 2009.
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Ms. Jessica Kirsner
Undergraduate Facilitator for The Shell Crackers (Team 1)
Jessica is a biology major with a chemistry minor. She is a Bandie at heart, and plays tenor saxophone in the University of Miami's Band of the Hour. She's active in the Democratic Party, and is an officer for the University of Miami College Democrats Student Organization. Jessica enjoys reading, can't wait for the next Harry Potter movie to come out, and thinks Fox was crazy to cancel Firefly.
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Mr. Justin DiDonato
Undergraduate Facilitator for Chunky Monkey (Team 2)
Majoring in biology with minors in chemistry and psychology, Justin will be a sophomore at UM in Fall 2009. He is originally from Toronto, Canada and this
past year was his first year in Miami. He can't get enough of it. He loves BBQs on
the beach and just hanging out with friends. He took up SCUBA diving as soon as he
moved here and favourite weekends are the ones where a group of friends
spend weekends on a boat diving, BBQing and joking around. Like most Canadians
he loves hockey, is very fond of all kinds of music and plays in a band at home. Justin
wants to pursue a career in medicine but has not decided whether to work
with animals or humans yet: only time and grades will tell. His favorite food is
sushi. One of his favorite quotes is "Life makes you ugly if you live it
right."
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Ms. Griffin Udelson
Undergraduate Facilitator for The Fish Grinders (Team 3)
Griffin is a rising senior at UM, majoring in Biology with minors in Chemistry, Psychology,
and Exercise Physiology. She plans to go to dental school after graduation,
and would like to specialize in either orthodontics or oral surgery. She plays
varsity volleyball for the Hurricanes, and you can catch her and her teammates digging
up balls and taking out the competition at their matches at the
Knight Sports Center on campus. They love having a big fan section! In her free time, Griffin
enjoys sailing, surfing, painting, learning guitar, going to the beach, singing
karaoke, line dancing at Round Up, and spending time with friends and family.
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Ms. Christine Hwang
Assistant Undergraduate Facilitator for The Fish Grinders (Team 3)
Christine is a student at Westminster Christian, and she is assisting us with the program this year as part of her community service volunteer activities. She's very good at this because she's an alumna of the Research in Ecology Program in 2006. Who knows? Maybe some day she'll be running the place! We thank her for her wonderful assistance this summer.
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Ms. Diantha Vickers
Undergraduate Facilitator for The Food Processors (Team 4)
Diantha is a Biology major at the University of Miami. She loves to skydive, hunt wild boar with nothing but a poison-tipped spear, and in her spare time she makes quilts out of dead leaves. She has sent many of these to needy families in the icy wilds of Norway, where her name is legend.
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Follow their adventures by clicking on the Team Research pages.
Click here to download a printout of the Graduate Research Mentor Position Description and Duties.
Here's our team of Graduate Research Mentors for 2009.
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Mr. Jiang Jiang
Graduate Research Mentor for The Shell Crackers (Team 1)
Jiang has a general broad interest in conservation ecology. Right now, he is focusing on
vegetation dynamics. He wants to develop a computer simulation model for the effects of
disturbances on forest ecosystem. He also loves to explore genetic diversity of endangered
species. He also enjoys badminton, traveling, reading and hiking.
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Mr. Nathan Dappen
Graduate Research Mentor for Chunky Monkey (Team 2)
Nathan is currently pursuing experimental methods of mapping out the
adaptive topographies of sexually dimorphic orgamisms in order to look at the
adaptive constraints put forth by sexually dimorphic characters. He also is interested in questions involving population genetics and
conservation. In addition to
pursing a Ph.D. in biology, he is a professional photographer.
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Mr. Sean Beckman
Graduate Research Mentor for The Fish Grinders (Team 3)
Sean Beckmann is graduate student in the Gaines lab. He studies the effects of biogeographic events and habitat fragmentation on the genetic
diversity of the cotton mouse, Peromyscus gossypinus. Sean also is involved with HHMI Summer Scholars, HHMI Intro
Biology labs, UM's workshop leader
program, and HHMI Research in Ecology. This is Sean's third year as a
Graduate Mentor for Dr. Gaines's RiE group, and he feels this has
been his best summer yet. In the midst of all, Sean and his wife are very
excited about the birth of their first child, which could happen at any moment!
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Ms. Jane Indorf
Graduate Research Mentor for The Food Processors (Team 4)
Originally from New Hampshire, Jane got her undergraduate Biology degree at Boston
University. She studied abroad in Australia, where she studied tropical rainforest ecology, conservation, and restoration and became interested in the field of mammalogy. Working under the supervision of Dr. Michael Gaines, she developed a Ph.D.
project focusing on the genetic variation and geographic
distribution of genetic diversity in the Marsh Rice
Rat. Once she has her Ph.D., she will pursue a postdoc,
probably in marine biology. She hopes to have a career in the academic environment where she can teach and continue to do research. Contact her via email here.
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Follow their adventures by clicking on the Team Research pages.
Faculty Research Mentors, with the assistance of the Graduate Research Mentors, design and prepare a research project that will require the participants to do a full five weeks of field and/or laboratory research in the area of Ecology.
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Dr. Donald DeAngelis
Faculty Research Mentor for the Shell Crackers (Team 1)
Dr. DeAngelis is a theoretical ecologist with an interest in population dynamics, age and size structure of populations, food web theory, ecosystem theory, forest dynamics, nutrient cycling, modeling of animal behavior and movement, and evolutionary theory. His recent interests have included developing individual-based population models for populations of fish and other animals. He is coordinator of a U.S. Geological Survey program developing a suite of landscape-level models of the Everglades ecosystem. |
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Dr. Sian Evans
Faculty Research Mentor for Chunky Monkey (Team 2)
Dr. Sian Evans was born and educated in the United Kingdom. While studying Zoology at the University of London, she had the good fortune to be introduced to Porky the alpha male in a group of pigtail monkeys living in London Zoo. This meeting and her subsequent study of the social dynamics of Porky's group proved pivotal in shaping her future career. In her current position as the Managing Director of the DuMond Conservancy for Primates and Tropical Forests in Miami she studies nocturnal owl monkeys and teaches in the Biology Department at Florida International University.
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Dr. Michael Gaines
Faculty Research Mentor for The Fish Grinders (Team 3)
Dr. Gaines's current research interests include the effect of habitat fragmentation on small mammal populations. He is interested in the effects of habitat patchiness on source-sink dynamics and the genetic structuring of populations, the evolution of mating systems in mammals, and conservation genetics of threatened and endangered mammalian species. He is currently studying the effects of habitat fragmentation on small mammal populations on hammock islands in the Florida Everglades, genetic variation in the Silver Rice Rat (Oryzomys argentatus) in the Florida Keys.
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Dr. Daniel Wang
Faculty Research Mentor for The Food Processors (Team 4)
Dr. Wang's current research is on the genetic structure of small mammal and South Florida Slash Pine populations. He employs modern molecular techniques, such as DNA sequencing and PCR to identify polymorphic genetic loci, and use these loci to characterize population structure and gene flow patterns of these species. He hopes that environmental impacts on these species' population dynamics could be illustrated at the genetic level, and that this information can be used to implement projects to preserve and restore natural populations. Most recently, he has been interested in determining whether foods advertised as "organic" actually contain Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). |
You can see more about their adventures by clicking on the Team Research pages.
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