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Quick Links to the...
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 various capstone seminars.
Research in Ecology students spend classroom time listening to short lectures and engaging in hands-on activities in evolution and ecology.
Her most notable avocation is Lagomorph Rescue through her tax-exempt corporation, H.A.R.E., Inc.
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Ms. Suzy Pappas
Statistics and Computers Instructor
Probability and statistics are a critical component of ecological studies.
Suzy engaged our students with interactive exercises in probability and statistics, using ecological examples. She spearheaded a beach cleanup at Matheson Hammock Park, and had the students use the data they collected to examine the components of waste washing up on southern Florida beaches.
Suzy also taught our participants the use of various software programs to effectively analyze and present their research.
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Ms. Susan Zabowski
Scientific Writing Instructor
Susan Zabowski currently is an adjunct faculty member of the English Composition Program at
the University of Miami, specializing in Technical and Scientific Writing and English
Composition courses. She has been with UM for 12 years and worked previously at Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
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Here's our team of Undergraduate Facilitators for 2010.
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Ms. Fabiana Barnabe
Assistant Undergraduate Facilitator for The Green Thumbs (Team 4)
Fabiana is a senior majoring in Microbiology and Immunology and Religion (an
know, an interesting combination). She likes science but also loves people which is why she'd like to
one day be a doctor, working with people in low income areas. She loves most music, with Gavin
DeGraw and Queen being her favorites. If you put Leonaro DiCaprio in a movie she will watch it.
Fabiana is passionate about helping others, which is why she would like to work with Teach for America
in the future.
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Ms. Jessica Kirsner
Undergraduate Facilitator for Going Bananas (Team 2)
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. Rob Rankin
Undergraduate Facilitator for Submerged Scales in Hiding (Team 1)
Rob is a biology and philosophy major, considering a third major or a minor in
physics. He is from down in the Florida Keys, is learning to scuba dive, and loves
reading any book by Darren Shan. In his free time, you can find him playing Spades
online, reading biology textbooks, or at the beach.
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Ms. Naomi Wuerthele
Undergraduate Facilitator for The Vampire Guppies (Team 3)
Having majored in Biology for her first two years at the university of Miami, Naomi will become an animal science/pre-veterinary major at the University of Tennesse at
Knoxville this coming fall. She is an advanced certified scuba diver and loves to go diving on the
weekends. She played rugby for the University of Miami and is currently playing for
UTK. She enjoys reading series such as Twilight, Harry Potter, and Fallen, and watching TV shows House, Bones, and CSI.
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Follow their adventures by clicking on the Team Research pages.
Here's our team of Graduate Research Mentors for 2010.
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Mr. Jiang Jiang
Graduate Research Mentor for Submerged Scales in Hiding (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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Ms. Lorraine Shaughnessy
Graduate Research Mentor for Going Bananas (Team 2)
Lorraine's love of animals and wildlife is evident in both her professional and personal
life. She graduated from UM with a Masters in Biology, specializing in ecology and animal
behavior, and would like to pursue a career in conservation. In addition, Lorraine is active
member of the Cat Network, which is dedicated to the humane reduction of feral cat
overpopulation, and fosters rescued cats. In her spare time, she also volunteers at the
DuMond Conservancy for Primates and Tropical Forests.
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Mr. Sean Beckman
Graduate Research Mentor for The Vampire Guppies (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 upcoming arrival of their second child.
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Dr. Jane Indorf
PostDoctoral Research Mentor for The Green Thumbs (Team 4)
Originally from New Hampshire, Jane received 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. Jane will be leaving for a post-doc shortly after the RiE 2010 Program, and we wish her well! Contact her at jane@bio.miami.edu.
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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 required a full five weeks of
active experimental design and research from our participants.
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Dr. Donald DeAngelis
Faculty Research Mentor for the Submerged Scales in Hiding (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 Going Bananas (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 Vampire Guppies (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 Green Thumbs (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 read more about each team's research adventures
by clicking on the Team Research pages.
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