Graduate students in Integrative Biology win awards for their oral presentations at Oklahoma State's Research week.  In the biology division, Lynne Beatty won 1st place, Bill Mausbach won 2nd place, and Jillian Wormington won 3rd place. Michael Moore won second place for his talk in the education division. Lynne is part of the Luttbeg lab and presented on the effects of chronic predation risk on tadpole activity levels. Bill is part of the Dziawlowski lab and he studies factors contributing to zooplankton metacommunity structure. Jillian is also part of the Luttbeg lab and studies burying bettles, important deomposers in Oklahoman ecosystems. Michael is part of the French lab and studies the effects of different teaching methods on students' persistence and performance. Congratulations graduate students!

Pictured left from top left to bottom right: An American burying beetle chowing down; Bill Mausbach sampling zooplankton in a playa; Michael Moore presenting his research; a tadpole living in a chronic predation risk environment

Undergraduate students in the Department of Integrative also won awards during research week. Lauren Schmidt, an undergraduate researcher in the DuRant lab, won first place in the biology division for her oral presentation showcasing her research on how personality can shape an individuals behavioral and morphological responses to predators. Lauren is mentored by PhD student Chris Goodchild. Cassandra Dowds, a senior Science education major won third place in the biological sciences poster competition for her work on the influence of embryonic exposure to predator cues on the growth and anti-predator behavior of snails. Cassandra worked with PhD student Lynne Beatty in the Luttbeg lab in collaboration with Dr. Julie Angle of the College of Education. Finally, Katherine Savaria tied for 1st place in the undergrdaute poster competition Kathy is a senior OK-LSAMP scholar working in the Collection of Vertebrates on nematodes in Mustelidae (weasels, minks, otters) and Mephitidae (skunks). Congratulations undergraduate reserachers!

 Pictures: Lauren (left) and Cassandra (right) presenting their research at symposia last fall.

And last, but not least, four graduate students were finalist in the three minute thesis competition in the College of Arts and Sciences (14 finalist of 81 participants). Chris Goodchild (DuRant lab), Jess Magaña (Lovern lab), Will Wiggins (Wilder lab) and Kelsey Deal (Baum lab) gave short, impactful presentations on topics as diverse as sexiness in spiders, parasitism in butterflies, oil spills and birds, and the characteristics of a succesful invader. Congratulations students! 

Picture: The finalist strike their most philosophical pose!