This academic year all Biology Seminars are happening on Zoom, as Zoom Webinars, followed by a Q&A session. This allowed us to invite speakers from afar, including lots of Bard alums, which is definitely a silver lining for these weird times!

Speakers for the Spring 2021 semester:

• Audrey Russel ’20, Isa Jones  – who both just finished their senior projects in December 2020
• Prof. Tom Cech, Nobel Prize Laureate, University of Colorado Boulder
• Molly McQuillan ’17, Brown University
• Dr. Min Kyung Shinn ’14, Washington University in St. Louis
• Dr. Caroline Bartman, Princeton U
• Shailab Shrestha ’16, Tufts
• Dr. Marta Shocket ’09, University of California, Los Angeles
• Dr. David George Haskell, author of “The Forest Unseen”; Sewanee University
• Dr. Carlita Favero, Ursinus College
• Dr. Sully Fernandez, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson
• Liz Miller ’18, University of Hawaii at Manoa
• sprojjes (tbc)

Speakers that we had the honor to host in the fall of 2020:

• Georgia Doing ’15, Dartmouth
• Nadia Russel ’20, Addie Finch ’20, Eli McClatchy ’20, Gabby Hartman ’20, who finished their senior project in May 2020
• Silas Busch ’16, U Chicago
• Dr. Erica Perez, Xavier U of Louisiana
• Dr. Parris Humphrey ’06, Harvard U
• Prof. Manu Prakash, Stanford
• Dr. Sara Andreotti, University of Stellenbosch
• Emma Kelsick ’17, AmeriCorps
• Prof. Scott Loss, U Oklahoma
• Prof. Mary Lou Guerinot, Dartmouth
• Dr. Melanie McReynolds, Princeton U
• Dr. Daniel Gonzales, Purdue

• 1/30 Introduction
• 2/6 Wendy Turner, SUNY-Albany. Anthrax Transmission in
  Herbivorous African Wildlife
• 2/13 Shari Wiseman, Nature Neuroscience. Perspectives on Scientific Publishing
• 2/20 Felicia Keesing Bard College, Biology Program. The Ecology of an African Savanna
• 2/27 Krista Caballero, Bard College, Experimental Humanities Program. Birding the Future
• 3/5 Michael Gitlin, Hunter College. Carriers of Meaning: Some Research Threads in The Night Visitors, a film about moths by Michael Gitlin
• ——— All in-person seminars below this point are cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemics. We will update this page once we have a better plan. Stay tuned!
• 3/12 Samantha Monier ‘12, CUNY. Changing Climate and the Winter Seabird Community of South Georgia
• 3/19 Megan Gall, Vassar College. Hear, Here? The What and Where of Northern Saw-whet Owl Auditory Processing
• 3/26 SPRING BREAK
• 4/2 Rachit Neupane ‘13, MIT. BMI1 is a Context-dependent Tumor Suppressor that is a Barrier to Dedifferentiation in Non-small Cell Lung Adenocarcinoma
• 4/9 Min Shinn ‘14, Washington University-St. Louis. Allosteric Effect of Single-stranded DNA Binding Proteins (SSB) C-terminal Tails on E. coli RecO Binding to DNA
• 4/16 Erika Crispo, Pace University. Adaptive States versus Evolutionary Processes: A Meta-Analysis Contrasting Conservation Approaches
• 4/23 Colin Aitken, Vassar College. Investigating the Mechanism of Translation Initiation on the Ribosome and Across the Transcriptome
• 4/30 ADVISING WEEK
• 5/7 Student talks (TBC)

Biology seminars are happening every Thursday, at 12 pm, in RKC 103 (the biggest auditorium, aka Bito auditorium)

The plan for this semester:

• 9/12 – Quanita Kendrick, ’17. In The Interim: Navigating the Field Post- Graduation
• 9/19 – Jeremy Kirchman, SUNY-Albany. The Evergreen archipelago: Ecology and Evolution of Birds at the Edge of the Boreal Forest
• 9/26 – Wyatt Shell, ’10, University of New Hampshire. Opportunities Beyond Undergrad: The Evolution of Research Potential
• 10/3 – Alexis Gambis, ’03. If Butterflies Could Speak!
• 10/10 – Michael Hood, Amherst College. Disease at the Edge of Species Distributions: Anther-smut Fungi of Wild Carnations
• 10/17 – Sonya Auer, Williams College. Energetic Mechanisms for Coping with Environmental Change
• 10/24 – Shari Wiseman, Associate Editor at Nature Neuroscience. Perspectives on Scientific Publishing
• 10/31 – Rick Relyea, RPI. The Jefferson Project: Integrating Science and Technology for Enduring Lake Protection
• 11/7 – Paula Checchi, Marist College. DNA Repair: Why Do We Care?
• 11/14 – Felicia Keesing, Bard College. How to Plan a Meaningful Summer
• 11/21 – Daryl Lamson, NY Dept. of Health. Special Case Investigations in Virology: Finding the Unexpected
• 12/5 – Senior Project Talks (tbc)

1/31 – Introduction
2/7 – Jennifer Dean. New York Dept of Environmental Conservation. Prioritizing Invasive Species Efforts: Working Smarter with NYS Tools and Data
2/14 – Zion Klos. Marist College. Water and Climate in Social-Ecological Systems: Collaborations in Research, Art, and Science Communication
2/21 – Sonya Auer. Williams College. Energetic Mechanisms for Coping with Environmental Change
2/28 – Seeta Sistla. Hampshire College. Unexpected Impacts of Land-based Solar Arrays: Novel Habitat Heterogeneity Formation and Its Influence on Plant-soil Interactions.
3/7 – Elise McKenna Myers. Columbia University. The Impact of Microbial Particle Association on Pathogen Persistence in the Hudson River Estuary
3/14 – Sarah Mount, ‘10. New York Dept of Environmental Conservation. The Hudson River Eel Project: . Fish Conservation Through Citizen Science
3/21 – SPRING BREAK-NO SEMINAR
3/28 – Leroy Cooper. Vassar College. Inter-relations of Aortic Stiffness, Microvascular Function, and Cardiovascular Disease and Cognition
4/4 – Dorothy Beckett. University of Maryland. Regulating Vitamin Biotin Distribution:. Implications for Health and Biotechnology
4/11 – Swapan Jain. Chemistry Program, Bard College. Regulation of RNA Using Synthetic Small Molecules
4/18 – Brian McGill. University of Maine. Global Change and Biodiversity: Understanding Our Future Through the Past
4/25 – Cathy Collins. Biology Program, Bard College. Title TBD
5/2 – Senior Project talks: Lucy Christiana, Rachael Mendoza, and Melissa Yost-Bido
5/9 – COMPLETION DAYS-NO SEMINAR

Biology Seminars happen in the RKC auditorium every Thursday at noon. The schedule for Fall 2018:

Sep 13: Scott Chimeleski, Harvard University. Imaging Microbial Activity through a Macro Lens
Sep 20: Alexandra Purdy, Amherst College. Bacterial regulatory networks controlling both host and microbe metabolism: a tale in two Vibrios
Sep 27: Lucija Peterlin Masic, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. New DNA Gyrase B inhibitors effective again ESCAPE pathogens
Oct 4: Jason Breves, Skidmore College. Salt and water balance in fishes: endocrine mechanisms of environmental adaptation
Oct 11: no seminar, fall break
Oct 18: Liza Comita, Yale School of Forestry. Who are the species in your neighborhood? Density-dependent interactions in a tropical tree community
Oct 25: Steve Franks, Fordham. Evolutionary Responses to Climate Change Revealed by the Resurrection Approach
Nov 1: Gabriel Perron, Bard College (title tba)
Nov 8: Vanisha Lakhina, Princeton University. Identifying genes that enhance neuronal health with age
Nov 15: Grace Barber, Pine Barrens. Ants, art, science education, and environmental conservation: A Bardian’s story
Nov 22: no seminar, Thanksgiving
Nov 29: Felicia Keesing, Bard College. How to have a meaningful summer
Dec 6: no seminar, Advising week in Biology program
Dec 13: Senior projects (names and titles will be known later)

Five biology students brought their senior project posters to the Hudson Valley Life Science Group (HVLSG) Spring Research Symposium, which was held at Vassar college this year. The conference was a blast, with about 30 students participating, and a great keynote lecture about frogs and owls (by Vassar professor Megan Gall).

• 2/1 – Introduction and orientation
• 2/8 – Chris Vecsey – Skidmore College – Sleeping on the Fly: Studying Fruit Flies to Learn About Mechanisms of Sleep Regulation
• 2/15 – Kerri-Ann Norton – Bard College – The Influence of the Host Microenvironment on Breast Cancer Progression: Investigations Using a Computational Biology Approach
• 2/22 – Susan Elbin – Audubon
• 3/1 – Olorunseun Ogunwobi – Hunter College – MicroRNA-1207-3p in Prostate Cancer
• 3/8 – Steven Franks – Fordham University – Evolutionary Responses to Climate Change Revealed by the Resurrection Approach
• 3/15 – Carmen Melendez-Vasquez – Hunter College – Myelinating Glia Differentiation is Regulated by the Mechanical Properties of the Extracellular Matrix
• 3/29 – Matteo Farinella – Columbia University – Comics and Science
• 4/5 – Robyn Smyth – Bard Center for Environmental Policy
• 4/12 – Bruce Robertson – Bard College
• 4/19 – Felicia Keesing – Bard College – The Tick Project: Testing environmental interventions to prevent tick-borne diseases
• 4/26 – Arseny Khakhalin – Bard College – Neural network connectivity in the brain of tadpoles that helps them detect impeding collisions
• 5/3 – Student talks

The Biology Seminars (biosem) happen every Thursday at noon, in RKC 103 (large auditorium). The list of speakers and talks this semester:

• 9/7 INFORMATION SESSION
• 9/14 Krishna Veeramah,  SUNY Stony Brook. Ancient European Dog Genomes Reveal Continuity Since the Early Neolithic
• 9/21 Ilyas Washington, Columbia University.
• 9/28 Wilfredo Colon, RPI. Degradation-resistant proteins: Biological, Disease, and Biotechnology Implications
• 10/5 Helen Alexander, Kansas University. Effects of Viruses on Plant Fitness: A Plant Ecologist’s Foray into Plant Virus Ecology
• 10/12 Dave Alexander, Kansas University. The Evolution of Animal Flight From a Biomechanics Perspective
• 10/19 NO SEMINAR
• 10/26 Pia-Kelsey O’Neill, Columbia University.
• 11/2 Jessica Hua, SUNY Binghamton. Poisons, Predators, and Parasites: Integrating Ecological and Evolutionary Complexity into Toxicology
• 11/9 Sarah Dunphy-Lelii, Bard College. The Chimpanzees of Ngogo
• 11/16 Felicia Keesing, Bard College. Integrating Livestock and Wildlife in an African Savanna
• 11/23 THANKSGIVING RECESS
• 11/30 Felicia Keesing. How to Plan a Meaningful Summer
• 12/7 Student talks
• 12/14 Student talks

14 students from Bard presented their posters at the yearly local science conference named “Hudson Valley Life Sciences Group Spring Research Symposium”, in SUNY New Paltz on April 28. Other schools that presented their work included SUNY New Paltz, Vassar College, and Marist College. The conference was clearly very productive (big thanks to the organizers!), and helped Bard seniors to hone their presentation skills, and practice their senior project elevator speeches!

The bio seminars happen every Thursday at noon, in RKC 103 (large auditorium). The list of speakers and talks this semester:

• • 2-Feb: Information session
  • 9-Feb: Cancelled because of a snowstorm
  • 16-Feb: Emma Rosi; Cary Institute; Our Rivers on Drugs
  • 23-Feb: Kirk Haltaufderhyde; University of RI; Characterization of Human T cell Response to Dengue
  • 2-Mar: Paolo Forni; SUNY Albany; Terminal differentiation of vomeronasal sensory neurons and GnRH-1 neuronal migration, from new models to new stories
  • 9-Mar: Jordan Ruybal; U Scranton; The influence of climate change and evolution on mosquito life history traits and pathogen transmission
  • 16-Mar: Cathy Collins, on the ecology of plant-fungal interactions
  • 23-Mar: Spring Recess
  • 30-Mar: Sarita Lagalwar; Skidmore; Ataxin1-pS776: Single site phosphorylation and its impact on neurodegenerative disease
  • 6-Apr: Chris Elphick; U Connecticut; Canaries in the saltmarsh: tidal marsh conservation in the face of sea level rise
  • 13-Apr: Cancelled
  • 20-Apr: Sarah Bowden; Cary Institute; The ecology of West Nile virus in the United States
  • 27-Apr: Charvann Bailey; Vassar; Molecular mechanisms of SLUG-induced chemotherapeutic resistance in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)
  • 4-May: Alexander Petroff; Rockefeller; tbc (mathematical dynamics of microbial cooperation)
  • 11-May: Michelle Hersh; Sarah Lawrence; tbc (ecology of fungal-plant interactions)
  • 18-May: Student talks:
    • Abiba Salahou: A Novel Approach for Exploring the Effects of Fluoxetine on Xenopus laevis tadpole Feeding Behavior.
    • Virginia Caponera: The Insectivore’s Dilemma: An assessment of the potential role of red-backed salamander predation on tick populations.
    • Biz Osborne-Schwartz: Attachment affinity of Vibrio cholerae to resistant starches: testing the benefit of adding resistant starches to an oral rehydration therapy.

Illustration: Scholars at an Abbasid library, House of Wisdom, Baghdad. A miniature by Yahyá al-Wasiti, 1237, from the Maqamat of al-Hariri manuscript.