The Biology Department was recently ranked second nationally by the Chronicle of Higher Education for faculty productivity in 2005 among programs offering zoology degrees. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and dedication!

Prof. Don Mykles traveled to Washington, DC Feb. 4-7 for a NSF Predoctoral Fellowship review panel.

Professor Patricia Bedinger represented the College of Natural Sciences at a conference called "Transforming the Culture: Undergraduate Education and the Multiple Functions of the Research University" in Washington DC in November.

Professor Patricia Bedinger and graduate student Paul Covey attended the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego in January.

Professor Mike Antolin travelled to Atlanta, Georgia, to collaborate with scientists at Emory University.

Postdoctoral Research Associate Sai Prasad Goud, Special Assistant Professor Gul Shad Ali and Professor A.S.N. Reddy published a paper in Plant Journal.

Banuelos G, LeDuc DL, Pilon-Smits EAH, Tagmount A, Terry N (2007) Transgenic Indian mustard overexpressing selenocysteine lyase, selenocysteine methyltransferase, or methionine methyltransferase exhibit enhanced potential for selenium phytoremediation under field conditions. Environmental Science and Technology 41: 599-605

Schiavon M, Zhang L, Abdel-Ghany SE, Pilon M, Malagoli M, Pilon-Smits EAH (2007) Variation in copper metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana accessions Columbia, Landsberg erecta and Wassilewskija. Physiologia Plantarum 129: 342-350

Galeas ML, Zhang LH, Freeman JL, Wegner M, Pilon-Smits EAH (2007) Seasonal fluctuations of selenium and sulfur accumulation in selenium hyperaccumulators and related non-accumulators. New Phytologist 173: 517-525

Lowell, J.L., A. Zhansarina, B. Yockey, T. Meka-Mechenko, G., B. Atshabar, L. Nekrassova, R. Tashmetov, K. Kenghebaeva, M.C. Chu, M. Kosoy, M.F. Antolin, and K.L. Gage. 2007.
Phenotypic and molecular characterizations of Yersinia pestis isolates from Kazakhstan and adjacent regions. Microbiology 153: 169–177.
(Dr. Jen Lowell has moved on to a post-doctoral position at the University of Montana, she was co-supervised at Colroado State by Ken Gage, faculty affilaite from the CDC, and Professor Mike Antolin.

Searle, K. R., T. Vandervelde, N. T. Hobbs, L. A. Shipley, and B. A. Wunder. 2006. Spatial context influences patch residence time in foraging hierarchies. Oecologia 148:710-719.

Graduate student Aryn Wilder and Professor Mike Antolin are co-authors on a study led by Becky Eisen of the CDC. The study, "Early-phase transmission of Yersinia pestis by unblocked fleas as a mechanism explaining rapidly spreading plague epizootics", was nominated for the CDC's Charles C. Shepard Award for scientific achievement.

Professor Patricia Bedinger's research on tomato evolution was featured on the front page of the Rocky Mountain Collegian on January 19.

Research published by Professors Jim Detling and Mike Antolin, in collaboration Justin Derner of the USDA Central Plains Experimental Range and the Short Grass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research Project, on the effects of prairie dogs on the economics of cattle grazing, was featured in the Denver Post on January 4, 2007.