HESTEC Science Symposium 2009

The HESTEC science symposium was held earlier this week, and the REU program was pleased to host one of the three featured speakers, Dr. Susan Golden. Dr Golden discussed why pond scum might be able to, if not save the world, fly a few planes. Turns out that cyanobacteria are a good candidate for producing biofuels, and Dr. Golden, thanks to her work on one particular organism, has a good idea of what its genetics are like, making them promising for genetic modification.

Dr. Golden was followed by two other distinguished speakers, Drs. Eloy Rodriguez and Robert Curl, both of whom were taking about very small scales (organic chemicals) that might have very big impacts.

The Science Symposium also features a student research poster competition, and this year, the Department of Biology’s winner was an REU student, for the second year running!


Kristen Hopperstad (center) received a plaque and a laptop computer for her ongoing research with Dr. Brian Fredensborg (left). The day was, as the photo suggests, all a bit of a blur.

HESTEC 2009

Our next visiting mentor, and featured speaker at this year’s HESTEC science symposium, will be Dr. Susan Golden. Dr. Golden is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California San Diego.

Dr. Golden is best known for her work on daily (circadian) rhythms in cyanobacteria. She is also currently investigating the possibility of using these small organisms to generate biofuels.

Please come listen to Dr. Golden’s talk at 9:00 am on Monday, September 28 in the Engineering auditorium, ENG 1.300.

Doctor Golden on the web

• UC San Diego faculty page


• Interview on The Science Show


• Representative publications




• Mackey SR, Golden SS. 2007. Winding up the cyanobacterial circadian clock. Trends in Microbiology 15: 381-388. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2007.08.005


• Bell-Pedersen D, Cassone VM, Earnest DJ, Golden SS, Hardin PE, Thomas TL, Zoran MJ. 2005. Circadian rhythms from multiple oscillators: lessons from diverse organisms. Nature Reviews Genetics 6:544-556. http://dxd.oi.org/10.1038/nrg1633


• Golden SS. 2004. Meshing the gears of the cyanobacterial circadian clock. PNAS 101: 13697-13698. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0405623101


• Ouyang Y, Andersson CR, Kondo T, Golden SS, Johnson CH. 1998. Resonating circadian clocks enhance fitness in cyanobacteria. PNAS 95: 8660-8664.
  http://www.pnas.org/content/95/15/8660.abstract

World class

Our university president, Bambi Cardenas, wrote a memo today describing a dinner conversation she had with Dr. Arden Bement, the National Science Foundation director. He said about HESTEC:

Imagine, 50,000 people coming to celebrate science. Bambi, it’s the best in the nation, and by extension, the best in the world.

NSF director visits UTPA

Left to right: Amery Yang, Ashley Longoria, Ammie Ortiz, NSF director Dr. Arden Bement, Jr., Jess Valdez, Stephanie Jimenez.

Dr. Bement and several other NSF staffers visited UTPA today, and met with students in our REU program. Here mainly for HESTEC, they had a chance to view student research posters presented at the HESTEC science symposium, and chat with several students in some detail about their research.

HESTEC science symposium 2008

The HESTEC science symposium yesterday was held yesterday, and the REU program was proud to welcome visiting mentor Dr. François Therrien.

Despite being the first talk of the morning, Dr. Therrien addressed a large audience in the Engineering auditorium, and delighted listeners with a lively and engaging story about dinosaur diversity and climate change, and how lessons learned in paleontology can inform our understanding of the current climate change crisis.


On Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, Dr. Therrien, joined by fellow paleontologist Darla Zelenitski, visited the student posters and met with the REU students and their mentors individually. They also took a few minutes with REU students in the Sue exhibit to talk a little about the skeleton. As it happened, one part of the exhibit contained a panel proclaiming that T. rex was a "super sniffer," and that the part of the T. rex brain involved with smell was almost the same size as the rest of its brain. Drs. Therrien and Zelenitski had published a paper disputing that claim earlier this year. They argued that the olfactory part of the brain was not as large as had been thought (grapefruit size) -- although it was still large relative to other meat-eating dinosaurs (strawberry sized, maybe).

It's fun to have an expert on hand...


Front row: Amery Yang. Middle row (L to R): Jess Valdez, Stephanie Jimenez, Darla Zelenitski, François Therrien, Ashley Longoria, Ammie Ortiz, Stephanie Castellanos. Back row: Sue.

HESTEC poster winner

REU student Ashley Longoria (pictured at right) won the student poster competition for the Department of Biology for her work on how salinity stresses impact parasitic infections. Congratulations!

At left: Poster co-author Perla Aguirre. This work was supervised by REU mentor Brian Fredensborg.

HESTEC 2008

The REU program will again be a major presence at HESTEC this year. Our REU students will have posters in the science symposium, and an REU visiting mentor will be a featured speaker at the science symposium.

I am excited to have Dr. Francois Therrien (pictured) as a guest to HESTEC and the REU program. Dr. Therrien is a dinosaur paleoecologist who works in the world-class Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada.

Dr. Therrien's visit coincides with the display of a cast of the T. rex skeleton, Sue. Dr. Therrien has actually studied and published work on T. rex -- check out the story, "T. rex - nothing to sniff at" on Quirks and Quarks (below). He's also done fascinating work on bite strength, described new fossil species, and more.

Dr. Therrien on the web

• Royal Tyrrell Museum staff page


• Interview on CBC radio's science show, Quirks and Quarks


• Representative publications
  
  
  
  • Ali F, Zelenitsky DK, Therrien F, Weishampel DB (2008) Homology of the "ethmoid complex" of tyrannosaurids and its implications for the reconstruction of the olfactory apparatus of non-avian theropods. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28:123-133
    
    DOI 10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28[123:HOTECO]2.0.CO;2
  
  
  • Zelenitsky DK, Therrien F (2008) Phylogenetic analysis of reproductive traits of maniraptoran theropods and its implications for egg parataxonomy. Palaeontology 51:807-816 DOI 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00770.x
  
  
  • Therrien F, Henderson DM (2007) My theropod is bigger than yours… or not: Estimating body size from skull length in theropods. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27:108-115
    
    DOI 10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[108:MTIBTY]2.0.CO;2
  
  
  • Therrien F (2006) Depositional environments and fluvial system changes in the dinosaur-bearing Sânpetru Formation (Late Cretaceous, Romania): Post-orogenic sedimentation in an active extensional basin. Sedimentary Geology 192:183-205 DOI 10.1016/j.sedgeo.2006.04.002
  
  
  • Lipka TR, Therrien F, Weishampel DB, Jamniczky HA, Joyce WG, Colbert MW, Brinkman DB (2006) A new turtle from the Arundel clay facies (Potomac Formation, Early Cretaceous) of Maryland, U.S.A. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26:300-307
    
    DOI 10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[300:ANTFTA]2.0.CO;2
  
  
  • Therrien F (2005) Feeding behaviour and bite force of sabretoothed predators. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145:393-426
    
    DOI 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00194.x
  
  
  • Therrien F (2005) Mandibular force profiles of extant carnivorans and implications for the feeding behaviour of extinct predators. Journal of Zoology 267:249-270
    
    DOI 10.1017/S0952836905007430
  
  
  • Therrien F (2005) Palaeoenvironments of the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) dinosaurs of Romania: insights from fluvial deposits and paleosols of the Transylvanian and Hateg basins. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 218:15-56
    
    DOI 10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.12.005
  
  
  • Therrien F, Fastovsky DE (2000) Paleoenvironments of early theropods, Chinle formation (Late Triassic), Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Palaios 15:194-211
    
    DOI 10.1669/0883-1351(2000)015<0194:POETCF>2.0.CO;2
  
  

Dates to remember

• 8 September: Poster abstracts due


• 15 September: Posters due


• 22 September: Science symposium

HESTEC Science Symposium

Now that the madness of HESTEC is over, I can share a few pictures from our visiting mentor's visit.

The audience at the Science Symposium, quivering with anticipation.

Zuleyma at the lectern.

Zuleyma describing her early experiences with animal behaviour, which included a close encounter with a deadly Venezuelan snake.

Lunch break! I'm to the right of Zuleyma, then Dean Ed LeMaster is barely visible to my right, then Hashim Mahdi, John Villareal, Jo Rampersad, Mircea Chipara, Lawrence William, Robin Fuchs Young, Irma Jimenez Conti, and Jon Lieman.

Zuleyma and students listening to a roundtable discussion hosted by M.D. Anderson Science Park faculty Robin Fuchs Young and Irma Jimenez Conti.

Our inaugural visiting mentor

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Zuleyma Tang Martinez will be our REU program's first visiting mentor, and will be a featured speaker at the HESTEC Science Symposium, and participate in Latinas' Day.

Zuleyma studies animal behavior, particularly social behavior and communication. She was born in Venezuela and has been affiliated with the University of Missouri-St. Louis since 1976, where she has published over 20 journal articles, edited several symposium proceedings, given over 75 conference presentations, and over a dozen invited presentations.

Zuleyma served as President of the Animal Behavior Society in 1993-1994, and founded the society’s Latin American Affairs Committee in 1996. This year, she was given the society’s Distinguished Service Award (pictured) for her efforts to diversify the Animal Behavior Society and increase participation of Central and South Americans.

Dr. Martinez’s other awards include being named O'Neil Ray Collins Distinguished Minority Scientist, at University of California, Berkeley in 1995, and receiving the Educational Equity Teaching Award for Higher Education, 1995 from the St. Louis Educational Equity Coalition.

Zuleyma is an outstanding scientist, and will be a fantastic guest for HESTEC. I couldn't be happier with having her as the first person to visit UTPA as part of our REU program.

Confirmed, plausible, or busted?

Dude! The MythBusters are slated to come to HESTEC. These guys are doing some of the best television – never mind science television or education television – on American screens right now.

It's going to be a challenge to make our REU program's contribution to HESTEC top that. But we'll try!