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

Shout out from former visiting mentor

UTPA alumnus and former REU visiting mentor Matt Garcia is featured in the newest issue of Los Arcos. And nobody paid him to say the nice shout out he gave to the REU program (and programs like it).

What advice would you give current students who are interested in pursuing a research career?

Over the summer I had the opportunity to come back to UTPA and conduct a seminar and career workshop with some biology department students in an undergraduate research program – Research Experiences for Undergraduates. This is the first step for someone interested in a career in research science, to get involved and apply for programs like this. Nothing can replace the experience of actual hands-on bench research, and you’ll know very quickly whether this is the right career path. Research is the type of position that requires self-motivation and determination. It is a roller coaster ride with extreme highs and extreme lows and being able to deal with that is the ultimate litmus test of being a scientist.

Matt Garcia, we love you!

February seminar: Robin Fuchs-Young

Dr. Robin Fuchs-Young was in town yesterday as the third REU visiting mentor of the academic year. She gave a seminar on her work describing the interaction between a tumor supressor gene, p53, and receptors for the hormone estrogen, and how the interplay between these two affects breast cancer.


Although students were subdued during her talk, several had questions to ask her afterwards!

Dr. Fuchs-Young met with faculty and REU students individually, and also spoke briefly in the research ethics class that REU students are taking about some of the ethical issues she had cause to think about in her professional career.

We thank Dr. Fuchs-Young, and hope she enjoyed her visit despite taking her from her many other commitments (which required some last minute changes to her travel plans!).


L to R: Amery Yang, Ashley Longoria, Robin Fuchs-Young, Stephanie Jimenez, Ammie Ortiz, Jess Valdez, Stephanie Castellanos.

January seminar: Robyn Lints

Dr. Robyn Lints from Texas A&M University was the REU program's most recent visiting mentor. She spoke to students and faculty on her work with the worm species C. elegans. One of the unusual and not very well-known features of this species is that there are hermaphrodites -- which can fertilize themselves -- and males, but no females. Dr. Lints is doing research on the neurobiology of how the males recognize and mate with hermaphrodites (who frequently do not particularly want to be mated, from all appearances). She had some truly amazing transgenic techniques she was using to investigate these questions.

Dr. Lints met with faculty and REU students individually, and also spoke briefly in the research ethics class that REU students are taking about some of the ethical issues she had cause to think about in her professional career.

We thank Dr. Lints, and hope she enjoyed her visit despite having over 8 hours of delayed flights (shudder!).


L to R: (back) Ammie Ortiz, Jess Valdez, Stephanie Castellanos, Stephanie Jimenez, Robyn Lints, (front) Ashley Longoria, Amery Yang

First spring 2009 seminar: Mate recognition

Dr. Robyn Lints of Texas A&M University will be giving her seminar, "Mate recognition behavior in the nematode worm C. elegans: Knowing a good thing when you find it" in SCIE 2.108, at noon, Thursday, 29 January 2009.

More information about Dr. Lints and her research is at: http://www.bio.tamu.edu/facmenu/faculty/LintsR.htm

Robyn with a Y and Robin with an I

The REU program is pleased to announce our next two visiting mentors. Both speakers will be giving departmental seminars at noon in SCIE 2.108.

29 January 2009

Later this month, we will be hosting Robyn Lints from Texas A&M University. When I visited A&M, she showed me some very cool stuff on C. elegans.

More information about Dr. Lints and her research is at: http://www.bio.tamu.edu/facmenu/faculty/LintsR.htm





19 February 2009

In February, we will host our second Robin (this time with an "I"), Robin Fuchs-Young. Some of you may have met her at HESTEC; she's visited our campus a few times, and we are pleased to have her back for a longer visit.

More information about Dr. Fuchs-Young and her research is at: http://sciencepark.mdanderson.org/faculty/fuchs-young_r/

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.

Another summer seminar

It's always nice to welcome one of your own back.

Our next visiting mentor, Dr. Matthew Garcia, is a UTPA alumnus. He will returning to his old stomping grounds to present a seminar titled, "The mitochondria and neurodegeneration: A tale of two proteins, μ-calpain and PANK2" on 15 July 2008, 11:30 am, in SCIE 2.106.

Matt Garcia completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biology here in 2002. He then completed his doctoral research at the University of Kentucky in 2007. He is currently a postdoctoral associate at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Summer seminar

Dr. Wes Tunnell is our next REU visiting mentor. He will be presenting a seminar on coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico on 1 July 2008, 1:00 pm, in SCIE 2.108.

Dr. Wes Tunnell is founder of the Center for Coastal Studies, Associate Director of the Harte Research Institute, Director of the Center for Coastal Studies, and Professor of Biology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He is a broadly trained marine biologist/ecologist with a particular interest in field studies on coral reefs and coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

Dr. Tunnell's most recent book, Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico, was published in 2007. He is slated to publish Texas Seashells later this year.

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.