The solo exhibition will open Jan. 9 with an artist’s talk slated for Jan. 14.
Biology Archive (158 Stories)
Nadia Ayoub, professor of biology, loves sharing her passion for open-ended scientific exploration with colleagues and students.
The director of environmental studies and professor of biology received the funding from the Virginia Departments of Wildlife Resources and Environmental Quality.
Marcie Bernard ’25 explored the different avenues of veterinary medicine in the Amazon Rainforest as she worked to rehabilitate and rewild animals at Hoja Nueva.
Kylee Cross ’27 received the Soldier Leader of the Cycle Award at her graduation ceremony on August 1.
At the New England Aquarium, Julia Luzzio ’25 is expanding her horizons and gaining hands-on experience working with wildlife.
Pari Ahmadi ’24 will be working as a clinical research coordinator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before attending medical school.
The Gilman Scholarship Program offers awards of up to $5,000 to U.S. undergraduate students who are Pell Grant recipients.
McKean has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach English in Germany.
Emma Aldrich ’22, Tanajia Moye-Green ’23 and Jules Seay ’24 have received pre-doctoral graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation to support their research.
The first-year biology professor co-authored a paper titled “Sponge-derived matter is assimilated by coral holobionts.”
First-year biology professor co-authored a paper titled “Microbiome environmental shifts differ between two co-occurring octocoral hosts.”
Lucy Worthy ’24 assisted in the research and helped publish the results alongside two W&L alumni.
Lauren Shelby ’23 will be pursuing her master’s degree at New York University.
Robert Humston will assess over 30 years of data collected by the U.S. Forest Service within the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson National Forests.
Professor of Biology Robert Humston’s Spring Term course takes a deep dive into environmental problem-solving.
Professors Nadia Ayoub and Kyle Friend, and students Jamal Magoti ’23, Maria Luzaran ’23, Cooper Lazo ’24 and Eman Muamar ’24 all contributed to the paper that appeared in the open science platform Frontiers.
Boyd’s piano recital will be held in person and via Livestream on May 17 at 7 p.m.
Seay has been selected for the Goldwater Scholarship to support a research career in science, mathematics and engineering, and also earned the Udall Scholarship in the environmental category.
Boussy has been awarded a Fulbright-Nehru research grant to study Buddhist shrines and temples in India.
Bill Hamilton will utilize the grant to fund his ongoing research on ecosystem health in Yellowstone National Park.
Mike Hepner serves as a laboratory technician for the biology department.
Katie Wall Podracky '05 painted the landscape of more than 40 state parks during the COVID-19 shutdown.
The grant funds a three-year study in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University and East Tennessee State University.
Nadia Ayoub, professor of biology, will discuss this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine on Wednesday, Feb. 8.
After nearly three decades of training, Laura Goodwin '99 accomplished her lifelong dream: to swim the English Channel.
First-year Johnson Scholar to offer preliminary research on foot-limb dominance and neuromuscular asymmetry in pediatric soccer players.
Bonner Kirkland '23 conducted biomedical research this summer in the Children’s National Hospital’s Department of Genetic Medicine.
Lucy Worthy ’24 is conducting clinical research and shadowing a physician at the Mayo Clinic.
Leah Jackson ’22 always knew she wanted to pursue the health field. Thanks to summer internships and dedication, she heads off to Harvard this fall to follow her passion.
Sarah Burd ’24 is spending her summer working for a medical technology company in Vienna, Austria, that specializes in prosthetic limbs.
Bridget Osas ’25 is researching behavioral impacts on the development of metabolic syndromes like obesity.
The STEM-focused endowment will support internships, research opportunities, academic conference costs and other student experiences.
The Gilman Scholarship Program offers awards of up to $5,000 to U.S. undergraduate students who are Pell Grant recipients.
Carley will serve as an English language teaching assistant in a school in the former Soviet republic.
In this Spring Term course, Washington and Lee students are making data science look like a walk in the park.
CSI: W&L students are learning forensic science with the help of a real FBI evidence response team.
The new episode of "W&L After Class: The Lifelong Learning Podcast" features biology professor Nadia Ayoub, who explains her research with black widow spiders.
Chris Tucker '23 spent the summer researching Western Bluebirds in Missoula with a biology professor from the University of Arizona.
Professor Nadia Ayoub was interviewed in a Wired article about her work with spider silk.
Leah Lanier recently published a journal article titled “Activation of Prp28 ATPase by phosphorylated Npl3 at a critical step of spliceosome remodeling.”
Stern will travel to South Korea this summer to study in Seoul, South Korea.
It's the most wonderful term of the year, so keep an eye on @wlunews social media and this post for a daily dose of W&L's deeply engaging four-week term.
Helping with sheep at Tom Stanley's farm is providing Isaiah Medina '22 and Abby Hamilton '22 with valuable experience that they can include on future veterinary school applications.
The pandemic has presented challenges to working and learning within the community, but virtual and distanced projects have allowed those partnerships to continue to bear fruit this year.
Associate Professor of Biology Nadia Ayoub collaborated with students and alumni to publish a research article in the open-access journal PLOS ONE titled “The common house spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum, maintains silk gene expression on sub-optimal diet.”
Jerónimo Reyes '21 says he is so immensely grateful for the gifts in his life, including a QuestBridge scholarship to W&L, that he wants to become a doctor and devote his career to helping others.
Testing sewage samples for the virus that causes COVID-19 is helping W&L to do targeted human testing and identify asymptomatic cases before they trigger large outbreaks.
Fifteen W&L faculty members and two alumnae have signed on to help teach a Fall Term course that will cover multiple aspects of the COVID-19 crisis.
Chris Johnson ’00 uses his camera to document the COVID-19 crisis.
Spring Term courses aim to provide innovative, one-of-a-kind educational experiences to W&L students. Online instruction during COVID-19 led to many new opportunities.
Berger has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain starting January 2021.
Amid a national shortage of PPE, W&L employees put the IQ Center’s 3D printers to work making face shields and mask strap holders for local health care workers.
John Knox, Skip Williams, and Maryanne Simurda were awarded $15,000 for their research on Helenium virginicum, or Virginia sneezeweed.
Jackson Roberts ’19, Ryann Carpenter ’20 and biology professors Sarah Blyth and Natalia Toporikova co-authored a paper published in the Journal of Endocrine Research.
Lainey Johnson '16 values connections with a variety of people from different backgrounds, which is something she learned to prize at W&L.
Chaisson’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Cosmic Evolution.”
The event, which is free and open to the public, is titled "The Future of the Amazon Rain Forest."
Working with ICU patients at Vanderbilt University Medical Center through the Allen Grant has reaffirmed neuroscience major Laney Smith's desire to become a surgeon.
Through coursework and connections, Hannah Archer '20 helped to create a school food service program to ensure that local children have enough to eat during the summer.
W&L courses in economics and biology used community-based learning to engage in partnerships and make an impact on food insecurity at a local level.
In Professor David Marsh's Spring Term class, the Blue Ridge Mountains became a living laboratory for the study of salamanders.
In the Genetic Engineering and Society SIn the Genetic Engineering and Society Spring Term class, students focus on the intersection of science, medicine, law, agriculture, ethics and public policy.pring Term class, students focus on the intersection of science, medicine, law, agriculture and public policy.
Megan Hill Gambrill ’05 had long fantasized about a job where she’d get to play in the dirt all day.
Syed is a biology major and a Middle East and South Asia studies minor.
Sophie Wilks ’21 has won a $4,300 Nemours Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship for her project.
Fon Teawdatwan '19 has led three service trips to Charleston, West Virginia, for Volunteer Venture, a service-learning, pre-orientation program for incoming students.
Patterson will be interning with a lab at the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden, Germany.
At W&L, sustainability starts with a seed and blossoms into sea change. Take a peek inside our gardening and composting effort to see how it's impacting our community — and the future.
The award recognizes faculty at Virginia’s institutions of higher learning who exemplify the highest standards of teaching, scholarship and service.
The title of Gary Staab’s presentation is “Digital Dinosaurs: Fleshing out the Past."
Deepthi Thumuluri '20 won a Virginia Academy of Sciences grant to continue her research into the relationship between diet-induced obesity, exercise and the gut microbiome.
After spending the summer teaching and exploring in Costa Rica, Taylor Casey '20 can't wait to return.
Whether she's leading the Student Association for Black Unity, acting in a play or volunteering in the community as a Bonner Scholar, Sasha Edwards '20 is ever mindful that education can happen anywhere.
Caroline Caruso '21 loved Costa Rica so much that she wants to open a medical practice there after graduate school.
The grant will help fund a multidisciplinary team from three institutions, including W&L, that will investigate how variation in adhesive-protein components of spider silk relate to differences in the glue’s material properties.
As a senior ecologist with Trihydro Corp., Jana Heisler White '98 works on environmental protection and remediation.
Elizabeth McDonald heads to Japan, Emily Austin to Indonesia and Riley Ries to Kyrgyzstan.
The NSF only funds about 11,000 of the 40,000 proposals it receives annually for research, education and training projects.
Women in Technology and Science gives girls from local middle and elementary schools an opportunity to perform science experiments in all disciplines during the academic year.
As a research assistant at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Rachel Steffen ’18 gathered data on the environmental thresholds of juvenile sandbar sharks.
For Christine Starer-Smith ’99, a love of animals led to a veterinary career and volunteer service at a remote Dakota reservation.
Ethiopia Getachew '19 always had an interest in science, but working in the biochemistry lab and volunteering with local EMTs helped her future plans take shape.
Maggie Little, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics (KIE) at Georgetown University, will speak on “Research With Pregnant Women: A Moral Imperative.”
Over the summer, students worked with Professor Robert Humston to examine the potential effects of smallmouth bass on native brook trout populations in the Virginia watershed.
Olivia Kubli '18's summer volunteer work included photographing lions, giraffes and elephants in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty, Tyra Barrett '18 interned at the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers in New Jersey.
Twelve Class of 2021 students visited W&L for a five-week Advanced Research Cohort program that allowed them to dabble in STEM projects and establish quality relationships.
Annie Jeckovich ’18 is studying the effects of obesity on reproduction in W&L's Fat Rat lab.
Dashiell Dericks ’18 and Jesse Evans ’20 are selling saplings grown from Colonnade oak trees in a new business that marries Dericks' love of silviculture and his fondness for W&L.
Washington and Lee University owns a first edition of one of the most important — and controversial — books ever written.
As director of Iowa State University's conservation camp, Jennifer Schieltz ’08 follows the lives of elk, deer, moose, bears, wolves and mountain lions.
W&L senior Harrison Westgarth has been awarded a Fulbright grant to Brazil, where he will study the “Development of an Animal Model of Direct and Congenital Zika Virus Transmission.”
Meet Laura Beth Lavette ‘17, a senior with a passion for introducing first-year students to W&L.
Scott Boyd, a neurosurgeon who graduated from W&L in 1986 with a B.S. in biology, was sworn in as a trustee of his alma mater on Feb. 10, in Lexington.
A multi-disciplinary Community-Based Research project gave Washington and Lee University students a chance to help local organizations take a closer look at access to affordable healthy food.
Sejal Mistry ’17, a biology major and poverty studies minor, has completed a service project that aims to improve the nutritional value of foods in the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee’s Backpack Program.
Meet Harrison Westgarth '17, a pre-med varsity athlete with a passion for teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages.
Geology professor Lisa Greer, who has been taking students to Belize since 2011 to monitor the health of coral reefs, said their research indicates that the latest El Niño, on top of global climate change, may be harming the Belize Barrier Reef.
"My W&L experience has been defined by my love of biology and my passion for being active in my community."
David Sugerman '99 combines medicine with social service, responding to crises around the world and training those on the front lines of disease control. He will give a public talk on his career in public health on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 5:30 p.m. in Science A214. .
Westgarth spent the summer interning at the NIH researching the rare congenital lysosomal storage disease, Neimann Pick Type C.
Above or below the water, Sasha Doss '13 studies and connects with fish and their environment.
12 exceptional students experience a unique summer program aimed at increasing retention in STEM majors.
Fort Dauphin, Madagascar.
Recipients of W&L's Certificate of International Immersion reflect on their experiences abroad.
A Q&A with Volunteer Firefighter Steven Vranian '15.
Stuart Hogue '96 believes in the power of girls to end global poverty.
Biology and Spanish major Harrison Westgarth '17 researches a rare congenital disease at the National Institutes of Health.
"A liberal arts education hones transferable skills."
Sophomore Rachel Steffen interns for the National Marine Mammal Foundation.
Kate McCreary and Kara Farroni spend their summer researching the endangered Peaks of Otter salamander.
Azmain Amin '17 and Mina Shnoudah '17 look to automate testing of web services.
Johnson Opportunity Grant Winner Stephen Himmelberg '17 Studies Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury.
"W&L manages to be a catalyst for adventure while still offering that 'welcome home' feeling."
Biology professor Bill Hamilton and his students continue to research the effects of a growing bison population on the ecology of Yellowstone National Park.
Is there a connection between corporate social responsibility and a company’s return on investment? According to Patsy Doerr, who graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1990, the answer is very much a yes.
Four Washington and Lee University alumni have received pre-doctoral graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation. In addition, four alumni and one student received honorable mentions.
Ijezie Ikwuezunma of Richmond, Texas, and a senior at Washington and Lee University, has been awarded a Fulbright research grant to the United Kingdom. His project is “Cardiovascular Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacokinetics of Warfarin (an oral anti-coagulant).”
Frederick Prete, associate editor of the International Journal of Comparative Psychology, will give a lecture on March 31 at 5 p.m. in Parmly Hall room 307 in the Science Center of Washington and Lee University.
Patricia Kelley, professor of geology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will give a lecture at Washington and Lee University on March 18 at 4:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library.
Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist, author and professor, will lecture on Feb. 4 at 4:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons. Her lecture is part of Washington and Lee University’s year-long Questioning Passion series.
Mark Lubkowitz, a 1991 graduate of Washington and Lee University and current professor of biology at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, received the 2015 Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award. It is the highest honor bestowed on faculty at Saint Michael’s College.
Helen I’Anson, professor of biology at Washington and Lee University, has won a $95,399 grant from the Commonwealth Health Research Board (CHRB) to fund one year of research into the role of snacking in the early onset of obesity in children.
An emphasis on sustainable farming is helping W&L's Campus Garden deliver even more fresh produce straight to students' tables.
Helen I’Anson, professor of biology at Washington and Lee University, will give her inaugural lecture marking her appointment as the John T. Perry Jr. Professor of Research in Biology, on May 19, at 5:30 p.m. in Parmly 307.
Daniel A. Wubah, provost of Washington and Lee University, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Three biology professors at Washington and Lee University in Lexington have won a $100,000 grant from the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Interdisciplinary Research to investigate the link between obesity and infertility in women.
Gabriella Kitch will be wading in water and loving every minute of it during her junior year at Washington and Lee. A major in geology with a minor in environmental studies, Kitch grew up near the ocean in San Diego, California, and claims a great affinity with any kind of water.
Natalia Toporikova, assistant professor of biology at Washington and Lee, has received a $2,000 grant from the Mednick Fellowship Committee of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC) for her project "Role of Time-of-Day Signals in Hormonal Surges of Female Rats."
Washington and Lee University has announced the final round of students who will receive 2014 Johnson Opportunity Grants. The grants cover living, travel and other costs associated with the students' proposed activities, which are designed to help them with their future careers and fields of study.
Salman Hameed, the director of the Center for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS), will give a talk at Washington and Lee University on Tuesday, April 29, at 5:30 p.m. in Leyburn Library's Northen Auditorium. The title for Hameed's talk, which is free and open to the public, is "The Crescent and the […]
Washington and Lee University has announced the first round of students selected to receive 2014 Johnson Opportunity Grants, and the second round of selections is underway.
Washington and Lee's Contact Committee will present Jane Goodall, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, who will speak on Thursday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The title of Goodall's talk is "Sowing the Seeds of Hope."
WVTF radio reported on Fundamentals of Biology: Biological Clock and Rhythms, a fall-term class at Washington and Lee on the relatively new field of chronobiology.
New science facility features the latest technology for science and non-science majors at Washington and Lee.
Washington and Lee alumna Becca Bolton '12 has been conducting research on bison grazing in Yellowstone National Park.
Biologist Robert Humston leads the project, which uses the chemical fingerprints found in the otoliths, or ear stones, of the fish.
New instrument will be used across disciplines and with collaborative projects.
Washington and Lee junior Albert Civitarese is spending part of this summer at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy, where he resumed his Italian language studies.
Washington and Lee University students Alvin Thomas and Erica Schwotzer will be recognized at the Generals of the Month presentation for May on Thursday, May 2, at 12:20 p.m. in the Marketplace in Elrod Commons.
Two Washington and Lee University ecologists recently co-authored a paper that examines for the first time the effect of drought in terms of fish species' diversity in the Amazon.
An experimental classroom at Washington and Lee puts the professor in the middle, rather than at the front.
The first phase of the new Integrative and Quantitative (IQ) Center at Washington and Lee University is underway, with a projected opening date of June 2013.
The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef is a project of the Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles that combines mathematics, art, crafts, marine biology and environmental science in creating crocheted reproductions of coral reefs. A satellite reef is now being locally constructed, sponsored by Roanoke College. Students and faculty at Washington and Lee University and members […]
Washington and Lee biology professor Fiona Watson and two undergraduate researchers are developing a gene profile to determine how the optic nerve is regenerated in frogs. fish and cold-blooded invertebrates,
David Marsh, professor of biology at Washington and Lee University, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a new project that will link networks of undergraduate classes to carry out collaborative scientific research.
The praying mantis is an arthropod and a predator, a skinny tough guy (or gal) with jointed feet and an exoskeleton. It’s willing to attack larger prey, from mice to snakes to hummingbirds. There’s even been a report of a praying mantis eating a turtle. Thrilling YouTube videos of the creatures aside, we know little […]
Lawrence E. Hurd, the Herwick Professor of Biology at Washington and Lee University, has received a prestigious research fellowship from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and the Brazilian national science foundation. Hurd will be a Special Visiting Research Fellow in a new program, Science without Borders, which is designed to strengthen and expand Brazilian education […]
Washington and Lee University has promoted eight members of its faculty to full professor, while granting tenure to 14 faculty members who were promoted to associate professor.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has selected Washington and Lee University as one of 47 small colleges and universities in the country to share in grants totaling more than $50 million.
Images highlighting the work of Washington and Lee University alumni who are scientists form an unusual art exhibit in the University’s Kamen Gallery, opening April 30 and continuing through May 17.
An exhibit of 19th-century scientific instruments on the main floor of the Leyburn Library at Washington and Lee University shows how students used to study physics, chemistry, mathematics, surveying and other scientific disciplines. Yolanda Merrill, humanities librarian and associate professor, originated the idea for the exhibit after noticing similar instruments on display in the library’s […]
The Second Annual Nobel Prize Symposium at Washington and Lee University, coordinated this year by Wayne Dymacek, professor of mathematics, will feature presentations by W&L faculty who will give background on the individuals who have won this year's Nobel Prizes and the activities that earned those honors. All sessions are open to the W&L community […]
A new confocal laser scanning microscope at Washington and Lee University aims to increase research and training across the sciences, not only at W&L but also at two nearby institutions, Virginia Military Institute and Mary Baldwin College. The microscope will be acquired through a $366,000 Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). […]
Washington and Lee biology professor Bill Hamilton is a member of the advisory board for W&L's Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant, which includes service-learning courses in which W&L students develop science modules and teach them in local K-5 classrooms. In addition, the University has held a Summer Science Institute for local Rockbridge County teachers. Bill Hamilton, […]
For children across Rockbridge County, school is still out for the summer. For their teachers, however, it’s back to the classroom. During July, eight Rockbridge County teachers were the pupils as they worked with Washington and Lee University faculty to strengthen how they teach science. As part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grant (HHMI), […]