Spider Sense
Nadia Ayoub, professor of biology, loves sharing her passion for open-ended scientific exploration with colleagues and students.
biology
W&L’s Robert Humston Receives Grant to Study the Trout Population in the Jackson River
The director of environmental studies and professor of biology received the funding from the Virginia Departments of Wildlife Resources and Environmental Quality.
Office Hours with Robert Humston and Megan Fulcher
Professors Robert Humston and Megan Fulcher are part of a team of faculty volunteers who serve as liaisons between athletics and academics.
Where the Wild Things Are
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.
W&L Outcomes: Pari Ahmadi ’24
Pari Ahmadi ’24 will be working as a clinical research coordinator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before attending medical school.
In Case You Missed It
Alicia Reigel Published in the Journal Communications Biology
The first-year biology professor co-authored a paper titled “Sponge-derived matter is assimilated by coral holobionts.”
W&L’s Reigel Published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series Journal
First-year biology professor co-authored a paper titled “Microbiome environmental shifts differ between two co-occurring octocoral hosts.”
W&L Student Co-Authors Paper Published by the Pain Medicine Journal
Lucy Worthy ’24 assisted in the research and helped publish the results alongside two W&L alumni.
W&L Professor Receives Two-Year Grant from the USDA Forest Service to Perform Data Analysis and Modeling on Water Quality
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.
W&L Professors and Students Co-Author Peer-Reviewed Paper on Web-Weaving Spiders
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.
W&L Professor Receives the 2023 Portion of Multi-Year Grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior
Bill Hamilton will utilize the grant to fund his ongoing research on ecosystem health in Yellowstone National Park.
Meet a Colleague: Mike Hepner
Mike Hepner serves as a laboratory technician for the biology department.
W&L’s Ayoub and Toporikova Awarded NSF Grant for Research in Circadian Rhythm of Spiders
The grant funds a three-year study in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University and East Tennessee State University.
W&L Professor Publishes Journal Article in PLOS ONE
Professor Lisa Greer’s article focuses on the survival of coral reefs in the Caribbean.
Stepping Stones in STEM
Bonner Kirkland '23 conducted biomedical research this summer in the Children’s National Hospital’s Department of Genetic Medicine.
Becoming a Better Scientist
Lucy Worthy ’24 is conducting clinical research and shadowing a physician at the Mayo Clinic.
‘One Step Closer’
Sarah Burd ’24 is spending her summer working for a medical technology company in Vienna, Austria, that specializes in prosthetic limbs.
Summer of Hands-On Research
Bridget Osas ’25 is researching behavioral impacts on the development of metabolic syndromes like obesity.
Life on Two Legs
In this Spring Term course, Washington and Lee students are making data science look like a walk in the park.
Spring Term Course Brings CSI To Life
CSI: W&L students are learning forensic science with the help of a real FBI evidence response team.
Community Cupboards Collaboration Addresses Food Insecurity
The recent Community Cupboards collaboration with the Virginia Cooperative Extension offered students the opportunity to tackle food insecurity from a cross-disciplinary perspective.
New Podcast Episode Spins Web of Wonder
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.
W&L’s Ayoub Interviewed in Wired Article
Professor Nadia Ayoub was interviewed in a Wired article about her work with spider silk.
W&L’s Lanier Publishes Article in Nature Communications
Leah Lanier recently published a journal article titled “Activation of Prp28 ATPase by phosphorylated Npl3 at a critical step of spliceosome remodeling.”
Student Researchers Assist Ayoub with PLOS ONE Article
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.”
Snapshot of a Pandemic
Chris Johnson ’00 uses his camera to document the COVID-19 crisis.
W&L’s Colin Berger ’20 Awarded Fulbright Grant to Spain
Berger has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain starting January 2021.
W&L Professors Awarded Virginia Department of Agriculture Grant
John Knox, Skip Williams, and Maryanne Simurda were awarded $15,000 for their research on Helenium virginicum, or Virginia sneezeweed.
W&L Faculty and Students Co-author Paper
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.
Eric Chaisson to Give Public Lecture at Washington and Lee
Chaisson’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Cosmic Evolution.”
Lunch with a Side of Love
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.
Community-Based Learning Tackles Food Insecurity
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.
Quick Hit: Field Herpetology
In Professor David Marsh's Spring Term class, the Blue Ridge Mountains became a living laboratory for the study of salamanders.
Down to Earth
Megan Hill Gambrill ’05 had long fantasized about a job where she’d get to play in the dirt all day.
Serving Others Is Her Style
Fon Teawdatwan '19 has led three service trips to Charleston, West Virginia, for Volunteer Venture, a service-learning, pre-orientation program for incoming students.
Wade Patterson ’20 Receives Prestigious DAAD RISE Internship
Patterson will be interning with a lab at the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden, Germany.
VIDEO: From Seed to Table
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.
‘Catapulted into a New Country’
After spending the summer teaching and exploring in Costa Rica, Taylor Casey '20 can't wait to return.
‘College is More Than Earning a Degree’
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.
Taking Independence to a New Level
Caroline Caruso '21 loved Costa Rica so much that she wants to open a medical practice there after graduate school.
Ayoub and Friend Awarded NSF Grant for Research in Spider Silk
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.
A Natural Inclination
As a senior ecologist with Trihydro Corp., Jana Heisler White '98 works on environmental protection and remediation.
From Lab to Rescue Squad
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.
Down By the River
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.
Lions, Giraffes and Photos — Oh My!
Olivia Kubli '18's summer volunteer work included photographing lions, giraffes and elephants in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
‘An Active Participant in Solutions’
Through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty, Tyra Barrett '18 interned at the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers in New Jersey.
Hormones, Fat and Infertility
Annie Jeckovich ’18 is studying the effects of obesity on reproduction in W&L's Fat Rat lab.
Heart and Soil
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.
Science, Society and the Arts Presents: Andrew Mah ‘18
Meet Andrew Mah ‘18, an accomplished mathematician who found an unlikely passion - spiders!
Meet the Johnsons: Harrison Westgarth
Meet Harrison Westgarth '17, a pre-med varsity athlete with a passion for teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages.
W&L Researchers See Coral Decline
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.
Harrison Westgarth
Westgarth spent the summer interning at the NIH researching the rare congenital lysosomal storage disease, Neimann Pick Type C.
One Fish, Two Fish
Above or below the water, Sasha Doss '13 studies and connects with fish and their environment.
Crisis Responder
David Sugerman '99 combines medicine with social service, responding to crises around the world and training those on the front lines of disease control.
Defending the Herd
Biology professor Bill Hamilton and his students continue to research the effects of a growing bison population on the ecology of Yellowstone National Park.
