Greetings Dear Alums! It has been another exciting year here in the Biology Department. We have just graduated 30 of the finest young biologists one could find anywhere. Today I received a report from the Educational Testing Service. We gave our seniors the Major Field Test in Biology, and they scored well above the national norm in biology as a whole and in all the major subfields. So we continue to receive talented, outstanding students who eventually become outstanding alums!
One of the many reasons our students do so well has been the gifted teaching of Dr. Gil Blankespoor. Gil has been a model to us all of a truly dedicated and creative teacher. Thousands of students owe their solid foundation in biology to him. He has also been a source of wisdom and sound judgment that we shall sorely miss. The most important thing that I have always believed about Gil is that although many people talk about Christian values, Gil lives them. He is a man of conviction and compassion, and we wonder how we will manage without him!
After a busy academic year with many students to teach and advisees to advise, summer seems a little less hectic. However the department continues to buzz with activity. We are supporting 25 undergraduate research students this summer with the help of NIH, NSF, USDA, and NASA grants. One of the most exciting new developments is funding for student research through an NIH-BRIN (Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network) grant through USD School of Medicine. The grant will support 12-13 Augustana students each year for three years. This summer we have 6 BRIN supported students here at Augustana, 5 at USDSM in Vermillion, and 2 at the Cardiovascular Research Institute located at Sioux Valley Hospital. In addition, we have several students funded by NASA (under Spencer and Matzner) and others funded by USDA (under Matzner and Bormann). One student’s work is funded by Dr. Doug and Gayle Bell, alums who believe strongly in the value of undergraduate research. We hope to continue and expand undergraduate research participation in years to come.
For my research, I continue to study the lethal yellow mouse mutant (agouti locus) which exhibits adult onset obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and decreasing fertility with increasing body fat. We have now added another dimension with the addition of the mahogany mutation. That mutation, when added to the lethal yellow background, ameliorates the effects of the yellow gene. We see decreased obesity and are looking for increased fertility. This examination of the effects of the mahogany gene is due to the enthusiasm and support of our long time collaborator, Dr. Nels Granholm of SDSU, without whom we would never have started down this road.
We also have an exciting new addition to the department in the person of Dr. John Brannian as a faculty associate. Dr. Brannian heads the in vitro fertilization program here in Sioux Falls (along with Dr. Kieth Hanson), and they are part of the OB/GYN Ltd group at Sioux Valley Hospital. Dr. Brannian has taught us how to culture mouse embryos; and we will be using this knowledge as we collaborate with him on leptin levels, ovulation rates and oocyte viability in the lethal yellow mutant.
This has been my third and last year as department chair. One could never ask for a better group of colleagues with whom to work. To a person, they are dedicated teachers and solid scientists. They are also just darn good people! They are not easy to corral because on any issue we have as many ideas as we have people; but we all work together for the good of our students. I shall miss the challenge of leading this bunch; but Craig Spencer, who takes over as chair August 1, can be counted on to do a top job! We also are strengthened in this department by our faculty associates (Libby King and Ann Vogelmann--see box); by our technicians Mike Chapman (mass spec and many other instruments) and Joan Ashton (greenhouse and animal room); and by our super secretary, Cheryl Holzapfel, who holds the department together!
We have had a number of great visits by alums this past year and summer. Please stop and visit whenever you can. And please continue to send us your children; they are such gifted, wonderful young people! Regards and best wishes,
Maureen Diggins
maureen_diggins@augie.edu
This newsletter contribution is a pretty special one for me--it will be my
last. I am now officially retired after having spent 32 years as a member
of the Department of Biology at Augustana College. Some people’s careers
zigzag quite a bit, but not mine. I knew from the time I was a young high
school student that I wanted to be a teacher and that I wanted to teach about
living things. And that’s what I have done, 5 years at the high school level,
and the rest here at Augustana College. They have been very good years!
Over these years my students at Augustana have been bright, curious, hard-working
and, in addition, very nice young people. For me, the real joy of teaching
came in the classroom. I’ve also very much enjoyed leading and teaching students
in off-campus courses. Over the years, I’ve taken students to Florida, South
America, the Galapagos Islands, and Africa. I’ve also enjoyed the research
experiences I have had in the areas of bird ecology and prairie ecology and
management. Although my students and I did not make any earthshaking discoveries,
I think we were able to extend known boundaries in these areas a bit.
My wife, Jan, and I have some fairly indefinite plans for our retirement years. I plan to continue to do some consulting work for the city of Sioux Falls and I also will be volunteering at the city’s Outdoor Campus. We also are planning to get involved in short-term service/mission volunteer projects, possibly in another country. We plan to do quite a bit of traveling. In this context, I am working with the Alumni Office in planning a wildlife safari to Kenya, East Africa, for January, 2003. You might want to join us! And then, of course, I will be doing recreational field ornithology wherever I am.
So, I have come to the end of a major chapter in my life. I am thankful to God for 32 very rewarding and fulfilling years at Augustana College.
Gil Blankespoor
It’s hard to believe that this is the end of my third year as a member of
the Augie faculty. This third year has been another busy one both academically
and personally! As usual, I taught General Microbiology and freshman General
Biology in the Fall semester. A new addition to my micro course this year
was the requirement of either a group or individual independent project in
an area of microbiology. The Sioux Falls Public Health Department and Augustana
College jointly funded a grant which enabled students enrolled in General
Microbiology to work with students enrolled in Social Work 340 and the American
Red Cross on AIDS education projects in several area Sioux Falls agencies
and on campus. As usual, I had a great group of creative students and consequently
the HIV/AIDS education project was only one of a variety of interesting student
projects undertaken by my micro students. I’m very grateful to all the area
professionals I contacted (some of who were Augie alums!), who agreed to work
with students, share their professional expertise and micro interests and
helped make these projects a great learning experience for the students.
My Interim and Spring semester included all classes I had taught before.
However, what was new this year was the arrival of a baby! In February, our
family of three grew to four with the arrival of Vincent. Since babies tend
to arrive unpredictably on their own schedule, Libby King was a co-instructor
for the Human Disease class I taught during Interim. Dr. Jetty Duffy-Matzner,
Dr. Maureen Diggins, and Libby King started off my Spring semester Biochemistry
and Introduction to Microbiology classes for me so I could spend some time
with Vincent. Without the help of these three great colleagues, I would not
have survived the spring semester with my sanity intact! Our soon to be 3-year
old Trevor has actually been a big help and seems to think being a big brother
is great! Of course, Vincent has not started to play with his toys yet so
this attitude might change in the future!
My summer research activities have focused on developing a new research project in my area of interest, bacterial pathogenesis. For my first 2 summers here, I was very fortunate to work with two Augie students, Jill Kapplinger and Jason Olinger. Both have now graduated and gone on to bigger and better things (med school), but their hard work and creative problem solving in the lab is the reason I was able to get a USDA SEED grant that will fund summer research for the next 2 years. My current student research colleague is Annamarie Rydeen. Annamarie worked on an independent study research project with me during the spring semester and is now working full-time this summer. Our primary research goals are to identify iron-regulated proteins and determine how these proteins function to supply iron to streptococci during infection of the bovine mammary gland.
With the addition of the alumni get-acquainted lunches last year, I have gotten the chance to get to know more alums and hear about some of the great things former Augie students are doing! Keep emails and letters coming and visit in person when you can. Best wishes to you all.
Nola Bormann
Hello Friends! I hope this year’s newsletter finds you well and far from
the floods and fires of early summer. Sioux Falls has been spared, although
a little rain would be welcome.
This year was my turn to step back from teaching and spend more time in the lab. It has been an incredible year in many ways. The most important lessons that I have learned are (1) Augie students are awesome and (2) I love the career I have chosen. (Okay, to be honest I got some enjoyment during finals week this year when I DIDN’T have to grade final exams and lab reports.) I look forward to returning to my regular schedule in the fall.
Most of my sabbatical leave has been spent at South Dakota State University working with an outstanding group of investigators in the Veterinary Science Department--Eric Nelson, Jane Christopher-Hennings and Chris Chase. My primary project has been the development of a diagnostic assay for a swine virus using real time PCR and molecular beacons. I have truly gained a new appreciation for those who work in diagnostics, especially in development. Since I have been working in a cooperative research setting, I have met many scientists and observed a myriad of procedures. While my sabbatical research project is fairly distant from my own research interests, I have made connections and learned techniques that will support my frog virus research for many years.
I have also been developing a new course in Virology, which will be offered for the first time this January. It looks like a repeat of the Ecosystems of Florida will have to wait at least another year. While on leave I continued to serve as the main Health Professions advisor. We had another fine group of graduates in 2002, and I look forward to working with the upcoming seniors, who are busily preparing applications and studying for admissions exams. With Gil’s retirement I will be adding veterinary medicine to my list of specialties.
For those of you who know my family, Jack is still into hockey in a big way and Dan is still coaching. Since Jack turned 10 coming to work with me is not "cool," but somehow tagging along to meetings is still attractive. We have already taken our vacation this summer to attend my nephew’s wedding in Durango, Colorado. Unfortunately, the Missionary Ridge fire was going strong during our stay. None of our family members who live there lost their homes, although others were not as fortunate.
Be sure to stop by and say hello when you are in town. Or drop us a letter or email to keep us up-to-date on your happenings. Best wishes to you and yours,
Deb Carlson
I’m writing this note after returning from my workshop in Maine so it’s late,
late, late! That workshop was a good experience as usual and an opportunity
to meet a really good group of faculty colleagues from around the country.
It was also a chance to eat seafood twelve or thirteen times in just less
than two weeks!
My teaching this past year was pretty much as it has been for several years and included a larger than normal Comparative Anatomy and Embryology (formerly V.S.&D.) class where things actually went very well despite some concerns that I had before the class began.
Two alums were part of our Biology Seminar series this year. Carter Johnson told us about research on prospects for recovery of the Missouri River ecosystem and Joy Buswell Zedler spoke about her research on invasive exotic species in wetlands. Joy’s lecture also was the keynote address at the South Dakota Academy of Science meeting which was held here this year. We’ve also been pleased to have a large number of visits from alums through the year. For example, two, Steve Downs ('73) and Bill Krause ('64), dropped in this very day! Come and see us when you can. We always enjoy seeing you back here and we think you will be impressed with changes on the campus if you haven’t been back for a while.
Once again this year, we have a retirement in the Department. Gil Blankespoor has elected to take an early retirement so that he and Jan can pursue some of their other interests together. Gil has been a rock in the Department and he has contributed in so many ways. He has consistently been our leader in first-year Biology teaching where he has introduced many new labs and technology applications over the years and has provided the steady hand that keeps some order in a system that could easily spin into chaos. He has been the pre-eminent resident expert in questions about diverse natural history topics. Gil was a great department chair when he held the job and has always been a wise voice of counsel. He has been the calming influence in the midst of many contentious discussions and has helped us to see our way through to amicable solutions of sometimes vexing problems. Further, he has been an exceptional role model for both colleagues and students of a devoted, caring teacher-scholar and a person who lives his faith and values every day. I will miss him more than I can say.
Please keep in touch and tell us about events in you lives and in your work. We are proud of your accomplishments.
Lee Johnson
It’s been an interesting academic year, beginning with the sad events of September
11 and ending with a farewell gathering for Gil and Jan Blankespoor. We wish
them all the best and hope to see them often.
On the academic front, I taught two new courses this past year; Craig Spencer and I team-taught Senior Seminar and had our students read Paul Gruchow's Journal of a Prairie Year. It's similar to Sand County Almanac, but based on Minnesota prairie areas (Blue Mounds).
During interim I team-taught a timely capstone course about the global economy with Reynold Nessiba (Economics) and Mark Van Wienen (English). My role was to talk about the effects of globalization on the environment. For my Environmental Science class, I required a service/activism project. My students picked up litter, served at the Food Banquet, and wrote letters to politicians about environmental issues. This past Spring, I helped organize the Augustana College Student Research Symposium where students present their independent research to their peers, family, faculty, and the community. The Biology Department was well represented with 10 biology majors out of the 34 presenters.
On the research front, I am still working with how environmental factors (soil, light, water, nutrients) affect the structure of xylem cells and how that affects drought tolerance (USDA funded). Ellen Holste (working with beans) and Kara Wiebe (working with silver maple) are back again this summer working on this project. Last summer we got a microscope/computer set-up to look at xylem vessels. This summer we are trying to get the SEM (scanning electron microscope) running to look at vessel wall structure. I have also been working on a project with Lee Vierling at South Dakota School of Mines using satellites to assess the amount of leaf area in Ponderosa pine forests in the Black Hills before and after fires. Katie Derr and Jacob Quail have been working on this project.
This past spring, Ellen Holste presented our research for the "Posters on Capital Hill" poster session in Washington D.C. We also met with our congressional representatives to lobby for undergraduate research. Senator Dachle's staff got us into the Senate gallery where we witnessed debate on the drilling in the arctic portion of the energy bill. I also went to the D.C. area in June to review research proposals for the USDA. Blue crabs were in season (Hmmm!), and I got to spend some time with my sister Annette (Class of 1988) and my brother Al and his wife Lora (Class of 1998). They have season passes to Busch Gardens, so we spent a day riding roller coasters (they only ride on the very front or the back).
On the home front, Daniel is in 2nd grade now and is into Star Wars and Harry Potter. Josh will start Kindergarten this fall and still loves dinosaurs/animals (anything with teeth/claws). Luke is going to be two and is into everything. Jetty is still teaching and doing research (4 students this summer) in the Chemistry Department. She really helped out the Biology Department this last year, filling in for Nola's biochemistry class while Nola was on maternity leave. Hope this finds you well, and best wishes to you all.
Steve Matzner
Third Edition of the New Millennium Science Education Update! Because I’m
very nearly in the Newsletter Doghouse once again, this edition will be the
Cliff Notes version of the Cliff Notes version...........
-This is the summer of “the mowing of the prairie”--as my graduate cohort has come to an end I have elected to take an academic break and instead devote my energy to “the little house on the prairie.” We moved into our (unfinished) log house at the end of September last year and have been working on trying to finish it ever since!! This month it is staining window frames (which is slowly driving me mad), and mowing the prairie in order to give the trees, or I more accurately should say twigs, we planted a fighting chance. As I walk behind “my mower” for hours on end, I often reflect on the folks who settled the prairie and their internal fortitude--they were certainly made of sterner stuff than most, and the women must have had an iron will!! After last June’s “family barn-raising” and some precarious follow-up episodes, the barn became finished enough to provide some shelter for the horses in October, so we reclaimed them after a year’s “boarding out.” They seemed happy enough to be back with us--so I was surprised when I went to feed them one morning and found they were AWOL!! We electrified the fence after that incident.........
If this home/barn project should ever reach completion we will be looking back on it with more than a modicum of pride!! Our eleven-year old grandson is flying in from Phoenix this weekend--staying for two weeks ostensibly (he says) to get the barn finished! Of course, a couple of rounds of golf wouldn’t hurt his feelings!!
-The Secondary Mentorship program continues to produce terrific constructivist science teachers--and I continue to be very proud of them and what they are doing in the classroom. According to the recommendations of the major science reform projects, effective teaching is at the heart of science education, and good teachers create environments in which they and their students work together as active learners. Our graduates work very hard to implement these recommendations--on the way to producing scientifically literate individuals. A tenet of our science education program is that science should help students to develop the understandings and habits of mind they need to become compassionate human beings able to think for themselves and to face life head on!! Our graduates are certainly well equipped to help their students achieve this. Furthermore, we are also seeing positive gains in the elementary science classrooms--current and future teachers who believe science is a basic, and who aspire to the “hands-on, minds-on” philosophy of science education. What’s more, Augie’s science teachers are putting their convictions into practice on a global scale--from Norway to Japan to Alaska!!
-A BIG change for the department in the upcoming school year will be the absence of Gil. I have taught Biology 110 with him for several years--it won’t be the same without his sense of humor and his steadying influence. We shall miss him.
The quote for the 2002 is: “Learning and teaching are not inherently linked. Much learning takes place without teaching, and indeed much teaching takes place without learning.” Wenger, 1998
Val Olness
Hola, I just returned from a fascinating trip to Argentina. Highlights included
lots of folk music with friends of my daughter Elizabeth, who spent the year
there as an exchange student, and several days trekking in their northern
subtropical rainforest with a local ecologist guide. He took us climbing in
the forest canopy and rappelling down waterfalls. I was pleasantly surprised
to find that Argentina seems to have done a much better job of protecting
their rainforests than their neighbors to the north, including Brazil. I only
hope that this effort can be sustained in the midst of some serious economic
problems today in Argentina.
I am actually writing this newsletter piece while taking a break from moving my office in the Biology Department. It means a larger office, but it's somewhat bittersweet as my new office is the one just vacated by Gil Blankespoor, who retired after more than thirty years in the department. His steadying presence will be greatly missed around here.
It's hard to believe that I've been here ten years now. Time does march on, as evidenced also by a current research project on ecological succession. Matt Bukrey and Jason Smalley ('03) are putting together ten years worth of data from my Ecology classes which nicely documents invasion of forests onto the beautiful little ridgetop prairies in Newton Hills State Park. Some of you may recall scrambling up and down the hills collecting some of these data! Park personnel have responded nicely with a program to burn some of these areas in an attempt to restore the relict prairies. Speaking of "hot" topics, in April I participated in a US Forest Service conference in Boise, Idaho dealing with fire ecology in the West. We discussed some of our ongoing research in Glacier National Park, together with the difficult task to trying to figure out how to manage the western forests following years and years of fire-suppression.
During Interim I had fun teaching a course called Winter Ecology and Outdoor Adventure. I attempted to expose the students to field biology in conjunction with some adventure activities which included x-c skiing, glissading, winter camping, and for the die-hards, even a little technical ice-climbing on the falls, downtown. So, altogether, it's been a good year. One thing that would make it even better would be to hear from some of you! Best wishes and please stay in touch.
Craig Spencer
Augustana’s president, Bruce Halverson, has initiated a new vision for the
College: developing our students as leaders for the future. So, I have been
thinking about how we in the Biology Department already develop our students
as leaders and how we can improve. Leadership has been defined as influencing
people to make a difference in the world. Certainly the first ingredient
of a leader has to be integrity. Without integrity, people will be discouraged
by their leader’s example and will not follow. While I believe that our lives
as faculty members in Biology do serve as examples of integrity for our students,
I have to admit that this foundation of character has already been laid down
before they come to us. I continue to be impressed by the character of the
students we get. Many of our students are coming from hard-working families
with strong Christian values. So, we have exceptional starting material to
work with. In a field like Biology, leadership must also include technical
competence. I believe we are giving our students a superior educational experience.
I have heard from numerous students who have gone on to graduate school, medical
school, or other professional training who report that they are as well prepared,
or better prepared than students from very prestigious institutions. Another
part of the “Augustana advantage” is the broad exposure to the liberal arts
that our students receive here. Biology students leaving us with a background
in areas such as religion, philosophy, and bioethics will certainly be better
prepared for the ethical challenges our world faces in fields such as medicine,
biotechnology, and law. My conclusion is that we are raising leaders
for the future!
I am happy to report that both Deb Carlson and I received South Dakota EPSCoR College Faculty Fellowships, funded by the National Science Foundation, to support our research this year. Only five of these fellowships were awarded in the state of South Dakota. I am also excited that a manuscript on the research my students and I have carried out over the last four summers has been accepted by the journal Theoretical and Applied Genetics. This summer I have three wonderful new students working with me on research: Anne Dykstra, Amy Lems, and Niels Harden. Anne is funded by the cooperative BRIN National Institutes of Health grant which we received with the USD Medical School. Amy is funded by a generous gift from Doug and Gaye Bell for student research. Niels is being funded by my SD EPSCoR fellowship. I am excited about all we will learn this summer!
I hope you have a great summer and fall.
Mike Wanous