Two Ph.D. students have completed
their
degrees with PEET funding. Dr. Patty Wilber (supported 8/95 -
12/96) was instrumental in developing the relational database that we use
and she entered the dataset that resulted in the first published
monograph. She has co-authored another PEET-related paper and is co-author
on 6 presentations/posters at national and international meetings (see
PEET
Products). She made a life-decision to stay in Albuquerque with her
husband (a federal employee) and raise her 2 young children, so she did
not enter the postdoc/assistant professor job market. She is an Instructor
at Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute in Biology and a part-time
Lecturer in Biology at UNM, where she still has space in my lab. Dr.
John Hnida (funded 8/95 - 8/98) is a tenure-track Assistant Professor,
Division of Science and Technology, at Peru State College, Nebraska. His
dissertation consists of 4 related chapters, including some molecular
phylogenies of closely related Eimeria spp.; the first is
published, the second has been accepted, and the other two papers have
been submitted. He was co-author on another PEET-related paper and on 6
presentations/posters at national and international meetings (PEET
Products).
Two Ph.D. students currently are
funded by PEET-1. Mr. Xiaomin Zhao, a third year student from
China, has completed his core course work, foreign language requirement,
required tool skill (statistics), and his application for candidacy. His
dissertation proposal ("Plastid-like DNAs and their phylogenetic
relationship within the protist phylum Apicomplexa") was accepted by his
Committee on Studies and the Office of Graduate Studies, was submitted
(11/98), and is now under
consideration at NSF in the Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants
program. He will accompany us to China if our
supplement request (to be submitted 12/99) is approved. Ms. Ingrid
Asmundsson is beginning her second year in our Ph.D. program, but it
is her first semester of PEET support. She attended the PEET Workshop at
Woods Hole (3/98). Ingrid is the field parasitologist on an NSF S&I grant
to Dr. Jonathan Campbell (U.T.-Arlington); she spends her summers in
Guatemala collecting parasites from amphibians and reptiles taken in Dr.
Campbell's faunal survey. She plans to examine the interesting
concept of the effect of hibernation on the intracellular development of
coccidia, while preparing (with Dr. Upton) a monograph of the coccidia of
all amphibians and reptiles.
Three M.S. students have been
supported, in part, by PEET-1. Mr. Damien Scott (M.S., Biology,
with honors, 5/98) was a departmental Teaching Assistant, but his research
on the coccidia of bats of the world was supported by PEET. Damien is
first author on 1 major paper, co-author on 2 others, and he presented 2
papers at meetings on his PEET-related work (PEET Products). He now is
finishing his third semester in Physical Therapy school at UNM (another
life decision change). Ms. Kim Heckscher-Decker, supported as an RA
on another grant, recently published a PEET-supported paper on the
coccidia of marsupials in Bolivia and has given 2 PEET-related
presentations (PEET Products). She will finish her M.S. 5/99 and will work
part-time in my lab for the next year while her new husband completes his
Ph.D. in another lab. Mr. Wade Wilson's (M.S., Biology, 5/98) major
research effort was supported by my S&I grant, but he did PEET-related
work for me this past summer and is co-author on a major
monograph (Coccidia of Primates of the World) and on a second paper (PEET
Products).
He is living in Boston and working part-time, while his wife completes
veterinary school (Tufts), at which time he will apply to a Ph.D. program
in a university near where his wife will practice.
Others trained by PEET-1.Two
high school students, Ms. J. Aragon and Ms. A. Leach, worked
on the bat coccidia project with D. Scott during the summer, 1997, and
are co-authors on that paper. An undergraduate, Mr. B. Wickesberg,
worked on the marsupial coccidia project with K. Heckscher-Decker during
the summers, 1996, 1997; he is a co-author on that paper. A second
undergraduate, Mrs. K. Greim-Felong, has worked in my lab since
2/96, mostly as a work-study student. In addition to her numerous daily
tasks, she has taken on 2 projects as her own: the coccidia of
Akodon spp. from Bolivia and the coccidia of Cryptotis spp.
from Latin America. She will be the senior author on both papers produced
from this work. Finally, Ms. B. Dennis was hired 9/95 as a 0.5 FTE
Graphics Designer to do technical illustrations, graphic design, etc.; at
the same time she held a 0.5 FTE Graphics Technician position in Biology.
On 12/31/97 her position in Biology was eliminated and she took a
full-time
position in another department. Since her departure, the focus of our PEET
work did not change, but the need for technical expertise did. On 7/1/98 Ms. Lee Couch was hired as a 0.5 FTE Research Scientist III
(M.S. in
Biology/Parasitology) because it was clear we needed someone to keep daily
control of samples from collaborative projects, provide quality control of
data entry, monitor, update, and trouble-shoot hardware and software
problems and work on web page design and construction. She is an author on
3 papers and on 3 presentations. Each of the 12 individuals named above
has participated in all aspects of the research process. In all, 11 are
co-authors on various papers (PEET Products:
Publications) and/or presentations or posters (PEET Products:
Presentations and Posters).
Updated 21 January 1999
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