Dr. Csengele Barta, associate professor of biology at º¬Ðß²ÝÉçÇø, was awarded a Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUI) Award of the  (ASPB) for the fifth consecutive year.

The award recognizes excellence in research contributions to plant science, plant science scholarship and undergraduate student research mentorship of faculty at primarily undergraduate-serving institutions. The Award also provides funding to facilitate the research presentation of Dr. Barta at the 2023 Plant Biology Meeting in Savannah, Georgia.

As part of the Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s applied learning training and community partners awareness program, student members visited the state-of-the-art fire station, Station 8, on Mitchell Ave. in St. Joseph. Nine chapter members met with three on-shift firefighters who showed them every aspect of living and working as modern structural firefighters. Students toured the station, dressed in authentic firefighter gear, and manipulated firetruck features to gain first-hand experience of life as a firefighter.

Three students represented º¬Ðß²ÝÉçÇø’s Alpha Chi Lambda chapter at this year’s Alpha Chi National Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Students Shannon Buehre, senior biology major from Lee’s Summit, Missouri; Hannah Shoemaker, senior biology major from Goodman, Missouri; and Jordon Anderson, junior nursing major from St. Joseph, presented an interdisciplinary research project, “Climate change: The ‘ticking’ bomb – A program to prevent and treat Lyme disease in St. Joseph, Missouri.”

Click here to read the full story.

On Saturday, April 1, 2023, 18 students were involved in a controlled burn on the John Rushin Teaching and Research Prairie. This burn was essential to ensure the utility of the land for future research and applied learning.

Wildlife conservation and management students at º¬Ðß²ÝÉçÇø started their spring break with a hands-on learning experience: restoring a unique and threatened habitat in southern Missouri. Click here to read the full story.

Dr. Tilo Roy, associate professor of biology, published the January 2023 issue of “The Vasculum” (the bi-annual newsletter of the Society of Herbarium Curators). Dr. Roy is the Editor-in-Chief of this newsletter. This issue of “The Vasculum” contains a diverse array of interesting articles on herbaria news, views, and new innovations from across the globe. The cover page features a section of an image from the Leo A. Galloway Herbarium’s plant collection, located at Missouri Western, contributed by Dr. Roy.
The complete newsletter can be accessed here:

Dr. Julie Jedlicka published an article with MWSU undergraduate Laney (Hayward) Nute on research conducted for her honors thesis in the journal BIOS. The article was published on Dec 18, 2022, and entitled Dr. Jedlicka supervised Nute’s honors thesis where she applied animal behavior theory to investigate species differences in native, cavity-nesting songbirds within our bird-friendly campus facilities. Nute is now pursuing her Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Mississippi.

Biology faculty member Dr. Csengele Barta and her collaborators published two research manuscripts in two consecutive editions of the Hungarian Journal of Industry and Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of international circulation. The papers focus on plant-soil biota interactions, exploring the role of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in plant stress resistance and the use of PGPR in agriculture and biotechnology.

For additional details please visit the publications on the following links:

Dr. Julie Jedlicka, associate professor of biology at º¬Ðß²ÝÉçÇø, was elected as president of the The Association of Field Ornithologists (AFO) at the association’s annual conference last month. Click here to read more about her election.