We’d like to hear from you! Share your recent accomplishments to be added to "class notes" in the next BioNews issue.
In the meantime, check out what your fellow alums have been doing.
1950s
Ruth V. Dippell, BA ’43 Zoology, PhD ’50 Zoology, was awarded the IU Bicentennial Medal on her 100th birthday this summer in honor of her scientific efforts and in recognition of her distinguished service to Indiana University. Read more about Dr. Dippell in the "Alum Profile" in this issue of BioNews.
1960s
1970s
In case you missed it ...
Read about how college friends Rob Ferl [MA’78, PhD’80] and Doug Soltis [MA’77, PhD’80] are back together in the Fall 2019 IU Alumni Magazine article: "From hoops to helixes: Their careers reached a pinnacle in Florida, but their DNA is pure IU."
1980s
1990s
A partner in the Chicago law firm Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, Pamela L. Cox, BS ’95 Biology, has been elected to the executive committee of the University Club of Chicago Board of Directors. The University Club of Chicago is a membership-based organization for college graduates. Cox, an intellectual property lawyer, has been recognized on numerous occasions by Leading Lawyers, a division of the Law Bulletin Publishing Company, as well as Illinois Super Lawyers. She lives in Burr Ridge, IL.
Jeffrey E. Kirchner, BS ’92 Microbiology, OD ’99, of West Lafayette, IN, is president-elect of the Indiana Optometric Association for 2020–21. He is an optometrist at SureFocus Family Eye Care in West Lafayette. Kirchner is a member of the American Optometric Association and the Tecumseh Optometric Society. He is a former secretary of the Indiana Optometric Association. Kirchner and his wife, Kris, have three daughters.
William F. “Will” Stephens, BA ’99 Biology, Mathematics, Germanic Studies, of Washington, D.C., left his law firm of 15 years in the fall of 2019 to take a position at the D.C. Office of the Attorney General as assistant deputy attorney general for the Public Interest Division. He writes that he organized a visit to Bangkok, Thailand, for a combo of Washington, D.C.-based jazz musicians called the D.C. Jazz Collective, as part of a jazz exchange project under the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ “Sister Cities” arts grant program. The quartet performed at the Thailand International Jazz Conference and at various venues in Bangkok and gave a talk at Mahidol University College of Music on fostering jazz and arts communities.
Shortly after graduating from the IU School of Optometry, James S. Stickel, BS ’99 Microbiology, MS ’00 Biology (IUPUI), OD ’04, joined David L. Cripe, OD ’79, and Bryan Stephens, BS ’90, OD ’92, at their private practice in Goshen, IN. Today the practice is named Goshen Eye Care and Stickel is a co-owner. He is the 2020–21 secretary of the Indiana Optometric Association and previously served as president of the North Central Optometric Society. In 2014, Stickel was named IOA’s Young Optometrist of the Year.
2000s
Jeremy S. Gard, BS ’07 Biology, OD ’11, is the 2020–21 northeastern trustee of the Indiana Optometric Association. He is an optometrist at Family Vision Care in Muncie, IN, and resides in Albany, IN.
Nicholas J. Garn, BS ’00 Biology/Cert ’00 Business Foundations, OD ’06, serves as the central trustee of the Indiana Optometric Association through April 2021. He is an optometrist and co-owner of Zionsville Eyecare in Zionsville, IN. During his career, Garn has received the Meritorious Service Award and Young Optometrist of the Year from Indiana Optometric Association. He and his wife, Laura, live in Zionsville with their two children.
Kristine (Reynolds) Jones, BS ’08 Biology, OD ’12, owns and practices at Dr. Kristine Jones Eyecare, where she began a South Bend, IN, location in 2012 and a Goshen, IN, location in 2017. Jones is a member of the American Optometric Association, Indiana Optometric Association, and the American Association of Corporate Optometrists. She lives in Granger, IN, with her husband and two daughters.
Mitchell L. Keel, BS ’08 Biology, practices internal medicine in Batesville, Ark., where he lives.
As an optometry student at IU, Jennifer (Moses) Kohn, BS ’04 Biology, OD ’08, served on the student association committee and advocated for student and optometric rights in Washington, D.C. Currently an optometrist at Moses EyeCare in Merrillville, IN, she continues to advocate for legislative rights for optometry. Kohn is the 2020–21 northwestern trustee of the Indiana Optometric Association and is a board member for Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity, which provides eye care to underserved communities around the world. Kohn co-founded the Young Optometrist Leadership Organization in Indiana to encourage membership and engagement at the society, state, and national levels. In 2018, she was honored with the IOA’s Young Optometrist Award. Kohn lives in Chicago with her husband, Andrew Kohn, OD ’10.
Britt L. Koskella, PhD '08 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, is an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She returned to IU Biology on December 16 to give a seminar entitled, “Friends, Foes, and Phages in the Phyllosphere.” Koskella is married to Mike Boots, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley.
2010s
Antiño R. Allen, MA ’02 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior; PhD ’10 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Division of Radiation Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. This May he received the Jonathan and Donna Wolfe Faculty Excellence Award. The college’s faculty votes each year to select the awardee. “In addition to being an excellent scientist, Dr. Allen is an excellent teacher and is dedicated to advancement of graduate education,” said Marjan Boerma, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and director of the UAMS Division of Radiation Health, adding, “His laboratory is a magnet for young, enthusiastic talent.”
Brent Bagley, BS ’13 Biology and Neuroscience, MD ‘17, started a new job in July as a pulmonary/critical care medicine fellow at the IU School of Medicine. He is married to Madallyn M. Warner, BA ’14 Biology and Psychology, MSW ’17 Social Work.
Kayla C. King, PhD ’11 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, was awarded The Linnean Society Bicentenary Medal in recognition of excellent research in the natural sciences. King, a former member of Distinguished Professor of Biology Curt Lively’s laboratory here at IU, is now a professor of evolutionary ecology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. “I am honoured to receive this prestigious award,” she said. “Everything we have achieved in my group is due to our fascination with the major (and sometimes bizarre) impacts that parasites and other microbes have on hosts across the tree of life. It is a joy to see our research recognised in this way.”
Adrian D. Land, PhD ’11 Microbiology, was featured in a recent issue of Science magazine. In the article, Land speaks to important aspects of his graduate school training to his future success. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University and a stint serving as a microbiologist at the Food and Drug Administration, he is now a senior scientific regulatory affairs manager at Proctor and Gamble. While at IU, Land worked in the laboratory of Professor Malcolm Winkler and was a James P. Holland Fellow in 2004, among other honors. The summer 2011 issue of the Biology Alumni Newsletter included a nice piece that highlighted some of his many accomplishments during his time in our department.
Fredrick J. Lee, PhD ’16 Microbiology, did a postdoctoral fellowship at Tufts University before accepting a position as a research and design scientist this May with a newly-created company, Invaio Sciences. The company has pioneered a novel approach to managing insect populations in a more sustainable and targeted way by controlling the nutritional function organ called the obligate microbial symbiont (OMS) to alter insect health. This new approach, coupled with the deep understanding of the inner workings of insects by Invaio's diverse team of scientists, holds the potential to dramatically reduce the need for pesticide use globally. While at IU, Lee conducted research on the honey bee gut microbiome in Associate Professor Irene Newton’s lab, which is interested in host-microbe interactions. He resides in Somerville, MA.
Megan E. Meller, MS ’15 Microbiology—an infection control specialist, infection preventionist, and COVID-19 expert—represents more than 20 counties in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa for Gundersen Health System. During the 2020 pandemic, Meller has done countless media interviews to help people in her region better understand the effects of the coronavirus. She lives in Holmen, WI.
Kayla I. Miller, PhD ’18 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, worked as a visiting assistant professor of biology at Marian University after graduation. Miller is now an assistant professor of biology at Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota.
Nathan M. Morrow, BS ’12 Biology, OD ’17, has been selected as an ambassador for the state of Indiana on the American Board of Optometry. This is a two-year volunteer position designed to foster awareness of the board certification and maintenance of certification processes as well as their benefits for ODs and patients. Morrow serves as a board certification mentor to fellow optometrists, presenting at state association meetings and communications ideas and feedback to the board of directors. He is an optometrist at Eye Surgeons of Indiana and sees patients at the Anderson, Greenwood, and Indianapolis locations. Morrow lives in Indianapolis.
Robert I. Morton, PhD ’18 Microbiology, is a scientific communications specialist at Boston Scientific.
Jolene R. Ramsey, PhD ‘17 Microbiology, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Texas A&M University’s Center for Phage Technology, working with Distinguished Professor Ryland Young, who directs the center. Ramsey studies the targeted molecular mechanisms bacteriophage use to lyse their Gram-negative bacterial hosts.
On November 19, Daniel B. Schwab, PhD ’18 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, gave a virtual Genome, Cell, and Developmental Biology career development seminar, From the Bench to Bureaucracy: Early Career Observations from a Science Policy Fellow for IU Biology. Schwab, an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Defense Basic Research Office, discussed his journey from laboratory scientist to science policy practitioner and provided advice to those interested in a similar career path. During the Q&A portion of the seminar, he was joined by IU Astronomy alum Karna Desai, MA ’16, PhD ’17, who recently completed his AAAS Fellowship at both the NSF and the State Department.
Delia S. Shelton, PhD ’16 Psychology and Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, gave a virtual departmental seminar, Activating Wakanda through Justice Equity Diversity Inclusionists (JEDIs), where she presented some extramural (e.g., NIH, NSF) and intramural (e.g., Holland Fellowship) funding mechanisms that have supported underrepresented minorities in IU biology. Shelton provided a historical overview of Black IU Biology matriculates, noting their retention, promotion, and achievements. Following her talk, she led a discussion about how allies can promote justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. After earning her Ph.D. at IU, Shelton completed a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship that enabled her to work in the labs of Drs. Jens Krause (Leibniz Institute), Dennis Higgs (University of Windsor), and Robert Tanguay (Oregon State University) studying the social lives of zebrafish. She is an NIH National Institutes Environmental Health and Safety (NIEHS) K99/R00 postdoctoral fellow studying how cadmium leads to behavioral disorders.
Sam Slowinski, PhD ’17 Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, is a postdoc in Emme Brun’s lab at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Delawrence J. Sykes, PhD ’17 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, accepted a new position as a visiting assistant professor of biology at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, joining the faculty in August.
Samantha (Porterfield) Weaver, BS ’11 Biology, OD ’15, is pediatric vision specialist at Frechette Eye Center in Franklin, IN. She joined the practice in 2015 and performs vision screenings at area school corporations. She is a member of both the American and Indiana Optometric Associations as well as the Central Indiana Optometric Society. As a student at the IU School of Optometry, she earned the prestigious Alice Bennett Award, which recognizes the top optometry student at IU. In her spare time, Weaver enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and running.
Bingqing Zhang, PhD '14 Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology,returned to campus virtuallyon October 29 to give a seminar, "Building novel tools in the era of spatial genomics: My journey at Advanced Cell Diagnostics developing RNAscope technology." A former member of Professor Brian Calvi's laboratory, Zhang currently is the Director of Research and Development at Advanced Cell Diagnostics (ACD) in California.
2020s
After graduating, Jeremy S. Davis, PhD ’20 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, headed to the University of Kentucky where he is a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Associate Professor of Biology Catherine Linnen. His research focuses on the evolution of invasive white pine sawflies (Diprion similis). He co-authored two articles published this year that were based on research done at IU in Professor Leonie Moyle’s lab. One appeared in the journal bioRxiv and the other in Genes.
Adrienne B. Keller, PhD ’20 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior (Phillips lab) is a postdoctoral fellow at University of Minnesota with Professor Sarah Hobbie in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior. Keller’s research combines broad-scale data synthesis with greenhouse and field experiments to examine how plant community composition affects belowground carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems.
Emma M. Oschrin, PhD ’20 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, directs the Budburst project, a national community science program focused on plant phenology and climate change, at the Chicago Botanic Garden. While at IU she studied plant community ecology in Associate Professor Heather Reynolds’ laboratory. Oschrin’s research focused on how co-occurring invasive plant species interact with each other and how they impact native prairie communities. She previously worked at the Mono Lake Committee in eastern California, where she gained an appreciation for interpretive science education. Oschrin has a passion for effective science communication and believes that connecting to the plants around us can serve as a gateway to broader environmental activism.
William R. Shoemaker, PhD ’20 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, successfully defended his dissertation, "The evolution and ecology of energy-limited microbial populations” on May 15. Shoemaker received a National Science Foundation “Rules of Life” Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the University of California Los Angeles. He works in the lab of Nandita Garud, an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Shoemaker’s research focuses on statistical approaches to infer the distribution of fitness effects for mutations in the gut microbiome.
Nathan I. Wisnoski, PhD ’20 Evolution, Ecology & Behavior, is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wyoming Department of Botany. He works on the EPSCoR (Wyoming Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) Microbial Ecology project as a member of the Albeke and Shoemaker labs. Shannon Albeke is an associate research scientist and ecoinformaticist and Lauren G. Shoemaker is an assistant professor of botany. Wisnoski’s research uses field studies and simulation modeling to understand the relative importance of ecological processes for maintaining biodiversity in dynamic ecosystems.
The College of Arts