Current and Past Undergraduate
Researchers
My
research program on migratory and breeding birds provides numerous
opportunities for undergraduate research (scroll down to see examples of
current and past projects). I have both
field and laboratory projects available for students during fall, spring and
summer semesters. If you are interested in birds, bird blood, external
and internal bird parasites, identification and quantification of invertebrates
(bird food!), migration or breeding biology, museum skin preparation or data
entry, I encourage you to stop by for a chat.
Go here to see a
list of former undergraduate researchers who have gone on to graduate programs.
The University of Scranton
Spring, 2008
Faculty Student
Research Program: Mike Faris examined feather coloration in American
Redstarts, looking for relationships between feather coloration and correlates
of fitness while T.J. Zenzal examined Gray Catbird feathers in an attempt to
identify sex- and age-related differences.
Both Mike and T.J. presented posters describing their results at the
2008 Lehigh Valley Ecology and Evolution Symposium. T.J. will also be presenting at the upcoming 126th Stated Meeting of the American
Ornithologists' Union. Go here to see
Mike’s poster and here
to see T.J.’s poster.
Mike and T.J. also presented their results at the 2008 Celebration of Student Scholars, put on by The Office of Research Services at The University of Scranton.
Faculty Student Research Program: Nate Carr collected
invertebrate data in order to construct length/mass regression models for
invertebrates collected at our Lackawanna
State Park study site.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Maria Kern and Rachel Ward prepared museum specimens for the Vertebrate Biology collection.
Faculty Student Research Program: Christiana Beatty and Beth
Stephens continued identifying and quantifying leukocytes from blood samples
collected during the 2007 field season
Denise Hardisky began data collection for her Honor’s Thesis, which will examine blood plasma metabolites in Gray Catbirds arriving and breeding in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Fall, 2007
Faculty
Student Research Program: Christiana Beatty, John Contreras and T.J.
Zenzal assisted with fieldwork examining use and the fitness consequences of
using shrub/scrub and forested habitats.
This work took place at Lackawanna State Park, where we perform most of
our field data collection.
Faculty Student Research Program: Mike Faris began a project examining feather coloration in American Redstarts, looking for relationships between feather coloration and correlates of fitness
Faculty Student Research Program: Nate Carr and Luke Murphy identified
and quantified invertebrates collected during the 2007 field season.
Faculty Student Research Program: Denise Hardisky spent the
fall semester identifying and quantifying leukocytes from blood samples
collected during the 2007 field season
Faculty/Student Research Program: Maria Kern, Fechnel Michel and Rachel Ward prepared museum specimens for the Vertebrate Biology collection.
Faculty Student Research Program: Robert
Podlinski, Dustin Partridge, Carrie
Squeo and T.J. Zenzal assisted with
fieldwork examining use and the fitness 
consequences of using shrub/scrub and
forested habitats.
Meghan Todd, Dustin Partridge and Carrie Squeo presented some of our results describing habitat use and invertebrate abundance at the Lehigh Valley Ecology and Evolution Symposium. Dan Foster attended the same conference, presenting results of his project examining bird community changes in response to secondary succession. Go here to see a pdf of Meghan’s poster and here to see a pdf of Dan’s poster. Dan’s poster won the award for Best Undergraduate Poster.
Meghan, Dustin and Carrie also presented their results at the 2007 Celebration of Student Scholars, put on by The Office of Research Services at The University of Scranton.
Joe Brague presented results of an inter-sex comparison of forelimb morphology and forelimb microarchitecture in Catharus fuscescens (Veery) at the 2007 Celebration of Student Scholars.
Fall, 2006
Faculty Student Research Program: Meghan Todd, Lisa Monsour and Alejandro Melendez spent the fall semester identifying and quantifying invertebrates collected during the 2006 field season.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Robert Podlinski, Michael Paz and Jennifer Carroll counted white blood cells.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Gina Radzwich, Jeremy Tarife and Carrie Squeo prepared museum specimens for the Vertebrate Biology collection during the fall of 2006.
Summer, 2006
Meghan Todd was awarded a 2006 President’s Fellowship for Summer Research. Her project is a comparison of invertebrate abundance between the forested and shrub/scrub habitats at my study site. She will use data collected during both the 2005 and 2006 seasons to make her comparisons. Preliminary results from mist-netting and avian census data suggest that birds use shrubby habitat more during spring migration than forested habitat. One possible reason might be differences in invertebrate abundance (bird food) between these different habitats. Meghan is making a detailed comparison of invertebrate abundance between habitats along with documenting temporal variation in arthropod abundance and diversity during the spring migratory period. Her results will contribute significantly to our understanding of why birds are using the habitats they are.
Melissa Thompson won the 2006 Sawyer Award and spent the summer assisting in the field and making differential white blood cell counts from slides we collected during the spring/summer 2006 field seasons.
Spring, 2006
Faculty/Student
Research Program: Jennifer Carroll, Joanna Pearson, Siobhan Maher, Robert
Podlinski and Michael Paz identified and quantified white blood cells from
samples collected during the 2005 field season. .
Jessica Phillipy finished her Honor's Thesis on Gray Catbird immune function and arrival timing. She identified a number of relationships between timing of arrival at the migratory destination (breeding grounds) and measures of immune function.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Dustin Partridge and Carrie Sgueo identified and quantified invertebrates collected during the 2005 field season. They also worked on constructing length vs. mass regression models for invertebrates.
Dan Foster presented results of his research on bird community change in response to secondary succession at the 2006 Celebration of Student Scholars, put on by The Office of Research Services at The University of Scranton.
Fall, 2005
Faculty/Student Research Program: Danielle Norman, Justin Lowe and Ashley Gonsky identified and quantified avian white blood cells from samples collected during the 2005 spring migratory and breeding periods in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Jessica Phillipy worked on an Honor’s Thesis examining the relationship between immunological condition in Gray Catbirds and timing of arrival at breeding grounds in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Dustin Partridge and Meaghan Todd identified and quantified invertebrates collected during the 2005 field season.
Summer, 2005
Dan Foster was awarded a 2005 President’s Fellowship for Summer Research to examine bird community changes in response to secondary succession. Dan’s project utilizes aspects of my ongoing PA DCNR funded project on habitat use by migratory birds in addition to features of his own design. A major objective is a long-term (19 year) examination of bird community composition (based on capture data generated by the PA DCNR project and additional nets Dan and I set and ran throughout the summer) to community composition as determined in previous years based on Dr. Mike Carey’s long-term banding within the area. Dan’s project was accepted for presentation as a poster at the Fourth International Ornithological Conference held in Veracruz during October, 2006.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Andrew Delle Donna, Dan Foster, Mario Giordano and Melissa Thompson assisted with our spring migration work and collaborated on a summer project examining bird community dynamics relative to old-field succession in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Spring, 2005
Faculty/Student Research Program: Melissa Thompson. Melissa identified and quantified white blood cells from samples collected from migrating birds in northern Michigan.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Joanna Pearson. Joanna identified/quantified invertebrates collected during the 2001 field season in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula.
Fall 2005
Faculty/Student Research Program: Mark Beyer and Kristen Reitano. Mark and Kristen identified and quantified white blood cells from samples collected from migrating birds in northern Michigan.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Lauren Hughes and Marie Yezzo. Lauren and Marie identified/quantified invertebrates collected during the 2004 field season.
Faculty/Student Research Program: Eric Ledesma. Eric performed a literature search for a project on parentage in Gray Catbirds.
Spring/Summer 2004
Faculty/Student Research Program: Travis Dayon. Travis helped
capture birds and bugs in late spring/early summer, 2004.
Faculty/Student Research Program: David
Rempe. David helped capture birds and bugs in late spring/early summer,
2004.
Fall,
2004
Faculty/Student Research Program: Amber Thompson. Amber identified and
quantified invertebrates collected in northern Michigan.