Welcome to the website for the Locomotion Lab at Saint Mary's College! Our research broadly examines questions related to organismal form and function, with particular focus on locomotor structures. By integrating the of fields comparative morphology, biomechanics, ecology, and evolution, we can answer questions about the evolution of organismal structures and their functions in a variety of habitats.
The Locomotion Lab is committed to promoting diversity and equity in science and academia. We pledge to uphold anti-racist and inclusive principles in order to build a supportive and welcoming lab environment and community.
December 2023 - January 2024: Manuscript accepted for publication! Valerie's (SMC '22) senior comp work on alarm call behavior in fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) is officially in press! Stay tuned for official release information.
Another fabulous SICB meeting in the books! This has to have been one of the best meetings yet (the venue helped - the Pacific Northwest is one of my favorite places). The venue was great and the opportunity to interact with old friends, colleagues, and the broader SICB community is always the highlight of my year.
The SICB community provided great recommendations for our forthcoming Comparative Vertebrate and Human Anatomy textbook through our interactive poster. I am excited to bring this feedback back to the group and to see the full manuscript come together in the next few months.
This was my last meeting at DVM Secretary, as my term expires at the end of January 2024. What a great experience! I loved the work and am so thankful to have been able to serve the Division of Vertebrate Morphology in this capacity. I am also excited to step into my new role as SICB Secretary-Elect!
Sabbatical for Fall 2024 officially approved! Excited to have the time to dedicate to finally wrap up a couple current projects and get some new ones off the ground.
Pleased to announce that I've completed about half of the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) Fostering a Culture of Belonging course. This has been a really rich experience that has helped reinforce some of my current inclusive teaching practices, as well as introducing other strategies to try out in coming semesters.
November 2023: Great afternoon with Dr. Maria Holland's Introduction to Biomechanics class at the University of Notre Dame! I always love having a chance to talk about my lab's research - and watching engineer's eyes light up when I introduce them to new critters (or old critters in a new context) is so fun!
October 2023: SICB 2024 abstract accepted! Come see me at our poster titled: "Soliciting SICB Community Feedback on a New Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy Text" during the poster session on Wednesday, January 3!
Honored and excited to have been awarded a Center for Women's Intercultural Leadership (CWIL) Faculty Fellow Grant for the 2023-2024 academic year! I will hold affiliation with the Saint Mary's Center for Women's Intercultural Leadership for this year, and will have the opportunity to participate in CWIL's strategic planning process and provide feedback on ways CWIL can support research and programming on gender. This award will support the development of our forthcoming Comparative Vertebrate and Human Anatomy textbook.
September 2023: Hello Costa Rica and OBFS 2023! So thrilled to be able to spend the week at La Selva Biological Station for the annual meeting of the Organization for Biological Field Stations. Collaborators Dr. Robin Verble, Dr. Jessica Malisch, Dr. Breezy Jackson, and I led a full-day workshop on generating DEI-Informed Field Safety Plans, which was very well received. This workshop allowed us to work directly with 56 field station directors and managers from 10 countries to develop inclusive field safety documents for their facilities (slideshow below).
Honored to have been selected to be part of the inaugural Academic Excellence and Inclusion Fellows cohort at Saint Mary's College. I will be working with other AEI faculty fellows from across the college to develop and implement DEIJ-related goals in our departments and divisions over the course of the next three years.
August 2023: New paper alert! Actually - whole symposium alert! So excited to see the papers from our SICB 2023 Symposium, Visions for a Diverse, Inclusive, and Safe Future for Field Biology, published! Find our symposium intro here, along with the outstanding papers contributed by our speakers.
June/July 2023: Busy summer! Spent a few weeks traveling in Ecuador as the new co-director of the Saint Mary's Ecuador Study Abroad Program. It was an unforgettable trip and I'm excited to bring ideas back to Saint Mary's for revamping our Ecuador experience and for launching a new line of research in the Locomotion Lab.
Development of our new Comparative Vertebrate and Human Anatomy Textbook got underway this summer with the recruitment of additional contributing authors and the development of chapter outlines. It is excited to start seeing parts of the text coalesce!
Work also continued on the development of materials for our OBFS workshop on Developing DEI-Informed Field Safety Plans. The workshop registration is full! Very exciting!
May 2023: What a great way to wind down the end of AY 2022-2023! Lots to be excited about
Locomotion Lab Member Lucy Chamberlin was recognized at the Saint Mary's Athlete of the Week breakfast on May 2, and I was honored to have been invited as her guest at the event. Not only is she a dynamite student and researcher - she's a star athlete too! So proud of Lucy's accomplishments! Her citation was as follows:
"Lucy was recognized as a Saint Mary’s athlete of the week on February 27. Lucy posted a 4-0 record in a pair of matches to help the Belles to two wins. She was part of a tight 8-6 win at two doubles before clinching the team win with a straight-set one singles win against Spring Arbor. She then overpowered her singles opponent against Saint Francis in a straight-set win as the Belles won 9-0."
Saint Mary's Symposium on May 4! Great day of talks, posters, and creative works presented by SMC faculty and students. Enjoyed presenting results from our peer review duration study as part of the "Challenging the Methods" panel line-up!
Another paper submitted! So we've now got three in review and one in press! Whew!
Four Locomotion Lab seniors are graduating this month (Jenna, Lucy, Caroline, and Hana). It's been a joy to work with them and I'm so glad they chose to spend the last couple years as members of my lab! Check out their senior reflections and next steps in their farewell blog!
SMC President Katie Conboy (left), Lucy Chamberlin (middle), and Vanessa Young (right), as Lucy was recognized for her athletic accomplishments at the Spring 2023 Athlete of the Week breakfast.
April 2023: Workshop accepted! Excited to collaborate with Dr. Robin Verble, Dr. Jessica Malisch, and Dr. Breezy Jacksonon the "Generating a Custom DEI Informed Field Safety Plan for your Site" workshop for the OBFS meeting in Costa Rica later this year!
Four papers in the works!! Two manuscripts in review, one in revision, and one in press! One more in the prep pipeline and hoping to have ready to submit soon! Had a great time at the Midwest rSICB Meeting hosted by the University of Chicago! So glad to have traveled with the Whitlow Lab for the conference! Watch the Locomotion Lab blog page for an entry from our students about their rSICB experience.
March 2023: Organization for Biological Field Stations (OBFS) 2023 Workshop proposal submitted in collaboration with Dr. Robin Verble, Dr. Jessica Malisch, and Dr. Breezy Jackson! Hopeful to have this included in the 2023 OBFS schedule!
Grant funded! Excited to share that we've received a PALNI Textbook Creation Grant. I'll be working with Dr. Lisa Whitenack and Dr. Bill Ryersonto develop a new, open-access Comparative Vertebrate and Human Anatomy text!! Stay tuned for project updates and release information.
Three cheers for Locomotion Lab seniors Hana Larkins, Lucy Chamberlin, Jenna Bowman and Caroline Kopack for their successful Belle Biology Weekend Presentations! Belle Biology Weekend is a two-day event that showcases senior comprehensive research: Each student presents a poster and conference-style oral presentation for Biology faculty, junior biology majors, and guests. All four students did a great job!!
February 2023: Happy news! Received word that I was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Biology!
Participated in a Gender and Women's Studies panel titled "Let's Talk About Sex". Such a fun event! I shared a bit about sexual diversity in nature and how biology can be taught in more inclusive ways. Also learned a lot about sex representation, advocacy, and diversity from colleagues in History, GWS, English, and Nursing.
Senior comp projects are coming together! Can't wait to see these women present their work at Belle Biology Day in early March!
January 2023: Back from SICB2023 in Austin, TX! Another outstanding meeting and great time to reconnect with friends and colleagues. So proud of Saint Mary's students Hana Larkins and Annabelle Murray (Fogle Lab) for their excellent poster presentations! Our SICB2023 symposium (Visions for a Diverse, Inclusive, and Safe Future for Field Biology) was also great! Weren't able to join us in person or via livestream? Check us out on SICB+! SICB+ presentations are streaming until mid-March 2023.
In addition to SICB, I also had another opportunity to do Skype A Scientistoutreach - this time via email communication with 3rd grade students in Houston, TX. So many great questions about turtles and platypus!
New project grant submitted - fingers crossed!
December 2022: The Lab is growing again! We're excited to welcome Jesse Miller to the team, starting in January 2023!
Winding down the fall semester and getting geared up for SICB 2023 in Austin, TX! Looking forward to our symposium on January 6 (Visions for a Diverse, Inclusive, and Safe Future for Field Biology). Not attending SICB in person this year, but interested in our session? No problem! Our symposium will be streamed for virtual participants through SICB+, so you can join there!
Saint Mary's students will also be presenting at the SICB poster sessions again this year. Come see Locomotion Lab member Hana Larkins present her Friday Harbor research on Thursday, January 5 (P2-082: The effect of flow on filtering and gaping behavior in Mytilusgalloprovincialis) and Annabelle Murray (Fogle Lab) presenting her senior research on Friday, January 6 (P3-005: The effects of Ergosterol on the uptake of Lead in Tetrahymena pyriformis).
November 2022: Another great 5th grade class visit with students at Sunset Palms Elementary School (Boynton Beach, FL) this month! Lots of fun questions about turtles, squirrels, and being a scientist.
October 2022: Had an AMAZING visit with a 5th grade class in Boynton Beach, FL this month. I was blown away by their enthusiasm and curiosity about salamanders, turtles, squirrels, and what it's like to be an animal scientist. Many thanks to Skype A Scientist for the match!
Tenure and promotion materials submitted! Many thanks to my internal and external reviewers, who have given their time to assess my documents, as well as to family, friends, and colleagues who have and continue to serve as mentors and sources of support.
September 2022: Attended my first OBFS (Organization of Biological Field Stations) conference at the CMU Biological Station on beautiful Beaver Island, MI. Excited for the new relationships and project ideas that came out of this experience!
August 2022: Lab members are back from summer break and are gearing up for the next stages of their research projects! Stay tuned to this page and our lab blog for updates in the coming months!
July 2022: Two grants awarded this month! Thrilled to report that we've received funding from The Company of Biologists and the National Science Foundation in support of our upcoming symposium titled: Envisioning a Diverse, Inclusive, and Safe Future for Field Biology. This will be a society-wide symposium at the 2023 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meeting in Austin, TX (January 3-7, 2023). Learn more and/or submit an abstract to a complementary session here!
June 2022: Paper submitted! Hannah's senior comprehensive work on squirrel tail length, conducted in collaboration with Valerie Eddington, Adreinne Calistri-Yeh, Shaylee Smith, and Dr. Laura Kloepper, was submitted for publication this month. Hopeful for favorable reviews!
Grant #3 submitted - another to NSF! Fingers crossed for a win on this one!
May 2022: At the end of May, Saint Mary's welcomed back graduates from the class of 2020 for an in-person commencement ceremony. It was wonderful to see so many of our students return, especially since we missed giving them a proper send-off in those early days of the pandemic. Especially sweet was the time to reconnect with Locomotion Lab alumnae Kamryn Yerga and Madeleine Mauck.
Congratulations to Hannah, Mohra, Valerie, Katelyn, and Adrienne on their graduations! I'm so proud of the work these five dynamite women have completed during their time at Saint Mary's, and I'm so excited to see how they grow in their respective careers in the years to come. Stay tuned for some forthcoming publications from this crew!
April 2022: Mohra has been accepted to the University of Michigan's Master's in Movement Science Program! Way to go, Mohra!!
Adrienne has accepted a graduate student position at the University of Michigan! She'll be pursuing a Master's in Ecosystem Science and Management and plans to continue in wildlife and conservation research. Congratulations, Adrienne!!
Jenna, Caroline, and Lucy's IRB proposals have all been approved without revision. Funding is pending, so we should be all set to start data collection when August rolls around!
Grant #2 of the year is in - this one to NSF! Hoping for a favorable review and funding decision! March 2022: New paper submitted with Hana Larkins and collaborators in the Verble Lab at Missouri S&T! Fingers crossed for positive reviews!
First grant of the year is officially submitted to Company of Biologists! Fingers crossed for funding!
February 2022: Cheers to Locomotion Lab seniors Mohra Anderson, Valerie Eddington, Hannah Nichols, and Katelyn Ullrich for their successful Belle Biology Weekend Presentations! Belle Biology Weekend is a two-day event that showcases the research of each of our seniors. On Friday afternoon, students do poster presentations for faculty, junior biology majors, and visitors. Then, on Saturday morning, faculty, junior biology majors, and a small number of guests (invited by seniors) gather to hear seniors deliver conference-style oral presentations of their research. All of the presentations this year were top-notch, but I am especially proud of my crew!
Aside: SICB members - you can see two of these poster presentations (Eddington and Nichols) on SICB+ through the end of March! Go check them out!
January 2022: Cheers to Mohra Anderson on her acceptance to the University of Notre Dame's ESTEEM Graduate Program! The ESTEEM Program is a one-year M.S. in Engineering, Science, and Technology Entrepreneurship. Congratulations, Mohra!!
Congratulations to Hana Larkins on receiving the C. Woolsey and Louise J. Motl Student Travel Grant from the Saint Mary's College Center for Academic Innovation (CFAI)! These funds help support Hana's conference participation and her work on limb bone scaling and shape in pleurodiran and cryptodiran turtles. Go Hana!
SICB 2022 in Phoenix, AZ was wonderful! It was great to be back at an in-person conference and I'm so impressed with the safety and excellent planning of the SICB Executive Committee. The science was spectacular and it felt amazing to reconnect with friends and colleagues in person after two years. SICB is always a major highlight of my year, but his meeting in particular was restorative and energizing beyond expectation!
What's more: we can continue to enjoy and engage with awesome science through SICB+ for several more weeks! Adrienne Calistri-Yeh, Valerie Eddington, Hana Larkins, and Hannah Nichols all presented their undergraduate student research at this year's meeting and did a wonderful job! If you weren't able to catch them in Phoenix, look for their posters in SICB+!
December 2021: Congratulations to Hana Larkins on receiving a SICB Broadening Participation Travel Award to present her undergraduate research at SICB 2022 in Phoenix! Way to go, Hana!!
SICB prep is in full swing! So excited to have so many Saint Mary's students and faculty at this year's SICB meeting! If you're at the conference, check out some of the great posters listed below! See you in Phoenix!
November 2021: Excited to see the paper about our redesigned first-year organismal biology course (Foundations of Form and Function) out in Ecology and Evolution this month! Read more about the course Dr. Laura Kloepper and I have been working on here! Feel free to reach out with question or for materials! October 2021: Busy month here in the Locomotion Lab! The human kinematics teams (Mohra, Caroline, Emily, Jenna, Lucy, and Alison) started data collection for the shoulder and knee studies and Katelyn has made some major breakthroughs with R and advancing her analysis on pleurodire limb bone scaling. Hana and Hannah are hard at work finalizing results and applying for travel funding as they prepare for SICB 2022 in Phoenix!
Saint Mary's College also had a big inauguration celebration for our 14th president, Dr. Katie Conboy. As part of the festivities, the College hosted a Revere, Revise, Reimagine: A Symposium of Research and Creative Works, highlighting scholarly and creative work by Saint Mary's students and faculty. The Locomotion Lab was well represented, with a talk by Dr. Young and poster presentations by Hannah Nichols and honorary lab member Valerie Eddington (a member of the 2021 Neuhoff "Squirrel Squad" and Dr. Kloepper's lab).
Finally, we received word that our recent submission to Ecology and Evolution is in press! Stay tuned for a link to the article when it is released!
August/September 2021: Excited to welcome two new lab members to the team! Alison and Lucy will be helping out with data collection for the shoulder and knee studies this fall. As they get familiar with data collection methods, they'll be thinking about what types of research questions they'd like to pursue for their own research projects in the year year or two. Welcome Alison and Lucy!
Busy start to the academic year, but SO EXCITED to have submitted FIVE (!!) abstracts for SICB 2022 in Phoenix, AZ. Be sure to come check out presentations by Adrienne Calistri-Yeh (bat flight mechanics), Valerie Eddington (squirrel alarm calls), Hannah Nichols (squirrel tail morphology), Hana Larkins (turtle limb bone morphology), and me (gender-ethnicity bias).
Had a wonderful time hosting the Amphibians and Reptiles of Northern Indiana booth at the Celebrate the St. Joe event hosted by St. Joseph County Parks at St. Patrick's Park. Lower turn-out due to the hot, humid weather, but had a great time chatting with the folks who came out! Looking forward to partnering with St. Joseph County Parks for more events in the future.
Summer 2021: Had a fantastic field season co-advising a great team of student researchers with Dr. Laura Kloepper (many thanks to the Neuhoff Summer Science Communities Grant for funding). Hannah, Valerie, and Adrienne collected data from over 60 squirrels this summer, learned that raccoons like Sherman traps more than shrews, and collected some fantastic bat flight data! Looking forward to seeing what comes out of their final analyses!
New paper alerts! Two Locomotion Lab papers came out this summer. The first was published in Journal of Herpetology and describes alumna Mary Kate Starner's senior comprehensive work on limb bone scaling in emydid turtles. Mary Kate's paper can be found here. The second, co-authored by alumna Shaylee Smith and published in Integrative and Comparative Biology, is a review on tail function in arboreal vertebrate animals. Find Shaylee's paper here.
Another awesome Skype-A-Scientistvisit this summer! Great interactions with 3rd graders from Keheewin School in Edmonton, Alberta! So fun!
Another virtual school outreach event! A friend from high school reached out to set up a 'Conversation with a Scientist' for her students at Sandy Grove Elementary School in North Carolina. Another batch of awesome questions from inquisitive young minds - so much fun talking with these students about what it's like to be a biologist!
May 2021: Congratulations to Micaela, Megan G., Megan S., and Megan W. on their graduation! It was wonderful to be able to celebrate an in-person commencement and see these awesome students walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.
Excited to have been matched with a couple classes through Skype-A-Scientistagain this year! Had an amazing session with K-2nd graders at The Children's Community School in Philadelphia, PA this month! The students had such amazing and thoughtful questions about all kinds of animals and bones! So fun!
April 2021: Junior Hannah Nichols has been awarded a Neuhoff Summer Sciences Research Communities grant to conduct her senior comprehensive research here at Saint Mary's this summer! Hannah and Dr. Young will be working jointly with Dr. Laura Kloepper and her students Valerie Eddington and Adrienne Calistri-Yeh. Hannah will be comparing male and female squirrel tail length this summer, and our combined team will be working on characterizing squirrel alarm call acoustics. Can't wait!
March 2021: More exciting news for the Locomotion Lab at Saint Mary's!
First - recent lab alumna Shaylee Smith (graduated December 2020) had her first first-author paper accepted for publication Integrative and Comparative Biology. Way to go Shaylee!
Second - Lab seniors Micaela Enright, Megan Grush, and Megan Saunders all gave spectacular presentations on their senior comprehensive research at this year's virtual Belle Biology Day. Cheers Micaela, Megan, and Megan!
February 2021: Busy month with grant and manuscript deadlines, but good news to share nonetheless!
We are excited to welcome TWO new lab members! First-year Biology major Emily will be a new addition to Team ACL and plans to work with Caroline and Mohra on advancing human limb kinematics projects over the next few years! Sophomore Hana Larkins is joining Team Turtle, and will be working with Katelyn to finalize the pleurodire limb bone scaling project that Megan S. has been leading. Welcome Hana and Emily!
Mary Kate's (c/o 2019) senior comprehensive research has been accepted for publication in Journal of Herpetology! Watch our Publications page for a link to the paper when it is released.
January 2021: SICB time again, but it's definitely a different experience this year. I'm thankful that the meeting was able to go forward in a virtual format, but I can't wait to be back in person with everyone in Phoenix, AZ next year. I'm also excited to announce that I'll be the Secretary-Elect for SICB's Division of Vertebrate Morphology beginning on March 1. I'm looking forward to learning the ropes from SICB-DVM's current secretary, Angela Horner, over the course of the next year!
As we look ahead to the spring semester and 2021 graduations, we're making a couple changes to project personnel. Caroline will be transitioning from the turtle scaling study this term to Team ACL, and will be training with Micaela, Megan G., and Megan W. before the three of them graduate in May.
We've also started exploring an exciting new project with collaborators at Missouri S&T for Alok! Stay tuned over the course of the next few months for details as things come together!
December 2020: We made it! First in-person COVID semester is in the books, and it went okay!
Shaylee defended her senior comp and graduates this month! It's been a tough research experience given the multiple project changes she's had make due to the pandemic and other issues outside of our control, but I'm so proud of how resilient Shaylee has been! She's put together a great project, will be presenting her work as part of a complementary session to the Tail Evolution symposium at SICB, and has been invited to contribute a manuscript to Integrative and Comparative Biology due to her symposium participation. So even though Shaylee is now a lab alumna, I'm so pleased to know that we'll be continuing to keep in touch with a writing project over the course of the next few months (and hopefully longer)!
I participated in another virtual outreach even this month - this time with the Natick Community Organic Farm 4-H Club. What a spectacularly engaging group of young people! We had a blast talking about research, field work experiences, and careers in science. I can't wait to see where these kids go!
Finally, we've got some new faces in the lab! Welcome to Biology majors Hannah and Katelyn, and our first Biomechanics Major, Mohra! Tune in to the lab blog in the spring for more information on their research plans!
Fall 2020: Things are looking a bit different on campus this fall as we return to socially distanced, in-person classes. I'm excited to be offering a new Animal Biomechanics course this semester, and am really excited to see how students respond to it. I'm particularly thrilled to have seven external guests (representing a variety of backgrounds and career stages) joining our class virtually this fall to talk about how they found their way into this profession.
In October, I was invited to film another segment for our local PBS program Outdoor Elements. In this segment, Vince and I talked about the "behind the scenes" specimens housed in many museums, and their incredible scientific value to researchers!
Shaylee has wrapped up her senior comp project comparing tail length in male and female fox squirrels and is preparing for both a December graduation and to present her work at the first ever virtual Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meeting in January!
Megan G., Megan. W., and Micaela have had to shift their ACL work around a bit to accommodate campus visitation restrictions due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, their revised IRB protocol has been approved and they are working hard on new data collected and analysis.
Summer 2020: Shaylee's 2020 UNDERC experience was postponed due to the pandemic, so we've shifted her to a new project. She'll be comparing tail length relative to body mass in male and female fox squirrels. Because trapping required close physical contact between researchers, we won't be collecting new data this season - Shaylee will be using data collected in 2019 by Kam and Hannah to complete her study.
Caroline has joined Megan S. on her turtle limb bone scaling study, to help out with some technology issues. Exciting to have a new person on that study, even in the midst of tech frustrations.
May 2020: Due to the pandemic, the Saint Joseph County Parks GALS (Girls Ambitious about Learning Science) event has been cancelled. Hopefully they can reschedule GALS for the fall, and we can get out there and get 5th-8th grade girls excited about biomechanics and functional morphology!
I did my second Skype-A-Scientist event this week with a 5th grade class at St. Therese School in Munhall, PA. We had a great time talking about turtles and what it's like to be an animal scientist! Looking forward to doing more of these types of events!
Congratulations to Hannah, Kam, and Madeleine on their graduation! The pandemic prevented the traditional in-person graduation events this year, so we sadly weren't able to celebrate this milestone together. Nonetheless, I'm so proud of the work these students have done, and their perseverance in finishing strong during these wild couple months!
April 2020: Well, the last month has been a doozy! Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had to temporarily suspend the ACL work we anticipated doing this spring. But Megan G., Megan W., and Micaela are getting ready to hit the ground running in the fall! Megan G. and Micaela have submitted grant proposals to fund some equipment purchases (camera tripods), and we should be receiving word on that funding in the next couple weeks.
Megan S. and I will be working remotely on pleurodire and cryptodire limb bone scaling analyses this summer, so stay tuned for those results later this year!
Shaylee's UNDERC experience has been postponed this year due to the pandemic, but we are actively working with our awesome collaborators at Missouri S&T to figure out an alternative project that Shaylee can complete remotely this summer. Stay tuned for updates!
This month I was matched with 3 classrooms through Skype-A-Scientist! I did my first session on April 27 with a Kindergartener and his family in Ann Arbor, MI! We has so much fun talking about all things turtles (ecology, anatomy, evolution)! We also talked about how I became a scientist. He had SUCH great questions! I'm looking forward to connecting with my second match - a 5th grade class in the Pittsburgh, PA area - in a couple weeks!
March 2020: IRB has approved our 2020 ACL study proposal, so Megan G., Megan W., and Micaela are cleared for data collection! Looking forward to getting a schedule set up and new drop-jump videos collected from college age women and men from the tri-campus community!
February 2020: The annual Belle Biology Weekend was held at the end of February. This event is a two-day showcase of the research conducted by senior Biology majors (poster session on Friday, oral presentations Saturday). I am always amazed at the quality and level of research that our students engage in during their last two years at Saint Mary's. Locomotion Lab seniors Hannah, Madeleine, and Kamryn all presented and knocked it out of the park! I'm beyond proud!!
Another successful Saint Mary's STEM Weekend in the books! It was great fun meeting these future Bio-Belles during the cardiovascular mini-lab on Sunday. Current Locomotion Lab member Hannah Gams was also present to impart advice and answer questions about what life is like as a Saint Mary's Student. Looking forward to seeing these young women return in the fall!
First grant of 2020 is submitted! Fingers crossed for positive NSF reviews!!
So excited to have co-authored a new paper on muscle fiber type proportions in the Hawaiian goby, Sicyopterus stimpsoni, now out in Journal of Anatomy's Early View. I had the opportunity to work on this project as a first-year Ph.D. student, and it was an unforgettable experience. So happy to finally see the results published!
We've added another member to the Locomotion Lab at Saint Mary's! Welcome to Caroline - another first-year student with an interest in joining team ACL and expanding the scope of that line of research! Stay tuned for more from Caroline as she gets familiar with the lab and starts identifying her specific research question.
January 2020: I attended the annual SICB meeting the first week of January, this year in Austin, TX. What an AWESOME conference! This year's meeting was especially rewarding, as I was able to take a student researcher for the first time. Senior Hannah Gams presented a poster on her Summer 2019 work studying the body mass of fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) caught at different distances from the Saint Mary's campus dining hall. In addition to introducing Hannah to SICB, I also had a great time reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, meeting new people, and serving on the PUI Careers panel and at the DPCB Ask-An-Expert booth. As always, I can't wait to get back to SICB next January!
December 2019: Wowie! We're DOUBLING the Locomotion Lab membership in Spring 2020! Welcome to three new juniors: Micaela, Megan G., and Shaylee and two new first-years: Alok and Belen! Tune in to the personnel and blog pages for new member introductions and project summaries in January.
November 2019: Lots of interest in Locomotion Lab at Faculty Research Night! Looking forward to seeing how many new recruits will be joining our team in Spring 2020!
October 2019: Had an AMAZING visit to Missouri S&T and the Ozark Research Field Station from Oct. 6-8. Great interactions with faculty and grad students, and a wonderful chance to catch up with old friends: Dr. Robin Verble and Theo Sumnicht. Looking forward to cooking up some collaborations that will let me get back down there soon!
September 2019: The seasons are changing, so it's time to start squirrel trapping again! Hoping to have better luck trapping in the Nature Area as the weather turns cooler. Fingers crossed! Kam and Hannah did a great job presenting their work at STEM Fall Poster Day on Sept. 13 (photos below)! Looking forward to seeing them represent Saint Mary's at SICB 2020 in Austin, TX!
Madeleine is up and running again collecting new videos to expand the data set for the ACL study! Looking forward to seeing what her results show in a few months!
August 2019: New semester and two new students in the Locomotion Lab! Welcome Megan S and Megan W! Megan S. will starting a new scaling project comparing cryptodire and pleurodire limb bone morphology, and Megan W. is joining the lab as a research assistant on the ACL project.
July 2019: Off to Prague, Czechia for the International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM)! Excited to reconnect with colleagues at the meeting and see all the awesome work to be shared there!
Ten weeks of summer research have gone by fast! Looking forward to wrapping up final analyses of Hannah and Kam's summer work.
June 2019: We have squirrels! Good trapping success on campus, but no luck in the nature area. Hannah and Kam have adjusted their research questions to focus specifically on the campus squirrel population.
May 2019: Kam and Hannah began their summer research this month! Started off with field training on baiting and setting traps, along with building squirrel handling cones.
April 2019: Was invited to present at the Great Lakes Region National Association for Interpretation Conference in downtown South Bend! Had a wonderful time talking with parks interpreters and naturalists about turtle limbs, salamander tails, and swimming performance. Was also invited to film a segment about animal locomotor morphology for Outdoor Elements, a program produced by WNIT Public Television. Looking forward to it airing this summer!
Excited to report that the Locomotion Lab has received a 2019 Neuhoff Summer Science Communities Research Grant! This award will fund 10-weeks of summer research for Hannah and Kam's squirrel studies. The Neuhoff also provides funding for conference travel, so Hannah and Kam will be attending SICB 2020 in Austin, TX!
March 2019: Seniors presented the comprehensive research at Belle Biology Weekend! Poster presentations on Friday and oral talks on Saturday. Amazing to see the work that all these students are doing, and particularly proud of the Locomotion Lab seniors!
February 2019: New scaling paper has been accepted for publication in Journal of Morphology! Find the Early View here!
The second annual Saint Mary's STEM Weekend with accepted students was a great event! I enjoyed getting to know some of our future Bio-Belles during dinner on Saturday and our cardiovascular mini-lab on Sunday. Looking forward to having some of these outstanding young STEM women in future classes!
January 2019: Excited to be back from another amazing SICB meeting and eager to kick off some new projects for the new year!
Our lab group has grown again - Welcome to Madeleine and Hannah! Stay tuned throughout the spring semester for updates as they develop their research proposals.
November 2018: Wonderful afternoon at Notre Dame meeting colleagues and potential collaborators! Thanks to Matt Ravosa for the seminar invitation!
September 2018: Had a great time at Rockin' Reptiles at Bendix Woods County Park! So much fun talking to preschool and elementary-age kids and their families about all kinds of herps!
The lab is growing! Excited to welcome Kamryn and Arianna to the team! Stay tuned for updates on their work as we develop their respective projects this fall. August 2018: Excited to start my second year at Saint Mary's! It's been a productive summer, with a manuscript submitted and currently out for review, and several new research projects in the works.
The fall is off to an exciting start with the addition of a blog page to this website where my current students can share updates on their research projects. Ellen will be the first blog contributor, with a post on her summer research at UNDERC. Stay tuned for posts from Mary Kate and Alli in the coming weeks!
I'm also excited to announce that our research group is growing! Arianna is a first-year student with a strong interest in research related to human health. She'll be starting out as a research assistant on Alli's ACL study this September, and moving on to developing her own independent project later this fall and through the winter. Welcome Arianna!
March 2018: Outstanding Saturday morning spent judging projects at the Northern Indiana Regional Science and Engineering Fair! Tons of fun and very impressed with many of the projects! Kudos to the participants and their supporters!
February 2018: STEM Weekend fun with admitted students! We explored comparative anatomy, electrophysiology, and function of the heart! Looking forward to seeing many of these budding STEM women in my classes at SMC in the next few years.
Had a great time presenting with colleague Joel Ralston at Saint Mary's College's Faculty Colloquium on Feb. 9! Thanks to Laura Kloepper for the recommendation and Amy Cavender for the invitation to speak!
January 2018: First official lab group meeting is in the books. Exciting to have everyone together to talk about project ideas, committee selections, and scientific lit!
Just back from another outstanding SICB meeting and feeling inspired! It was great to reconnect with old friends and colleagues, as well as to meet new folks! Thanks to all who stopped by my poster to chat!
December 2017: Excited to have 3 new students in my lab! Welcome to Alli, Ellen, and Mary Kate! Check back in the spring for updates on their research projects!
November 2017: Just back from a great visit to Texas Tech University. Thanks to the graduate students of the Natural Resources Management Department for the seminar invitation! New paperon humeral loading during walking and swimming is out in Journal of Experimental Biology! Check it out here!
Its been a busy few months getting moved and the lab set up at Saint Mary's College! Pleased to say that the flow tank made the trip in one piece and now resides in my lab space at SMC!
April 2017: It has been an exciting couple months since my last update! Another paper was submitted in January and has been accepted pending minor revisions. Looking forward to letting everyone know when that publication is finally out.
I am also excited to announce that I recently passed my dissertation defense, and am now Vanessa K H. Young, PhD!
January 2017: Exciting start to the year! New paper out in Biology Letters (find it here) and another manuscript submitted and currently under review! Watch this site and my publications page for updates!
December 2016: I am so thrilled to announce that I will be beginning an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana in Fall 2017!! I am eager to join the faculty team at Saint Mary's and am looking forward to starting my research program with the outstanding students there!
I'm also excited to announce that my next paper has been accepted for publication in Biology Letters! Watch this site (and my publications page) for updates on when the paper will be released.
November 2016: Just returned from presenting a seminar at Berry College. Thanks to all for a great visit!
Back from presenting a seminar at Saint Mary's College. What a great community of faculty and students! Many thanks for a wonderful visit!
What a outstanding experience to return to my alma mater, Erskine College, as the Tri-Beta seminar speaker this month! I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share my research. Thank you to the Tri-Beta Sigma Gamma chapter officers for the invitation.
October 2016: Back from presenting a seminar at Cedar Crest College! Many thanks to the faculty and students for a great visit!
New paper out in Integrative and Comparative Biology! The print version will be out later this year, but you can find the online publication here.
September 2016: Papers are going in! Watch this space (and my publications page for updates)!
August 2016: Gearing up for another semester of Vertebrate Biology! Excited to get back in the classroom!
July 2016: Home from the 11th International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM), held in Washington, DC. What a great meeting! With over 600 presentations from scientists representing 33 countries, it was an exciting and energizing experience! Eagerly looking forward to the next ICVM in 2019!
June 2016: So very excited to be collecting data from specimens at the Chelonian Research Institute (CRI). The holdings of the CRI are incredible in their diversity of species represented. In addition, the hospitality of Peter and Sibille Pritchard to visiting scientists is beyond comparison. Thank you to Nicole Mazouchova for the introduction to the CRI. A huge thank you to Peter and Sibille, as well as the staff of the CRI, for allowing me to come visit this amazing collection and for all of your hospitality and assistance during my stay.
May 2016: Honored to receive the 2016 "Commitment to Service" Award from the Biological Sciences Graduate Student Association (BSGSA)! This award is given annually to recognize the BSGSA member who has completed the highest number of service hours through the course of the academic year. Congratulations to fellow Blob Lab member Christopher Mayerl on receiving the Hap Wheeler Award, and to colleagues Jason Coral and Kelly Hogan for recognition of their commitment to graduate student life and research, respectively.
Great to be back at Erskine College for an afternoon to judge the undergraduate research symposium. Several interesting projects presented by fine students. Cheers to all on your hard work!
So very excited to be a 2016 Frederick (Dick) and Helen Gaige Award recipient! Thank you to the members of ASIH and the Gaige Award committee for this honor! Funds will be used to support my upcoming collections visit to the Chelonian Research Institute in Oviedo, FL. April 2016: Saw some nice projects presented at Clemson's annual Focus on Creative Inquiry undergraduate research poster session. Job well done to Blob Lab representatives Jenna Pruett and Katie Vest! Congrats to Jenna on her first-place poster! For more information on Jenna and Katie's projects, check out their recent posts on the Blob Lab Blog.
March 2016: Plans underway to visit the Chelonian Research Institute this summer to collect additional morphological data and round out the sample for my scaling study. Beyond excited to have the opportunity to visit this world-class collection!
Gaige and Sigma Xi grant applications submitted. Fingers crossed for positive reviews and funding for research travel!
February 2016: Focus on Creative Inquiry abstract submitted. Looking forward to seeing Katie present some of the preliminary results for our swimming kinematics study in April.
Scaling study presented at Clemson's Biological Sciences Annual Student Symposium (CBASS). What a great opportunity to showcase the work being done by graduate and undergraduate students in the sciences at Clemson!
ICVM abstract is submitted! Looking forward to sharing results on retention of swimming kinematics in terrestrial turtles. See you in DC!
January 2016: My new staff profile page is now up on the Clemson website. Pretty basic, but you can check it out here.
Home again from SICB 2016 in Portland, OR. Awesome meeting! Excited to have had the opportunity to present preliminary results of my current scaling study, reconnect with old friends and colleagues, and meet new people. Looking forward to the new year and new collaborations!
December 2015: Just back from the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville! Great collection! Thanks to Max Nickerson and Kenney Krysko for their assistance in arranging my visit.
November 2015: My work was featured on the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's facebook page this month! I understand it also went out via Instagram. Check it out here.
October 2015: Back from an amazing data collection trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA! A huge "Thanks!" to Steve Rogers for his assistance in arranging the trip.
September 2015: Received a Clemson University Professional Enrichment Grant (PEG) to help fund travel to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History this fall. See you soon, Steel City!
SICB abstract is officially submitted. Looking forward to presenting my turtle limb scaling and shape results in Portland!
August 2015: Just returned from another great museum trip-- this time to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. What a great collection! Let the preliminary analyses begin! Thanks to David Kizirian and Lauren Vonnahme for their assistance in arranging my visit!
The Blob Lab Creative Inquiry blog is up and running. Bookmark the page and keep up with our lab's exciting research here.
Just returned from an INCREDIBLE data collection visit to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Eager to dive into the data and see what these turtle bones are up to! Many thank you's to Ken Tighe and Addison Wynn for their assistance!
July 2015: Comprehensive exams completed and passed! I am officially a Ph.D. Candidate!
June 2015: First paper from my dissertation published in Biology Letters!
May 2015: Just found out that I am one of two recipients of this year's Sarah Bradley Tyson Memorial Fellowship. Thank you to the members of the Women's National Farm & Garden Association, Inc. for your support!
April 2015: Excited and honored to be a recipient of a 2015 Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant given by the American Museum of Natural History! Thank you to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund Committee. I look forward to visiting the AMNH collections this summer.
January 2015: I am very excited to have received a 2015 Grant-in-Aid of Research from the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology for my upcoming museum work! Thank you SICB!