Past Participants
Fellow Profiles
Alexis Campbell
Email: alexish@iastate.edu
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: PhD Candidate, ABD
Research Mentor: Dr. Basil J. Nikolau
Department: Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology
Research Title: A flexible system for the investigation of plant fatty acid elongases and their downstream derivatives, substrates for next generation fuels.
Research Summary: Fatty acid elongase system is essential to life and found in plants, animals and yeast. My research exploits yeast, as it is a much simpler biological system, and works to build a plant-based elongase in a yeast cell that is lacking its own natural elongase system.
Research Connection: Fatty acid elongase is found in life forms from humans to plants and even simpler systems such as baker's yeast. Its products, very long chain fatty acids, are found in very small quantities throughout all life and are responsible for some human genetic disorders involving skin and vision. In addition to its health impact, these molecules have great implication in biofuels as potential candidates for next generation fuels.
Career Aspiration: Alexis is looking to secure a tenure track position at a Research I Institution that offers a challenging environment advantageous to not only her educational and personal growth, but also the opportunity to impact educational experiences of others.
"GK-12 has impacted my professional life in many ways. It is amazing to see the personal growth in confidence level with regard to public speaking, the ease at which I can now identifying concepts and ideas that help relate science topics to everyday things, and has confirmed my drive to teach and guide students of all levels in their pursuit of science. In addition, this program has provided an interesting and surprising route to development of a very intimate relationship with science and my dissertation research."
Heather Edwards
Email: spangler@iastate.edu
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: Ph.D. Candidate
Research Mentor: Dr. Nicola Pohl
Department: Department of Chemistry
Research Title: Automated Solution Phase Synthesis of Bacterial Oligosaccharides
Research Summary: Synthetic methods are being developed to automate, and thereby accelerate and standardize, the process of stringing together individual sugars into longer chains associated with these pathogens. The goal is to create better methods to make sugars that are found on the surface of pathogenic bacteria for incorporation into well-characterized potential vaccines.
Research Connection: This research would help people understand how sugars play a specific role in the infection of bacteria. By increasing our knowledge and understanding, better vaccines to fight against bacterial infections will be created.
Career Aspiration: Heather is seeking opportunities to continue to teach and inspire people to go into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields.
"Symbi has helped me to further develop skills to communicate my research to the general public."
Jon Hurst
Email: jnhurst@iastate.edu
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: Master of Science in Biology
Research Mentor: Dr. Eve Syrkin Wurtele
Department: Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology
Research Title: Modeling Metabolic Pathways and Regulatory Networks of Fatty Acid Biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Research Summary: Living organisms act much like complicated factory machinery: they produce complicated chemicals in many different steps with many controls over production. Jon seeks to better understand how this cellular machinery is controlled and how different controls lead to different products.
Research Connection: By better understanding how cells operate, Jon hopes to help other scientists and engineers use living cells like yeast to produce chemical products that are useful in industry and better understand our own cells.
Career Aspiration: Jon hopes to continue to teach and research at a collegiate level.
"Through Symbi, I am learning how to better communicate scientific ideas to the public and which scientific ideas need to be communicated."
Joy Jackson
Email: joyj@iastate.edu
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: Ph.D. Candidate
Research Mentor: Dr. Nicola Pohl and Dr. Richard Zuerner
Department: Department of Chemistry
Research Title: The Production and Evaluation of Carbohydrate Enzymes from Leptospira Borgpetersenii
Research Summary: Sugar nucleotidyltransferases are essential to the viability of Gram-negative bacteria. Through cloning, expression, and characterization, my research investigates enzymes that are putative virulence factors and involved in the pathogenesis of Leptospira.
Research Connection: Bacteria are everywhere. Some of the places bacteria exist and thrive are hands, shoes, desks, water fountain handles, restroom doors, and playground equipment. Leptospira belongs to a diverse group of helical, cork-screw shaped motile bacteria. Once Leptospira enters its host (i.e. human body), a bacterial infection called Leptospirosis occurs. Leptospirosis can be transmitted from animals to humans and has become a serious health concern in many countries. Once detailed characterization of the enzymes has been established, new and innovative approaches to the prevention and treatment of Leptospirosis are very promising.
Career Aspiration: Joy would love to teach biology or microbiology to students ranging from middle school to the collegiate level.
"Serving as a Symbi GK-12 Fellow will afford me the opportunity to connect with middle school students and share my love for research. This experience will allow me to gain an even deeper appreciation for teaching science and the skillful craft involved. "
Ben Lewis
Email: balewis@iastate.edu
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Research Mentor: Dr. Drena Dobbs
Department: Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology
Research Title: Computational Analysis and Prediction of Protein-RNA Interactions
Research Summary: Interactions between proteins, the molecular machines of the cell, and RNA, the molecule which transmits the genetic code, are essential to many important processes within the cell. Ben’s research is in developing computational representations of these interactions, which can give us some insight into their nature where more traditional molecular biology techniques fall short.
Research Connection: Lots of important biological processes, such as cellular aging and the replication of HIV, are controlled by interactions between proteins and RNA. By understanding how those interactions work on a broad scale, we gain knowledge that can be applied to these more specific problems.
Career Aspiration: Upon graduating, Ben would like to teach science, particularly molecular biology/biochemistry at a collegiate level.
"I've learned more about teaching after a month in the GK-12 program than I did in over a year of undergraduate teaching assistantships."
Mark Newell
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: PhD, Plant Breeding
Research Mentor: Dr. William Beavis
Department: Department of Agronomy
Research Title: An association genetics approach to identify genes associated with increased Beta-glucan in oats.
Research Summary: Using advanced statistical methods to identify genes in the oat genome that show increased beta-glucan, most commonly known as dietary fiber.
Research Relevance: Oat dietary fiber in the human diet has been proven to improve health with respect to blood pressure, obesity, diabet
es, cholesterol, and the immune response. Finding genes that are responsible for increased dietary fiber in oats will enable plant breeders to select for high dietary fiber more rapidly than traditional methods of selection.
Career Aspiration: Mark would like to be a plant breeder with a focus on quality traits at either a public institution or in industry.
"Symbi, thus far, has taught me how to describe processes in science to the general public. This will have large impacts on my future as a plant breeder both in teaching and communication skills related to running a breeding program."
Tonia Schwartz
Email: schwartz@iastate.edu
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: Masters of Science, Zoology. PhD candidate.
Research Mentor: Dr. Anne Bronikowski and Dr. Jo Anne Powell-Coffman
Department: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Research Title: Unraveling the genetic interaction between stress and life-history traits using natural populations of garter snakes.
Research Summary: How an individual responds to environmental stress (temperature changes, toxins, disease, social interactions) affects how that individual acts, its ability to reproduce, and its lifespan. Therefore, it is important to understand how the genetic make-up of an individual determines how it responds to stress; and how populations change over time (evolve) in response to their environmental conditions. My research addresses these questions using natural snake populations who respond to environmental stresses in different ways, but only slightly differ in genetic make-up. Stress experiments on these populations are used to characterize their physiological differences in stress response, and then identify the underlying genes that allow them to respond to stress in different ways.
Research Relevance: This research will help us to understand what genes are important for stress response in natural populations, and how they evolve in response to different environmental stress conditions. Many of the genes investigated here are involved in metabolism, diabetes, reproduction and aging. Because animals share many of the same genes with only slight differences, experiments using snake populations that naturally differ in reproduction, lifespan and stress response can help us to understand the genes responsible for these traits in many animal species, including livestock and humans.
Career Aspiration: Tonia hopes to continue to do scientific research and teaching in an academic setting.
"Through Symbi, the GK-12 program, I am gaining experience communicating scientific research to a general audience. Additionally, through interactions with my middle school teacher-collaborator I am gaining invaluable teaching skills, and a greater understanding for the challenges facing our teachers in today's classroom and those facing our country's education system."
Bryon Upton
Email: bau@iastate.edu
Institution: Iowa State University
Degree Level: Ph.D. Candidate
Research Mentor: Dr. Basil J. Nikolau
Department: Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology
Research Title: Identifying and understanding diversity within the acyl-CoA carboxylase enzyme family
Research Summary: My research started with the study of the natural diversity found within a model plant (Arabidopsis) in a class of enzymes known as acyl-CoA carboxylases. It has in more recent history been expanded to searching for further diversity within the entire biosphere. The goal of my research is to understand at a molecular level the differences in these enzymes which make them specific for one chemical reaction and not another. This, we hope, will lead to the discovery or engineering of novel enzymes which can create new chemical products useful to society.
Research Connection: As part of the NSF-Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), our vision is to create biorenewable chemicals which will replace those currently created using petroleum. To achieve this goal, the center has paired biochemists/molecular biologists with chemical engineers. My research hopes to provide a step along the chemical process which can be altered to create chemical diversity in the types of products the center hopes to create.
Career Aspiration: Bryon hopes to continue doing research while teaching at the collegiate level.
"I hope to help middle school students realize that science is more then memorizing "facts" from a book, that it can be fun, exciting, and help solve real world problems. At the same time, I hope to improve my ability to communicate my research (and science in general) to the public."
Des Moines Teachers Involved in the Symbi Program
Jenna Greeno
Institution: Harding Middle School
teaches: 7th grade Science
Email: jenna.greeno@dmschools.org
What I love about teaching science: “I love that science is always changing and new information is being found all the time! I love showing students that science is in everything they do and see, even the most basic things, like eating.”
How does a resident scientist impact my classroom: "Helping students to recognize the importance of accurate data and how to interpret scientific information."
Randy Hansen
Institution: Brody Middle School
teaches: 8th grade Science
Email: randolph.hansen@dmschools.org
What I love about teaching science: “When students have an ‘A HA’ moment or when students come back after years and say what type of impact I had on them.”
How does a resident scientist impact my classroom: “My students are really happy to have a real scientist in class. He is working with small groups on science fair projects and he has shared his project with them to help bring to life how science works.”
“Many of the students know Ben from last year, so it's exciting to see their relationships grow. Ben brings a great deal of enthusiasm to class and the students feel that!”
Deb Marriott
Institution: Brody Middle School
teaches: 7th grade Science
Email: deborah.marriott@dmschools.org
What I love about teaching science: “Science is a great match for the energy level and developmental needs of middle school students. The best part of teacher science is definitely that there’s never a dull moment!”
How does a resident scientist impact my classroom: “Our collaboration positively impacts students because a ‘real’ scientist can explain the methods of science. It’s not just a set of rules that an adult imposes on them. The student sees the fellow’s presence as an affirmation of how science is done at the University and in real life.”
Adam Puderbaugh
Institution: Harding Middle School
teaches: 8th grade Science
Email: adam.puderbaugh@dmps.k12.ia.us
What I love about teaching science: "I love creating scientifically literate citizens that are prepared to integrate science into society's decision making processes. I love creating a sense of wonder and connection with the natural world."
How does a resident scientist impact my classroom: "A resident scientist brings authenticity to the science classroom where students come face to face with the nature of science and explore career opportunities. The resident scientist provides a face to the research community and allows students to identify with, and see themselves as scientists."
Cindy Windsor
Institution: Hiatt Middle School
teaches: 6th grade Science
Email: cynthia.windsor@dmschools.org
What I love about teaching science: "I love seeing the 'light bulb shine' above my students in class! That moment when they seem to understand a lesson or I spark an interest in them when they hear something that is brand new is what makes teaching science so fun for me."
How does a resident scientist impact my classroom: "I am anxious to have a "real" scientist in my classroom. I am confident that she will help me to implement more inquiry and problem-solving activities into my classes each week. I also anticipate that my resident scientist will serve as a role-model and an inspiration for my students as so many of them are unfamiliar with higher education and the research being done at Iowa State."