Evolution 2019 Meeting @ Providence RI

The Evolution Meeting #Evol2019 was held from June 22nd - June 25th in Providence, RI. This was our first international conference as a lab. We presented two posters, connected to a bunch of fellow Daphnia biologists and got awesome advice on some experimental design. All in all a great experience for all @RoyChowdhuryLab.

Academic Excellence Conference @ KeeneState

The Academic Excellence Conference is an effort by Keene State College to highlight student research and scholarship to their peers, families, campus and the broader community. This year (2019) it was on the 13th of April and the Roy Chowdhury Lab was in full attendance. I was in the committee for this conference and every single student in the lab presented their research. Joshua, Anthony and Joseph presented a talk for the very first time. Even though it was at 10am on a Saturday, their talk was well attended by Dr. Treadwell, biology faculty and students and family members. During lunch, I and Joseph participated in a talk session arranged by INBRE talking about the student-mentor relationship. Finally, Autumn, Emilyann and Meghan presented posters during the afternoon session. Overall, it was a great learning and networking experience for all members of the lab. Looking forward for the next year.

Arsenic Fair in Bow High School in Bow, NH

Parts of New England are prone to higher levels of arsenic in private well waters due to geological leeching. Since our lab is interested in looking at the effects of arsenic and nutrition, we are part of a SEPA program tilted “From Data to Action: A rural school-based citizen science project to increase data literacy and eliminate arsenic from drinking water in Maine and New Hampshire”. Our lab works with school teachers as they conduct experiments in their classes testing Arsenic from private well waters. Once we receive the data we then share it to the community to inform them about any potential hazards. This year, we had much higher levels of Arsenic registered Bow private wells. So with the help of Bow High School chemistry teacher Brenda Mitchell, we organized an Arsenic fair for the public to inform them of our results. Josh and Emilyann talked about the arsenic research in our lab and also had live demonstrations of how heart beat of Daphnia is affected when exposed to diffrent concentrations of Arsenic. Overall, it was a learning experinece as we took our research beyong our lab into the broader community.

Northeast Aquatic Biology Conference in Saratoga Spring, NY

This was our first national conference as a lab. Emilyann, Anthony, Joshua, Joseph and I attended the NAB meeting on 27th Feb - 30th Feb 2019. Anthony, Josh and Joseph presented posters and Josh got the “Best Student Poster” award. Congratulations Josh!!!!

We had so much fun and are looking forward to the international conference we will be attending in June in Providence.