The Center for Biodiversity (CB) is a unit within the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences at East Carolina University which promotes and supports research, education, and outreach associated with global biodiversity. The CB serves the community of eastern North Carolina by providing educational programs designed to engage citizens in issues related to the conservation of biodiversity and its relevance to human health and quality of life.
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Biodiversity Scholarship Winner Announced ECU’s Center for Biodiversity is delighted to announce the winner of our first annual Biodiversity Scholarship competition for Pitt County high school students conducting research projects on local plant and animal biodiversity. Ms. Alina Suedbeck won the $1000 scholarship for her research entitled "Lepidoptera Caterpillar Spiracle Variation". Participating students were matched with an ECU mentor to assist them in project planning. Completed projects were presented at ECU’s annual Earth Day Expo on April 18th. Alina was motivated to participate in research last fall when she heard about the Biodiversity Scholarship competition. She conducted her research with guidance from Dr. Tom Fink, ECU Dept of Biology and Center for Biodiversity. She also received some statistical advice from Dr. Tim Christensen, ECU Dept of Biology and Center for Biodiversity. Her research has now earned her other awards in addition to the Biodiversity scholarship. Alina won third place in her division at the state competition of the NC Student Academy of Sciences on March 15th at the NC School of Science and Mathematics in Durham. In addition, she won first place in her division at the state Science and Engineering Fair on March 16th at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. She caught the eye of a college recruiter who offered her a $10,000 scholarship to Meredith College. She also was selected to be one of only 8 state representatives at the International Science and Engineering Fair (http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/). Intel ISEF is the world's largest international pre-college science competition and will be held May 12-17, 2013 in Phoenix, AZ. Alina is the first from the northeastern NC region to be accepted into the ISEF. Alina, the daughter of Dorothy and John Suedbeck, is home-schooled and lives in Greenville. She is a delightful young woman with a keen interest in entomology. We all wish her the best at ISEF. More on ECU News:CATERPILLAR CONNECTION |
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Earth Day Expo April 18th, 2013 4-6 pm Howell Science Complex |
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Our Earth Day Expo will have interactive events for people of all ages. Various ECU researchers and local non-profit organizations will have displays and activities available on topics related to biodiversity. There will be live animals and plants, lab activities, natural history story times, and more! Participants from our Biodiversity Scholarship competition will also present posters on their research projects. Kids from various after school programs will be attending and the public is welcome! For more information, please contact Heather Vance-Chalcraft at vancechalcrafth@ecu.edu or 252-328-9841. |
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This event has been selected to be one of featured events associated with the North Carolina Science Festival (http://www.ncsciencefestival.org/).
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Public lecture: Dr. Tyrone Hayes
Developmental endocrinologist, University of California-Berkeley
From Silent Spring to Silent Night: A Tale of Toads and Men
April 18th, 2013
8pm
0C307 Science and Technology Bldg
As part of the Earth Day events for 2013, our guest speaker will be Dr. Tyrone Hayes, a world renowned biologist and professor of Integrative Biology at University of California, Berkeley. His research has involved the roles of steroidal hormones and environmental conditions on amphibian development. Dr. Hayes is particularly interested in the ability of a widely used herbicide named atrazine to alter sexual development and cause feminization in male frogs. This work has implications for the current population declines of amphibians, as well as human health as atrazine has been shown to alter testicular development and induce reproductive cancers in rodents. Dr. Tyrone Hayes has become an advocate for spreading awareness about the known detrimental effects of atrazine and its potential role in human reproductive health.
Immediately preceding this talk, the winner of the Biodiversity Scholarship will be announced. For more information, please contact Heather Vance-Chalcraft at vancechalcrafth@ecu.edu or 252-328-9841.
This event is a North Carolina Science Festival event (http://www.ncsciencefestival.org/).
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Biodiversity Scholarship for Pitt County High School Students Participating students will complete a project on local plant or animal diversity and submit their results in a poster presentation in spring 2013. Winning project and presentation will be awarded a $1000 prize. All projects will be displayed at the CB Earth Day Celebration, April 18, 2013. Project guidance and some supplies will be provided by ECU faculty and graduate students. Students may work in pairs or alone. To participate, please register by September 29, 2012. There is no fee for registration. You can register in one of two ways: 1. (Recommended) Attend an informational meeting to get started with your project planning and connect with ECU advisors. Meeting date: Saturday, September 29, 10am-12, Howell Science Building, ECU Main Campus 2. Contact Carol Goodwillie by email (preferred) at goodwilliec@ecu.edu or telephone 252-328-4225 For more information on the program, please contact: Heather Vance-Chalcraft (vancechalcrafth@ecu.edu, 328-9841) |
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CB Computational Lab The Center for Biodiversity has established a computational lab consisting of 6 workstations, five of them (Dell T5500; Dual Quad Core Processor, 24GB RDIMM Memory and over 2 TB storage each) and a Mac Pro Two Quad-Core with Two 2.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 16GB (8x2GB) RAM and 1TB Serial ATA drive. Four of the Dell machines are running with Windows and the fifth is running Linux. One of the Dell machines is set up as a server with multiple virtual computers allowing users to access its software remotely. These are high-end computers designed to facilitate the ability of students and their mentors to conduct research in the field of biodiversity by providing them with a variety of cutting edge statistical (SAS, PRIMER, R), geographic (ArcGIS), mathematical (Matlab), ecological modeling (STELLA), image analysis (ImageJ), phylogenetic (BEAST, MrBayes, PAML, and Migrate-N), bioinformatics (Sequencher, Geneious), sound analysis (RAVEN), and graphical (Sigmaplot, Adobe Master Collection) programs. Additional software will be added as we acquire it. |
Prior Events
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Middle School / High School Student Research Workshop |
An informational meeting about conducting science research was held on Saturday, September 29th, 2012, at East Carolina University, Howell Science Complex, Room B103 |
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New displays on biodiversity in Howell Science Complex lobby |
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North Carolina Center for Biodiversity Hosted an exciting Earth Day Event April 15th and 16th featuring internationally renowned author, Richard Louv. |
