Past Students & Projects

2011 REU Students

• Brandon Baird - State University of New York, Stony Brook
  Lichen color and water relations
  Faculty Mentor: Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson
  
  
• Melanie Dufva - University of Florida
  Analysis of the gut microbiota of arctic ground squirrels and Alaska marmots: Development of 16s rMRNA clone libraries
  Faculty Mentor: Khrys Duddleston
  
  
• Annie Farner - University of Michigan
  REU on Unimak: An analysis of caribou (Rangifer taradus) habitat at large and small scales (project completed with Martha Newell)
  Faculty Mentor: Don Spalinger         

• William Harbour - Whitman College
  Knockdown of Williams Syndrome transcription factor (WSTF) affects mesoderm development in Xenopus laevis
  Faculty Mentor: Jocelyn Krebs

• Brian Kramp - Alaska Pacific University
  High arctic riverine DOC and ¹⁴C
  Faculty Mentor: Jeff Welker

• Aaron Heaslet - University of Alaska Anchorage
  Developing intracellular tools for analyzing pcDNA3.1 ATP7B DsRed in HepG2 cells
  Faculty Mentor: Jason Burkhead
  
  
• Beth Morrison - University of California Santa Cruz
  Mercury concentration in benthic versus limnetic morphotypes of threespine stickleback
  Faculty Mentor: Frank von Hippel
  
  
• Martha Newell - Columbus State University
  REU on Unimak: An analysis of caribou (Rangifer taradus) habitat at large and small scales (project completed with Annie Farner)
  Faculty Mentor: Don Spalinger
  
  
• Kathleen Robbins - University of North Carolina Wilmington|
  Hematological development in young Arctic Ground Squirrels:  a model for natural resistance to iron deficiency?
  Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Burns
  
  
• Jeff Skaza - Fitchburg State University
  Habitat associations of odonate communities on the Kenai Peninsula, AK, and implications on amphibian abnormalities
  Faculty Mentor: Dan Rinella
  

2010 REU STUDENTS

• Kerri Ackerly - Adelphi University
  Faculty Mentor: Frank von Hippel
  
  
• Annie Brownlee - St. Olaf College
  Effects of spacial environmental heterogeneity of open-top (ITEX) chamber design for simulated climate change on cryptograms Webstream
  Faculty Mentor: Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson
  
  
• Maggie Hepler - Colorado State University
  Faculty Mentor: Jason Burkhead
  
  
• Amber Lewis - University of Alaska Anchorage
  The effects of snow depth on active layer in tussock tundra of northern Alaska
  Faculty Mentor: Jeff Welker
  
  
• Brian Lohman - University of Idaho
  Prey Selection by Dragonfly Naiads Webstream
  Faculty Mentor: Frank von Hippel
  
  
• Chris Payne - Saint Vincent College
  Faculty Mentor: Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson
  
  
• Brian Quinlan - University of Alaska Anchorage
  Comparative Analysis of the Gut Microbiota Between Arctic Ground Squirrels and Alaska Marmots  Webstream
  Faculty Mentor: Khrys Duddleston
  
  
• Grace Russell - Carleton College
  Biotic factors affecting wood frog (Rana sylvatica) morphology in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
  Faculty Mentor: Dan Bogan
  
  
• Michelle Shero - St. Mary’s College of Maryland
  Post-molt condition of Weddell seals and links with overwinter diving behavior
  Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Burns

2009 REU STUDENTS

• Bourke Betz - Wheaton College
  Environmental Awareness & Perception of Change in the Urban Waterways of Anchorage
  Faculty Mentors - Lilian Alessa & Andrew Kliskey
  
  
• Samuel Cason - University of Alaska Anchorage
  The Effect of Chronic Stress on the Adrenal Cortex of the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus)
  Faculty Mentor - David Pfeiffer
  
  
• Allison Chan - Bowdoin College 
  Faculty Mentor: Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson
  
  
• Robert McNown - College of William and Mary
  Faculty Mentor: Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson
  
  
• Eian Prohl - University of New Hampshire  
  Faculty Mentor - Jeff Welker
  
  
• Elaine Ramos - California State University  
  1)  Development of macroinvertebrate and diatom biological monitoring indices for wadeable streams
  2)  Yukon River Synoptic Survey, A Part of the U.S. EPA National Survey
  3)  A Pilot study to understand the history of a known nuisance diatom (Didymosphenia geminata)
  Faculty Mentors - Dan Bogan & Dan Rinella
  
  
• Michelle Shero - St. Mary's College of Maryland   
  Ontogeny of muscle fiber composition and enzyme activities in Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus)
  Faculty Mentor - Jennifer Burns
  
  
• Alice  Vislova - University of Minnesota  Dan Bogan & Rinnella
  Didymosphenia geminata habitat preferences and colonization patterns  of natural substrate in Campbell Creek, Anchorage, AK
  Faculty Mentors - Dan Bogan & Dan Rinella
  
  
• Peter Wilton - Carleton College  Frank
  Anthropogenic disturbance and trophic feeding morphology of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in Southcentral Alaska
  Faculty Mentor- Frank von Hippel
  
  

  ---

  
  
  2008 REU STUDENTS

• Benjamin S. Cohen – Williams College
  Expression Patterns of MRF4 in X. laevis
  Faculty Mentor: Timothy Hinterberger
  
  
• Quiana Childress – University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
  Regulation of the CUP1 gene by an antisense transcription
  Faculty mentor: Jocelyn Krebs
  
  
• Heath Eggleston- Dakota Wesleyan University
  Microtopographic Controls on Treeline Advance in Noatak National Preserve, Alaska
  Faculty Mentor: Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson
  
  
• Ashley M. Fenn – Colorado State University
  Behavior and Home Range of the Arctic Ground Squirrel
  Faculty Mentor: C. Loren Buck
  
  
• Brett Frazer – University of Alaska Anchorage|
  Grazing mediates tundra responses of ecosystem photosynthesis to warming: Carbon cycling biogeochemistry in west-central Greenland
  Faculty Mentor: Jeff Welker
  
  
• Ruth Heindel – Brown University
  Changes in Betula Nana Abundance and Growth Characteristics Due to Increases Snow Cover
  Faculty Mentor: Jeff Welker
  
  
• Elliott Kittel – University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
  Unusual Stickleback Morphology on Adak Island, Alaska
  Faculty Mentor: Frank von Hippel
  
  
• Ryan Langendorf – Bates College
Modeling Diving Patterns of Foraging Crabeater Seals(L. carcinophaga)
Faculty Mentors: Jennifer Burns and Ward Testa


• Leonardo E. Matthews – University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
  The Recolonization of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in Salmonberry Pond
  Faculty Mentor: Frank von Hippel
  
  
• Keith Miller – University of Central Michegan
  Evaluation of moose habitat using low-level aerial photography
  Faculty Mentor: Don Spalinger
  

2007 REU STUDENTS

• Jon Van Ravenswaay – University of Alaska Anchorage
  Regulation of copper homeostasis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
  Faculty Mentor: Joceyln Krebs
  
  
• Ashley Kehoe
  FTIR Investigation of Forage Digestibility
  Faculty Mentor: Don Spalinger
  
  
• Jayelene Duarte – University of Alaska Anchorage
  Effects of Long-term Stress on the Cetacean Adrenal Cortex
  Faculty Mentor: David Pfeiffer
  
  
• Emma Coleman
  MRF4 Gene Expression in the Xenopus laevis Frog
  Faculty mentors: Tim Hinterberger and Frank von Hippel
  
  
• Jeremy Chignell – University of Alaska Anchorage
  Changes in Betula nana Shrub Canopy Characteristics in
  Response to Increased Snow Depths at a Wet Acidic Tundra Site in the Alaska High Arctic
  Faculty mentor: Bjartmar Sveinbjornsson
  
  
• Joel Cortes
  Kinetics of Forage Digestion in Fistulated Captive Moose
  (Alces alces)
  Faculty Mentor: Don Spalinger
  
  
• Heidi Kristensen
  Effects of experimental warming on CO2 fluxes in a high arctic prostrate dwarf-shrub/herb tundra ecosystemtal and Nat
  Faculty Mentor: Jeff Welker
  
  
• Alexandra Wright
  Pre-hibernation focal observations in free-living arctic ground squirrels
  Faculty Mentor: C. Loren Buck