History: Our laboratory was established in August, 1984. Students have carried out research on acid penetration of cuticles (acidophiles), on leaf movements (paraheliotroopers), and on assorted other topics (et al.) since that time. Here is an account of the students, what they did, and where they are now. Please update this information and send pictures.
We have been supported by the U.S. EPA, USDA, the National Science Foundation and the UNI Graduate College, as well as by the UNI Biology Department and the CNS dean's office.
We always need more good students.
* (sun) = paraheliotrooper; + (proton) = acidophile; ! = different drummer (et al.)
Virginia Berg *, +, ! 1984-. I am interested very broadly in interactions between plants and the physical environment, and especially how the materials, design and behavior of plants modifies these interactions. [For the foreseeable future, by address will be: Biology Department 0421, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614. (319) 273-2770 (w), (319) 273-2893 (fax), bergv@uni.edu, http://www.uni.edu/berg]
In the summer of 2001, I went again to Tom Vogelmann's lab in Laramie, Wyoming (University of Wyoming) to finish a project on the penetration of light into the leaves of various Potentilla species.
Thomas Rinehart* has been working in the lab on his B.S. project on light-avoiding leaf movements.
From 2000-2002, two students worked on strikingly different projects.
Jeff Church*, B.S. (honors) 2003. Jeff did one of the first honors theses, showing the effects of different light durations, intensities and wavelengths on light-avoiding leaf movements. His poster presentation won the undergraduate research prize at the UNI Sigma Xi Student Research Conference. He is now in a Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois on a fellowship in plant molecular biology with a public policy spin.
Kerry Bohl!, B.S. student, showed how prechilling is necessary and just sufficient to allow Potentilla plants to survive the same kinds of freezing temperatures that they encounter in the field at 10,000 feet (3000 m) in Wyoming. This work was presented as a poster at the national meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists (Physiologists) in July, 2001. Kerry is an art student as well as a science student, and the poster shows it.
It was tough in the summer of 1999, up before 5 a.m., below freezing, with numb feet and fingers, and hauling 50 pounds of equipment to the field site, but when the sun rose and hit the frosted leaves and flowers in the 4" canopy at 10,000 feet in the Snow Range in Wyoming, it was clear that I had the best job in the world.
In the summer of 1997 we had three students working on major projects. Their work was featured in a poster at the national meeting of the American Society of Plant Physiologists (ASPP) in Madison, Wisconsin in 1998.
Jessica Hoots*, B.S. 1998, immunolocalized tubulin and actin in the motor organ of Phaseolus as leaves moved under high and low light. Jessica is starting a graduate degree in forensic science this fall (2000) at Florida International University (Miami), where she has an assistantship. She will be doing research in forensic DNA analysis. [lvgol@yahoo.com]
Matthew Close*, B.S. 1999, did experiments showing how physical and fluid continuity in the pulvinus was involved in paraheliotropic movement of Phaseolus. Matt did a stellar job as UNI student body president, and is now employed by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in Denver, Colorado. He recently ran in the Kona Marathon as a fundraiser for the ADA. [mclose@diabetes.org]
Tracy Reittinger* got her B.A. in Biotechnology in 1998. She mastered image analysis while examining the responses of excised and attached Phaseolus pulvinus tissue to physical and chemical factors that affect guard cell movement. Tracy was awarded the University of Iowa's Hanger Finkbine Graduate/Professional Student Medallion. She got her M.D. at the University of Iowa in 2002. [treittin@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu]
Also helping us that summer was Sonja Smith, who had a project of her own in the summer of 1998 in Dr. Bergquist's lab, and went to the University of Texas for another project in the summer of 1999.
Eric Lyons* (B.S. 1997) demonstrated the effect of ABA, the plant drought hormone, and root dryness on paraheliotropism in Phaseolus species. Eric has a graduate fellowship at Penn State University, and is working on competition between roots of two grass species that grow on golf greens. [eml154@psu.edu]
Laura Pratt Bayse* was a B.A. student when she worked in the lab in 1996. She helped develop good techniques for measuring the movements of excised leaves when treated with various inhibitors of guard cell movement. Laura has taught high school, worked in an entomology lab at Pioneer, and is now working as an AmeriCorps Naturalist for Iowa DNR in Des Moines, in addition to retail work. She is married, but reports no pets or kids. [lgbayse@juno.com]
We had an extraordinarily talented bunch of students in the lab in 1993-1995. After the ASPP meetings in Portland, Oregon, in 1994, Wei, Bielenberg, Whitson, Puffett and Berg went on a field trip to Mt. St. Helens, sleeping on the ground in the forest and hiking in the wasteland during the day. This was almost as much fun as presenting hit posters at the meeting.
Chunfang Wei* earned his M.A. in the lab in 1995. He came to us with a lot of physics and math, but virtually no biology. The first semester was rough, but in the end he showed the independence of stomatal and leaf movements in his work on paraheliotropism in Phaseolus species and interspecific crosses. Then he went to the University of Vermont to do his Ph.D. under Mel Tyree. While there, he also worked in Dr. Steudle's lab in Bayreuth, Germany. Wei defended his Ph.D. thesis in December of 1998, and now has a position, part teaching but mostly research, at UVM (Vermont). Chunfange Wei a big man in water relations and now cell expansion, combining his physics background with plant science. (cwei@zoo.uvm.edu)
Annette Shannon Pownell* helped us in the summer of 1994, especially working with Chunfang Wei to get his thesis in shape. She was doing cancer research as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she lived with her husband and "two incredibly spoiled dogs."
Chad Scott*, B.S. 1995. Movement of solutions within the pulvinus during paraheliotropism. Chad has come back to school in computer science at UNI after working in custom antibody work and lab quality control. (scottc4897@aol.com)
Douglas Bielenberg*, B.S. 1995, determined the interaction of light intensity and temperature in Phaseolus paraheliotropism. Also: Changes in conformation of excised pulvini. Doug now has his Ph.D. and is working as a postdoc at Clemson State, where his wife also has a position.
Jennifer Puffett Miller*, B.S. 1994. Carbon exchange and water loss: Tradeoffs between water conservation and photosynthesis. Jennifer was on a fellowship at Pennsylvania State University and got her Ph.D. in summer of 2000. She has moved from her faculty position at a college in Kansas to Boise, Idaho. She is working with and organization that is trying to develop and support a more sustainable type of agriculture in that area.
Sally Whitson Catron, B.S. 1993, worked on compartmentation within Phaseolus pulvini. Sally is currently employed doing research at Pioneer Hi-Bred, where she gets to learn and do lots of new things, including molecular biology. She and her husband have at least a couple of kids now. (catronsa@phibred.com)
Fei Yu*, M.A. 1993, did a great thesis and paper on the control of paraheliotropism in two Phaseolus species. He and his wife and two children live in Windsor, Ontario. He finished his Ph.D. program at Wayne State University in 2001. [feiyu3000@yahoo.com]
Lisa DeBerg!, M.A. 1990, worked on gas exchange of evergreen and deciduous species of Viburnum. She is now a senior research scientist at Promega in Madison, Wisconsin, where she does lots of molecular biology. [LDeBerg@promega.COM]
Jim Patrie+, B.S. 1989, looked at the effect of gaseous air pollutants on epicuticular wax. Jim got his M.S. in statistics at Oregon State in 1997, and is now a medical biostatistician at the University of Virginia. [jpatrie@virginia.edu]
Stephen Smalley+, B.S. 1989, investigated the effect of selected cations on proton conductance of isolated pear cuticles. He got his M.D. at Iowa in 1993, then went to Madison for a three-year cardiology fellowship. Now Steve, his wife Cami (Rollinger), and their two young girls have moved back to Cedar Falls, where his is a cardiologist. [ssmalley@cfu-cybernet.com]
Kathy Overholtzer Walters+, B.S. 1988, worked on permeability of cuticular membranes to acid. She now works at the nation's top microscopy center at the University of Iowa, where she has won awards for her work, and has a number of publications. She is secretary of the Iowa Microscopy Society. [kwalters@emiris.iaf.uiowa.edu]
Hugh Hauser+, M.A. 1988, worked on the acid permeability of isolated leaf cuticles. He is currently employed in quality assurance in preclinical pharmaceuticals testing in Madison, Wisconsin. Hugh and his wife Kathy have two boys, in grade school and middle school. He still runs, but "mostly only marathons...slow and steady is easier at my age." [hugh.hauser@covance.com]
Scott Heuchelin*, B.S. 1988, worked on the effect of water potential and light intensity on leaf orientation in soybean. Scott got his M.S. in plant pathology at Iowa State in 1997 and his Ph.D. (same place) in 1997. Then he did a postdoc in Madison, working with disease resistance in poplars. Now he is an adjunct assistant professor in Agronomy at ISU, and works teaching and doing research in integrated pest management. [scotth@iastate.edu, http://www.public.iastate.edu/~scotth/homepage.html]
Raymon Donahue* got his M.A. in the lab in 1987, working on receptor sites and light stimuli in soybean leaf movement. Ray worked on his Ph.D. with Tom Vogelmann at the University of Wyoming, finishing in 1991. He is currently employed teaching and doing research at Idaho State University in Pocatello, where his wife Mary Poulson is a plant physiologist. They have two small childen to keep them busy. [donaraym@isu.edu]
Chuck Darwin*!. B.A. 1831. Power of movement in plants. Westminster Abbey, London, England. (Currently deceased.) Honorary member of lab.
Mike Schulz*!, 1989-. Member, Gentleman's Auxilliary. Keeps the place clean, makes needed improvements, and answers the phone now and then. He's still a fan of parasites. [schulz@uni.edu]