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NewsMakers: A Sampling of the Simply Outstanding
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Tim and Rita Berra Endow Chair |
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(l-r) EEOB Professor Tim Berra, CBS Dean Joan Herbers, former Mansfield Campus Dean John Riedl, Rita Berra |
EEOB Professor Emeritus Tim M. Berra and wife, Rita, made a generous bequest to endow a chair on the Mansfield Campus--the first-ever endowed chair at any regional campus. The Tim M. and Rita M. Berra Endowed Chair in Evolutionary Biology in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, ensures that evolutionary biology will continue to be a visible presence on the Mansfield Campus. Berra hopes the chair will be filled by a top scholar who will, "conduct field work abroad and return to the Mansfield area to teach our students and explain the research, thereby enriching the local community." Berra, who has taught at Ohio State at Mansfield since 1972, has received two Fullbright Fellowships, published more than 60 scientific papers and five books and spent six years doing fieldwork in Australia. He has studied many species of exotic fishes endemic to that continent; most recently, male nurseryfish that carry the females' eggs in a hook-like appendage on top of their heads. He is in Australia now to see whether DNA paternity analysis on male nurseyfish can determine if the male is the actual genetic father of the embryos he is carrying. |
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College Names Third Eminent Scholar |
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Peng George Wang, the new Ohio Eminent Scholar in Macromolecular Structure and Function in the Department of Biochemistry, joined the faculty October 1, 2003. Wang comes to Ohio State from Wayne State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Wang, who is an expert glycobiochemist; i.e., the biochemistry of sugars, has a broad range of research interests important in drug design. Wang's lab developed the "superbug" and "superbead" methodology for oligosaccharide synthesis. Additionally, he studies the biological chemistry of nitric oxide and reactive nitrogen and oxygen species and the design and synthesis of enzyme and receptor inhibitors. He has published more than 140 research papers, reviews and book chapters and has submitted several patent applications. |
Peng George Wang |
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Berl Oakely Receives University Distinguished Scholar Award |
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Berl Oakley with Brijal Patel |
Berl Oakley, molecular genetics, received a University Distinguished Scholar Award, recognizing exceptional scholarly achievements. Recipients receive $20,000 for lab expenses and a $3,000 honorarium. Oakley's achievements have been recognized as fundamental to the development of his field. His work on gamma tubulin resulted in the creation of a new field of study, microtubule nucleation. His research continues to focus on further understanding of the role of gamma tubulin. He believes it may have a role in mitotic regulation and hopes his work might contribute to cancer chemotherapy agents. |
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Krenzel Wins Socrates Award Molecular Genetics major Craig Krenzel received the fourth annual Sporting News Radio Socrates Award, which is given to the country's top scholar athlete. Krenzel maintains a 3.71 GPA and was the quarterback of the 14-0 2002 National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes. Krenzel hopes to attend medical school after graduating from Ohio State. |
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Athlete-Scholar Vincent Ng Serves Up High Standards Vincent Ng, biology, 2003, left behind a tennis record to break. During the 2003 season, Ng broke the men's tennis career singles record at Ohio State. Ng, who graduated with a 3.9 GPA, was named Big Ten Conference 2003 Athlete of the Year, received the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor and the 2003 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sportsmanship and Leadership Award. |
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Gopalan Garners NSF CAREER Award Venkat Gopalan, biochemistry, received a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award. These awards are highly competitive and given only to the nation's most outstanding junior researchers. Gopalan's grant will support his project: "CAREER: Characterization of Plant Rnase P and Examination of its Utility as a Functional Genomics Tool," and provides five years of funding. |
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Rooting Out Cyanide Production Plant Biology Professor and Chair Richard Sayre and postdoc Dimuth Siritunga, have created cyanogen-free cassava plants, potentially big news for large populations of tropical countries where Cassava is the third-most important food crop. The roots and leaves of poorly processed cassava plants contain cyanogen, a substance that when eaten, can trigger the production of cyanide. Cassava is the key source of carbohydrates for African subsistence farmers. But the unprocessed cassava plant contains potentially toxic levels of a cyanogen called linamarin. While the proper processing of cassava effectively reduces linamarin content, shortcut processing techniques frequently used during famines, can yield toxic food products. "If we could eliminate the cyanogen in cassava, the plant wouldn't need to be processed before it's eaten," Sayre said. "In Africa, improperly processed cassava is a major problem. It's associated with a number of who are malnourished." Sayre and Siritunga engineered cassava plants in which the expression of the genes responsible for linamarin synthesis were blocked. When they analyzed the linamarin content in these plants, they found a significant reduction of the cyanogen in both leaves and roots. |
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Moss-the-Phoenix When Plant Biology Professor Fred Sack got the call from NASA saying that some canisters containing his moss experiment were being retrieved from the Columbia space shuttle crash, mixed emotions accompanied the news. The remarkable salvage of his experiment was baffling and intense. "This project never ceases to amaze me," Sack said, "it just keeps on rolling." Over a five week period, all but one of the canisters were found, making the possibility of data retrieval tangible. Despite the break-up of the Shuttle, the heat, the force of impact of the hardware, Sack's team was able to recover moss fragments from the debris. Evidently, the chemical fixation in space gave the specimens enough strength to preserve partial cultures. Sack's experiments tracing the growth patterns of moss in space was first performed aboard a NASA shuttle mission in 1997. (Synergy cover story, "Moss in Space," 1997.) This second experiment was intended to advance findings from the first mission about spiral moss growth and cell organization. |
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Dean Names External Relations Team |
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Dean Joan Herbers has named Gerri Bain, Megan Lalumondier and Sandi Rutkowski as the College of Biological Sciences' External Relations Team. While the three continue their separate job duties; they work as a team on special projects, brainstorm effective ways to accomplish mutual goals, and pool their expertise to gain support for the college. "I am very pleased to have this team in place; as we advance the College's agenda in teaching, research, and service, the external relations team will provide important links to our alumni, friends, local and national constituents, and the media," said Dean Herbers. Bain, College Development Officer, joined CBS July 2001. Bain, who has 25 years of development experience, is responsible for cultivating and maintaining positive donor relations to garner extracurricular financial support for the college. She is a graduate of Miami University. Lalumondier, Coordinator of Alumni Relations, works closely with the Biological Sciences Alumni Society to build membership and identify and implement new alumni initiatives. She is a graduate of Ohio University and worked in public relations in Chillicothe before accepting the position with the Dean's staff in January 2003. Rutkowski, Director of College Communications, is responsible for media and public relations and strategic marketing communications planning and implementation. Prior to joining CBS in 1983, she was news editor of a large-circulation weekly newspaper. She has a B.A. and M.A. from Ohio State. |
Megan Lalumondier, Sandi Rutkowski, and Gerri Bain |
