Appalachian Lab Monthly Newsletter
Dear AL community,
This month, I wanted to fill you in on some good news for one of our students. In January, we announced the recipients of the new Chesapeake Watershed Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CW CESU) Student Research Fellowship Program. As the host institution of the CW CESU, AL is administering this program, which was launched in the fall of 2023. Four students working on CW CESU-funded projects through the National Park Service were awarded the one year fellowships of $3K each. We’re pleased to announce that Erin Geibel, who is co-advised by Matt Fitzpatrick and Tom Serfass from FSU, is one of this year’s fellowship recipients. Erin is working in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (CHOH), where she is studying the value of these types of regional conservation areas to carnivores, like black bears, river otters, fishers, bobcats, and long-tailed weasels. She is using remote detecting cameras, or “camera traps”, to detect these carnivores and will analyze the data collected to identify factors that contribute to or inhibit use of corridors, like CHOH, by carnivores.
If you’d like to learn more about the fellowships to be offered again later this year and all four of the amazing fellowship recipients, check out this article.
If you are a PI on a NPS CESU project and are interested in pursuing this support for an undergraduate or graduate student, you will receive emails announcing the nomination process this fall. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Katie Kline
New AL Faces
Sarah Garvey, Assistant Research Scientist
Sarah onboarded with us in March. She is working with Xin Zhang as the program manager for the newly launched Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and the Environment (NICCEE). Sarah manages NICCEE, oversees program operations, leads strategic planning and communication, and contributes to new green ammonia research. Lately, she has been busy preparing for the upcoming Nitrogen Summer Institute scheduled for this June. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys baking and making art, particularly textile arts like embroidery, cross stitch and crochet.
Recent Happenings
Dave just announced the outcome and conclusion of our recent search for faculty in Environmental Science and Sustainability. Dr. Miriam Johnston will be joining us as an assistant professor on 10/1/25, and Dr. Zach Zbinden will be joining us as an assistant professor on 10/1/24. Miriam studies ecosystem carbon, water, and energy cycling using remote sensing and flux measurements, while Zach studies the ecology/evolution of fish and many other taxa using molecular tools. Both Miriam and Zach have a demonstrated commitment to scientific excellence and productivity, ability to establish well-funded research programs, capacity to work across spatiotemporal scales, potential to conduct actionable research, interest in mentoring graduate students and teaching graduate-level courses, potential to collaborate with other AL faculty, and ability to broaden participation and contribute to a campus climate of inclusivity. We are looking forward to the new energy, ideas, and synergies that they will bring to AL. Many thanks to everyone from the AL community that contributed to the success of this search, especially the members of the search committee: Katia Engelhardt, chair; Mark Cochrane; Eric Davidson; Joely Desimone; Sarah Endyke; and Matt Houser.
Congratulations to Xin Zhang for winning the 2024 Board of Regents Excellent in Scholarship or Research. Since 2020, Xin has secured more than $11 million in research funding, published 36 peer-reviewed articles, and initiated two transdisciplinary—and transnational—research networks.
Claire Nemes was recently quoted in an Audubon Magazine article titled, “Why Is it So Hard to Keep Cats Indoors?”. We encourage everyone to check it out, including the beautiful illustrations.
UMCES recently honored U.S. Senator Benjamin J. Cardin with the Reginald V. Truitt Environmental Award.
Last month, Nicole Ibrahim and Brian Tsuru were the winners of our Pi Day Social. Some of the delicious pies are shown at right.
A number of members of the AL community attended the STEM Like a Girl event held at Allegany High School in March (see photo at right).
Later this summer, we will be installing Feather Friendly film on the first floor lobby windows by the back patio to help reduce bird collisions. Emily Cohen’s research group has been instrumental in implementing this improvement. Studies have shown that this film can reduce bird collisions by about 90%. If successful, we plan to expand the program further throughout the facility.
In other facilities news, AL was awarded a grant by the Maryland Energy Administration to install solar panels on our roof. We expect the solar panels to offset about 18% of our annual energy consumption.
If you missed April’s Workplace Civility Training, keep your eyes open for information about the virtual make-up session.
DEI Update
On average, 26% of AL-ers have participated in our DEI committee in 2024. We want to express our sincerest thanks to this small but mighty group who have devoted their time to efforts that we hope will increase inclusivity and belonging for all at AL. These dedicated individuals have worked hard throughout the spring semester to improve mentor-mentee experiences at the lab. One way of improving mentor-mentee experiences at the lab is to ensure that these relationships are built on respect and are mutually beneficial. To target this need, the AL DEI group invited an expert from the UMD LGBTQ+ Equity Center to provide a ‘Pronouns 101’ Training for interested mentors. Let Heather know if you would like to add your pronouns to your office sign! We also hosted a ‘book club’ to share scientific papers focused on mentorship best practices and provided support for mentors participating in the summer internship program by creating a standardized rubric for the interview process.
While the attendees of the AL DEI group have made good progress this spring in understanding best practices for mentor-mentee relationships, our impact has been limited by attendance. We have primarily focused on interns as the mentees (i.e., staff-intern, student-intern, postdoc-intern, FRA-intern, and faculty-intern relationships). However, mentee-mentor relationships exist throughout the lab (e.g., faculty-faculty, faculty-student, staff-staff, postdoc-student, etc.). If there is lab-wide interest in continuing to explore our mentorship theme, we will need more participation. For example, we will not be able to improve the faculty-faculty or faculty-student mentorship guidelines without more participation from the faculty.
We will be discussing future plans at our next meeting on Wednesday, April 24 at 10AM. If you’d like a say in where we focus our efforts for the upcoming months, we encourage you to join us!
Outreach Update
Johnson Award
The Richard Johnson Environmental Education Award Selection Committee met on April 10, and following meetings with several nominators, chose Marie Perrin-Miller as the winner of the 2024 award. Marie, a forestry professor at Allegany College of Maryland, has worked closely with agriscience teachers in Allegany County, providing field trip opportunities and immersive forestry experiences for area students. Additionally, Marie plays an integral role in Future Farmers of America (FFA) forestry competitions, the Maryland Natural Resources Career Camp (NRCC), and Envirothon. As her nominator wrote, “I am grateful for Marie’s dedication to the field of natural resources education for high school students. Without Marie, there would be vastly fewer opportunities to inspire and educate the youth of Allegany County and Maryland.” The award will be presented at a ceremony on Thursday, August 29.
Internship Program
As of April 22, the following six undergraduate students have accepted summer internship positions with the Appalachian Laboratory:
- Anna Cullen (Allegany College of Maryland)- Animal Migration Research Group
- Maddy Painter (Allegany College of Maryland)- Fire Ecology with Sarah Roth
- Kathryn Childs (Frostburg State University)- Laboratory Safety Video Production Project with Katie Kline
- Jaydason Miller (Garrett College/Frostburg State University)- with Matt Fitzpatrick
- Quinton Browne (Frostburg State University)- Stable Isotope Analysis and Bird Migration Patterns with Sarah Endyke
- Robert Knotts III (Frostburg State University)- with Xin Zhang
Cullen will be funded through an REU supplemental obtained by Dr. Emily Cohen and her research team. Our economic development partners with Western Maryland Consortium will screen the remaining interns for funding eligibility.
Interns will start May 29 with a required two-day orientation.
Inspiration Award
As a friendly reminder, please rsvp for the 2024 Appalachian Laboratory Inspiration Award by May 1. This year’s award, honoring the Garrett Coalition (GaCo), will be held at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Garrett College in McHenry, Maryland, site of GaCo STEM events.
Spotlight on Safety - Distracted Driving
Did you know that distracted driving kills approximately 9 individuals each and every day?
Driving is already one of the most dangerous things we do and texting while driving makes a crash up to 23 times more likely.
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, so we wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone to avoid distracted driving. Always remember to arrive alive, don’t text and drive!
Resource Review - UMCES Ombuds Program
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) provides ombuds services to members of the university community as a resource for collaboration and conflict resolution of individual and systemic problems affecting the workforce. Ombuds create a safe place to discuss concerns, understand all sides of issues, and explore ways to improve the work environment.
Recent Publications
Magdalene N. Ngeve, Katharina A. M. Engelhardt, Michelle Gray, Maile C. Neel. 2023. Calm after the storm? Similar patterns of genetic variation in a riverine foundation species before and after severe disturbance. Ecology and Evolution 13, e10670, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10670.
Veronica Del Bianco, Karen Peterman, Rachel Becker-Klein, Cathlyn M. Davis, Andrea Grover, Tina Phillips. 2023. Cross-Project Analysis of Volunteers’ Scientific Observation Skills. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 8(1), DOI: 10.5334/cstp.628.
Mark Your Calendars
- FSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, May 3rd from 11 AM to 2 PM
- AL Inspiration Award – May 15th
- Undergraduate Internship Orientation – May 29th-30th
- UMCES Convocation/Commencement at IMET – May 30th-31st
- Visit from Leadership Maryland Class of 2024 – July 11th (am)
- Richard Johnson Environmental Education Award – August 29th
Do you have an announcement or update you’d like to include in a future newsletter?
AL’s monthly newsletter is issued during the second week of the month. Please submit any announcements and updates to Katie Kline or Heather Johnson before the close of business on the first Friday of each month to ensure that your content can be included in that month’s newsletter.
