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Curator Kelly Matsunaga receives NSF Career Award
Assistant curator of paleobotany at the Biodiversity Institute and Thomas N. Taylor assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Kelly Matsunaga, has been awarded a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER is a 5-year grant. Total award amount is $946,323. The project will investigate how the widespread and ancient group of plants known as conifers (examples: pines, junipers, redwoods) evolved over the last 300 million years in response to a changing planet. "We will integrate information from living species and the extensive fossil record of the group to…

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DATASET REVOLUTIONIZES UNDERSTANDING OF BETA BARRELS, PROMISING TARGETS FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT
Researchers from the University of Kansas have created a new and powerful dataset shedding light on different types of beta barrels as well as their evolutionary relationships in order to facilitate drug development. Their findings recently were published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of…
PAPER OFFERS GLIMPSE OF 500-MILLION-YEAR-OLD SEA WORM NAMED AFTER 'DUNE' MONSTER
Excavations by a University of Kansas paleontologist working in a treasure trove of fossils called the “Spence Shale Lagerstätte” have revealed an ancient sea worm unknown to science until now. When she found the fossil, Rhiannon LaVine, a research associate with the KU Biodiversity Institute and…
GLOBAL STUDY DETAILS MICROPLASTICS CONTAMINATION IN LAKES AND RESERVOIRS
A new study reveals that concentrations of plastic found in freshwater environments are higher than those found in so-called “garbage patches” in the ocean. Ted Harris and Rebecca Kessler contributed samples from nearby lakes and reservoirs. “Places like Clinton Lake are relatively low in…
KU KUDOS: EEB FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS, SUMMER 2023
Jim Bever, Foundation Distinguished Professor of ecology & evolutionary biology and senior scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, was one of seven scientists across the U.S. named a fellow of the Ecological Society of America.
James Thorp, professor of…
2023 Biology Students Vote for their Favorite Professor
Congratulations to Dr. Gerrit de Boer! The graduating class of 2023 Biology students voted Dr. Gerry de Boer their favorite professor.
Kansas Science Teachers Visit KU Field Station
In early June, 16 middle school science teachers from Kansas converged at the KU Field Station, just north of Lawrence. They spent three days together working with University of Kansas scientists to explore resources and gain new ideas to take into their classrooms.
Botanical Society of America names Haylee Nedblake as 2023 Recipient of Kaplan Award
Congratulations to EEB Graduate Student Haylee Nedblake, winner of this year’s Donald R. Kaplan Dissertation Award in Comparative Morphology. The annual award of up to $10,000 may be used to support equipment and supplies, travel for research and to attend meetings, and for summer support.…
Congratulations to Ashley Wojciechowski!
EEB Graduate Student Ashley Wojciechowski is the recipient of the 2023 Kenneth B. Armitage Graduate Teaching Award. For the Spring 2023 semester, Wojciechowski worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant with Drs. Kris Holder and Jae Young Choi for BIOL350 (Principles of Genetics). “I am still so blown…
#KUFieldWorks: Monitoring bat viruses to prevent the next pandemic
In a remote, mountainous rainforest in Central America, researcher Jocelyn Colella and colleagues recently conducted fieldwork monitoring zoonotic diseases. In this Q&A from the Office of Research, the KU professor discusses how most emerging diseases in humans come from nonhuman mammals and…