Scientist in the Spotlight

Fall 2009 Schedule

Botany with Mitchell Power

Friday, September 4
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What is a "paleoecologist"? Meet Dr. Mitchell Power during Scientist in the Spotlight and find out!

Mitchell Power, curator of the UMNH Garrett Herbarium, has just begun an extensive, multi-year project that involves scanning and data basing over 130,000 specimens in the Garrett Herbarium. This project will allow the Museum's botany collection to be used for research around the world, both now and well into the future.

See first-hand the latest techniques and equipment that Mitchell is using in this project to reduce the impact on specimens as they are handled and shipped to herbariums around the world.

From Mitchell Power:  As the curator of the Garrett Herbarium, I have been building a database for the [Museum's] herbarium collection. The objective is to provide increased access to specimens and information contained within the herbarium. The Garrett Herbarium, established in the late 1800's, is a critical regional and national resource for information on plant biodiversity. The pressed plant collection comprises over 130,000 specimens, including 22 holotypes and 204 isotypes. No other collection in the world has such a complete representation of plants from the Wasatch Front and Salt Lake Valley.

The flora of the region is rapidly being altered by human activities, including global change, and the herbarium provides a crucial historic baseline from which to examine the rate and magnitude of change in this region. The collection primarily includes 98% of the higher plant species known to grow in Utah, but also includes specimens from elsewhere in the Great Basin and Wasatch Mountains. I am currently exploring the climate-vegetation relations of specific species to identify the impact of global change in the intermountain west.

Glossary:

• Herbarium: In botany, a herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in alcohol or other preservative.

• Specimen: In biology, a specimen is an individual animal, part of an animal, plant, part of a plant, or microorganism used as a representative to study the properties of the whole population of that species or subspecies.

• Holotype: A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described.

• Isotype: the isotype is a duplicate of the holotype.

• Paleoecology: the scientific fiels that uses data from fossils to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past. It includes the study of fossil organisms in terms of their life cycle, their living interactions, their natural environment, their manner of death and burial. Paleoecology's aim is to build the most detailed model possible of the life environment of those living organisms found today as fossils; such reconstruction work involves complex interactions among environmental factors such as temperature, food supplies, degree of solar illumination, etc.

Glossary definitions are adapted from Wiki-pedia.  Have a better definition?

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Additional Resources

Learn more about the Garrett Herbarium at UMNH

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature

Download Scientist in the Spotlight Brochure in .pdf Format

Biology with Becca Rowe

Friday, September 18
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Biologist Becca Rowe helps manage the UMNH Vertebrate collections, which houses over 73,000 specimens of birds, mammals, amphibians & reptiles. Join Becca to see some of these prepared museum specimens. Discover their value to ecology, evolution, and conservation, and observe how Becca labels the skins and skeletons of small mammals from recent collecting trip in the Great Basin.

More About Becca Rowe:  Dr. Rowe received her PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago in 2006. She currently works as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Collections Manager in the Division of Vertebrates at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Dr. Rowe's research examines the processes regulating the abundance and distribution of species. Her current research project documents the response of small mammals to recent environmental change.

Learn More about the UMNH Vertebrate Collections

UMNH Collections Manager Becca Rowe on the Bird & Egg Collection

UMNH Vertebrates Collection Overview

Download Scientist in the Spotlight Brochure in .pdf Format

Rain Forest Botany with Steven Stern

Friday, October 2
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Stephen Stern collects plants in some of the world’s wildest places.  Join Stephen and hear about his adventures in Central and South America.  See live plant specimens, and discover the lab techniques used for sequencing the DNA in plants.

Stephen Stern is a plant systematist studying the plant genus Solanum, the group that contains the potato, eggplant, and tomato, and approximately 1400 other species. His work is focused on a group of approximately 15 species of vines found in Central and South America in Solanum section Micracantha and includes classifying and identifying new species as well as determining the evolutionary history of the group. Stephen received his B.S. from the University of North Carolina-Asheville and is currently in the 5th year of a Ph.D. program at the University of Utah.

Bizarre Fish with Mike Shapiro

Friday, October 16
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Biologist Mike Shapiro studies a group of wonderfully bizarre and scaleless fish called sticklebacks.  These creatures may hold the key to the genes that control evolutionary changes in animal skeletons.  Join Mike to see live specimens and explore stickleback diversity, adaptation strategies, and genetics.

Mike Shapiro is an Assistant Professor of Biology and member of the Molecular Biology Program at the University of Utah. He received his bachelor’s degree in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and masters and Ph.D. degrees in Biology from Harvard University. He later completed a postdoctoral fellowship in developmental biology and genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. His research in vertebrate paleontology, developmental biology, and genetics has entailed collecting dinosaurs, fish, and lizards on five continents. Currently, his research focuses on finding the genes that control evolutionary changes in the skeletons of different species of animals, especially in little fish called sticklebacks.

Water & Weeds with Vanessa Welsh

Friday, November 6
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Noxious weeds are invasive plants that do more damage to the environment than most people imagine.  They crowd our native plants, starve wildlife, promote wildfires, use water, and create allergens.  Join local weed expert Vanessa Welsh and discover what you can do to help protect our local ecosystem.

Vanessa is the/a Watershed Specialist for Salt Lake City Public Utilities (since 2004) where she designed, and manages programs for the control of noxious/invasive weeds in the City’s watershed canyons. Included in these programs is the survey of noxious/invasive species throughout the canyons, the integrated control of weeds as well as their associated restoration projects, collaboration with local land owners and managers, and community volunteer projects. Vanessa studied Watershed Science at Utah State University.  Vanessa studied Watershed Science at Utah State University. She has worked for the U.S. Forest Service, Trout Unlimited, The National Science Foundation, The Intermountain Herbarium, and the Utah Department of Water Quality. She was published in the Journal of the North American Benthological Society in March of 2006 for research done on freshwater streams in Puerto Rico. Certified Environmental Educator (Utah Society for Environmental Education). Vanessa loves to run on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and snowboard at Brighton.

Anthropology with Anne Sager

Friday, November 20
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Illustrations of unique objects are often needed for anthropological research.  Computer illustrations and photographs don’t seem to capture the elements that are important to each artifact; an illustrator, however, can.  Join UMNH anthropologist Annie Sager and discover the art of anthropology.

History has always been my interest.    Archaeology is like a wonderful detective game that involves many different skills.  Before Graduate school,  I taught high school history and anthropology for 5 years and loved it.  Now I get to work with student groups of all ages that come to the Museum.  Sharing UMNH’s  incredible Anthropology collection with people is an honor and a treat.  Little children have some of the freshest perspectives on ancient cultures and people, and often ask the most intriguing questions.  I listen carefully to them because they give me research ideas for investigating why ancient people did the things they did.

Recently I completed my Masters degree in Anthropology.  Learning how people have lived in the deserts and mountains of the west for thousands of years is my emphasis.  I especially love rocks and wild plants and studying ancient basketry and other textile creations.  I plan on continuing my education in the field of Archaeological Conservation.  I have done field work in Range Creek, Wasatch and Uinta Mountains and Utah’s West Desert.  I have helped with excavations at Ft. Douglas, Utah, in Evanston , Wyoming, and  I also spent a whole year excavating on a medieval site in England.

The Anthropology collection at UMNH is so interesting and beautiful, and I love helping to take care of it.  My job as Assistant Collections Manager involves making sure all the ethnographic and prehistoric objects entrusted to our care are preserved for future generations. This involves keeping accurate records, cleaning and analyzing objects and carefully storing them.  In addition to this responsibility, I help create new exhibits for the UMNH galleries, assist the public with their questions, give tours, and coordinate interns and volunteers.   

Life in the Salty Sea with Bonnie Baxter

Friday, December 4
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Join local Great Salt Lake expert Bonnie Baxter and discovery the secret signs of life in our salty sea.  Unlock the mysteries of some ancient biological molecules and examine samples of pink lake water, brine shrimp, bacteria, and salt crystals from the Great Salt Lake.

Bonnie K. Baxter, Ph.D. is Director of the Great Salt Lake Institute and Professor of Biology at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA where she studies photobiology of halophiles (salt-tolerant bacteria) and microbial diversity of Great Salt Lake with her undergraduate students.  She is interested in the astrobiology applications of extremely hypersaline ecosystems, in particular resistance to ultraviolet light and desiccation by halophiles, which may mimic life in space.  Recently her love of salt biology led her underground to an ancient salt deposit where she and colleagues discovered biological molecules that were 250 million years old.  This discovery was featured in a recent episode of NOVA.  Professor Baxter is also dedicated to integration of research in undergraduate science education.  She obtained her Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and did her post-doctoral research in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Washington State University.

Sounds of the West with Jeff Rice

Friday, December 18
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

What sounds are in your backyard?  Join Nature Sound Recordist Jeff Rice and discover how sound enriches our understanding of where we live.  Hear a spider plucking its web, the flowing song of a Sage Thrasher, and the lonely calls of the some of the last remaining Wyoming Toads.

Jeff Rice is a nationally recognized nature sound recordist and one of the principal founders of the Western Soundscape Archive, a digital library of animal and environmental sounds housed at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. His recordings and audio productions have appeared regularly on National Public Radio and in museum exhibits throughout the West. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

New Years Day

Friday, January 1
No Scientist in the Spotlight

Rocks & Minerals with David Richerson

Friday, January 15
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

As the mineralogy guest curator, David Richerson spends his time at the UMNH selecting rock and mineral specimens for the new Museum.  Join David as he talks about the wide array of crystal forms.  Discover why crystals have different geometric shapes, and see and touch mineral specimens.

Mr. Richerson has degrees from the University of Utah and Pennsylvania State University in Ceramic Science and Engineering.  He worked in industry for 22 years on advanced materials development and then became a faculty member at the University of Utah in Materials Science and Engineering.  Mr. Richerson has written six books and co-edited another four books.  He has presented short courses and lectured extensively in the U.S and internationally.  In a partnership with the Geology and Geophysics Department, Mr. Richerson has conducted k-12 outreach on minerals and fossils in many 4th grade classes for the past eight years. During the summer 2008 he was invited to be the Guest Curator of minerals at UMNH with the specific tasks of guiding design of the mineral exhibits for the new museum, selecting the mineral specimens to go into the exhibits, and helping to transition the minerals from the present museum to the new museum.

Utah Entomology with Christy Bills

Friday, February 5
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Dinosaur Fossils with Deanna Brandau

Friday, February 19
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Once a fossil is discovered in the field, getting it back to the lab can be surprisingly difficult.  Join UMNH paleontologist Deanna Branda, and discover the latest techniques in fossil excavating, plastering, transporting, and preparing.  See and touch real dinosaur fossils, and hear about the latest ceratopsian dinosaur discoveries.

Deanna Brandau graduated from University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and minor in Archaeology.  She also graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science, Geoscience Degree with emphasis in Geology.  She is currently a graduate student in pursuit of her Master’s Degree in paleontology.  Specifically, Deanna is interested in taphonomy and paleoecology as it relates to ceratopsian dinosaurs.

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