Students

Research Impact on Students

One way I measure my impact is by how I help students. So, I champion my students by opening opportunities for them at local as well as global levels. Some of my previous students highlight this potential as well as the breadth of students with whom I have worked:

Jessica Gomez (IUN Bio Class of ‘15) worked with NIRMI for two years. Upon graduation, she secured a position with the Indiana DNR because of her NIRMI and IUN Biology training. She has now moved to the Nature Conservancy and is a full-time Kankakee Sands Land Steward.

Lena Barajas (IUN Bio ‘18) worked with me on identifying new species of fungi. In addition to helping Lena win Minority Opportunity in Research Experience and LSAMP grants to conduct this work, I secured the funds to send Lena to Slovakia for a workshop and then to Puerto Rico to present at an international conference. Lena recently completed her second year of medical school.

Plant responses in nitrogen addition experiments are essential to understand polluted forests. To this end, Jason Palagi (IUN Bio ‘10) and I learned that tree growth increased in the Indiana Nitrogen experiment but surprisingly, herbaceous plant community composition did not change in the five years we studied the understory plants. Jason moved onto graduate school and completed his PhD 2018.

Amanda Mikuta (IUN Bio ‘15) and I showed that invasive earthworms are more abundant in the Indiana Nitrogen Experiment in comparison to comparable forests but they appear to be sensitive to and avoid the experimental pollution we add at least in the short term. Amanda went on to a career in the biotechnology industry.