Month: March 2020

Categories
Faculty Spotlight Geology Global Change Ideas Seminars, Workshops, Lectures

Creativity, collaboration are key for online instruction

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | March 25, 2020

A mass shift to online instruction has pushed Virginia Tech faculty to develop new ways to teach—a dynamic perhaps nowhere more evident than in GCC affiliate Michelle Stocker’s Morphology of the Vertebrates class in the Department of Geosciences.

Before spring break and the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, Stocker’s class met during big blocks of lab time Mondays and Wednesdays to examine pieces of skeleton laid out on trays across six tables. Students used handouts with figures, a list of appropriate terms, and definitions for specific features and morphological processes seen in the displayed bones.

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“They used the figures, terms, and actual specimens to learn the material,” said Stocker, assistant professor of geobiology. “Some can learn by looking at the specimens intensely, and others take to drawing it all out. A lot of students have notebooks in which they draw the different skull elements or specific anatomical views.”

That in-person environment presented a challenge to Stocker when figuring out how to best replicate the class in a distance-learning format. “This class is very much in-person, looking at physical objects,” Stocker said. “It’s quite a transition to be making. I think it’s actually going to work pretty well for the future.”

That successful transition didn’t happen on its own, though. Making it happen took talent, networking, and good old-fashioned Hokie hustle.

“We went into scramble mode a little bit,” Stocker said. “I grabbed the specimens I thought would be most interest or most useful for students to see for the rest of course. I can do in-person demonstrations for them, pointing out different features.”

By “in-person demonstrations,” Stocker is talking about streaming video from her home. As she spoke, the professor was sitting in her basement, surrounded by boxes of bones. As she talked, Stocker plucked specimens and held them up to her web camera.

“Here’s dog skull that’s been prosected by the vet school so we can look at cranial nerves,” Stocker said. “Here are boxes of articulated and disarticulated snakes. An armadillo. Lizards, and other crocodylians. I’ve got a box of hands and feet of mammals on floor, and 3D prints of platypus parts.”

Stocker has built on that foundation of physical specimens with online tools. She’s networked with a colleague at the University of Florida to tap into oVert, a multi-institutional project funded by the National Science Foundation that aims to make available CT scans of all genera of vertebrates, as well as Duke University’s MorphoSource, which has published roughly 27,000 published 3D models of biological specimens.

Stocker and her teaching assistant, Ph.D. candidate Christopher Griffin, are not only drawing on these resources to benefit her students, but they are synthesizing them with her lab demonstrations to develop an engaging distance-learning experience. And she’s doing this while balancing schedules with her husband, Sterling Nesbitt, assistant professor of geobiology in Virginia Tech’s Department of Geosciences, and parenting their three-year-old.

“Flexibility and persistence is what it’s about right now,” Stocker said.

As evolving to the changing landscape of higher education during a pandemic, Stocker and other Virginia Tech faculty are adapting on the fly and building new ways to teach students while also providing a sense of reassurance.

“We want to take care of the students and make sure they’re learning what you want them to learn, but also in times like this we want to make sure they have some sense of normalcy,” Stocker said. “For the group right now, every Monday and Wednesday, we come in and look a skeletons together. We’re keeping that going. We’re doing our job as professors and teachers, and getting them to learn the material, but also just being there for the students.”

In doing so, Stocker and others are showing how Virginia Tech’s motto of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) not only endures but thrives, even during a pandemic.

For more information about Virginia Tech and its approach to the coronavirus, please read the university’s page on the topic.

— Written by Mason Adams

 

CONTACTS:
Steven Mackay
540-231-5035

Lon Wagner
540-231-6468

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Categories
Biodiversity Conservation Disease Faculty Spotlight Global Change Research

Pathogen levels in the environment drive disease outbreaks in bats

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | March 16, 2020

Since 2005, millions of bats have perished from white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Although the disease has been found throughout much of the world, severe population declines have only occurred in North America — and now researchers at Virginia Tech know why.

In a new study led by Joseph Hoyt, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, researchers have found that the pathogen levels in the environment play a major role in whether bat populations are stable or experience severe declines from white-nose syndrome.

Hoyt and his international team of researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 16.

“This study shows that more contaminated environments, or potential ‘hot spots,’ are going to result in higher disease impacts. By understanding the relationship between how much pathogen is present in the environment and the size of an outbreak, we can know exactly how much environmental sanitization is needed to reduce the epidemic potential,” said Hoyt.

When infectious diseases first arise, it is crucial to understand how the disease is being transmitted. With a pathogen like Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which can exist outside of the host, researchers looked to the environmental pathogen reservoir — or the habitat in which a pathogen persists or grows in the absence of hosts.

Pseudogymnoascus destructans is a cold-loving fungus, which resides on the walls of caves, mines, and other subterranean environments. Every year, as the cold and debilitating winter draws near, bats hibernate in these infected sites until they can return to the landscape in spring. And it is during this time that bats contract white-nose syndrome.

As Hoyt and his team journeyed out to find the historical origin of this disease, they were the first to find that the pathogen has already been present in Asia for thousands of years. In an even more astounding discovery, they found that European and Asian bat populations face little to no impacts from white-nose syndrome compared to bats in North America.

A cluster of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) roosting in a cave at the end of winter in Jilin province, China. They are tightly packed, and one bat is flying away from the cluster and towards the camera.
A cluster of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) roosting in a cave at the end of winter in Jilin province, China. Photograph courtesy of Joseph R Hoyt.

This unprecedented study revealed that the environmental pathogen reservoir in European and Asian sites decayed over the summer months, which left a smaller amount of pathogen in the environment for bats to come into contact with the following winter. In contrast, there was no decay of the pathogen in sites over the summer in North America, which resulted in widespread infection and mortality.

“The fact is that bats are experiencing much less severe infections at the beginning of the hibernation season across Europe and Asia. As a result, they are still getting infected but the process of infection is delayed relative to North American bats. So, they are experiencing far lower transmission from the environment than bats experience here in North America,” said Kate Langwig, the second author of this paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science and an affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center, housed under the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. “The differences in the environmental reservoir are really important for driving the dynamics of the disease across space.”

With lower transmission of the pathogen and some time on their side, bats will be able to emerge from their infected roosts in just enough time to escape certain death.

“Because the pathogen decays in the environment over summer in Europe and Asia, most bats don’t become infected until mid- to late- winter, which is too late for the infections to manifest into mortality. If you have delayed transmission, then bats are able to emerge in the spring and clear infection before it can ever result in death,” said Hoyt.

This is one of the first papers to link the extent of the environmental reservoir to the size of an outbreak, the number of individuals that become infected, the severity of those infections, and population impacts.

Hoyt hopes that this paper will highlight the importance of environmental pathogen reservoirs in driving infectious disease outbreaks.

“The environmental pathogen reservoir has the potential to be really important. The idea that as you get a more contaminated environment, that scales with the degree of population impacts, is something that hasn’t really been demonstrated before,” said Hoyt.

Hoyt and his team are now trying to use findings from Eurasian bat populations to help North American bats. More specifically, they are trying to reduce the amount of pathogen in the environment in North America over summer when bats are absent from these sites.

“We are trying to replicate the pathogen decay that is happening in Europe and Asia, and delay transmission. If we can push bats to not get infected until later in the winter, then they might be able to survive until spring,” said Hoyt.

This project received a majority of funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Additional funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Program for Introducing Talents to Universities, Jilin Provincial Natural Science Foundation, Mongolian State University of Education, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI.

– Written by Kendall Daniels

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CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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Categories
Announcements Conservation Food & Agriculture Global Change Other Sponsored Lectures Seminars, Workshops, Lectures

Innovative conservationist and business entrepreneur to present public lecture in Blacksburg on March 20

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | March 10, 2020

**UPDATE March 11, 2020:  POSTPONED due to Virginia Tech COVID-19 mitigation strategy and large event cancelation policy (more info here).

Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, a fourth-generation beekeeper and founder and CEO of Bee Downtown, will visit Virginia Tech on March 20.

Bonner will give a 4 p.m. distinguished public lecture titled “Moments that Matter: Leadership Through the Eyes of a Beekeeper” at the Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session.

Honeybees are one of nature’s most important workers, and they pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year. However, honeybee populations — and the services they provide to ecosystems and society— are quickly declining.

To do her part in addressing this pressing global issue, Bonner founded Bee Downtown during her junior year of college. The company installs and maintains beehives on the roofs and campuses of corporations to rebuild honeybee populations in urban areas. Additionally, Bee Downtown offers educational programs, events, and leadership exercises to increase employee engagement in the workplace.

What began as a school project has grown to provide employee engagement and leadership development at more than 50 corporations like Delta, Chick-Fil-A, AT&T, and IBM. Bee Downtown now maintains more than 200 hives to house more than 12 million honeybees.

“Running a successful business is just like running a successful beehive,” Bonner said. “One honeybee makes a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life. But together a hive can generate over a hundred pounds of honey in a matter of months. If we — as leaders, as a community — can work together, like a honeybee hive, we can collectively create a lasting change in the world that we are all proud to be a part of.”

By integrating sustainability with a corporate business model, Bonner engages employees in beekeeping while enabling them to “think outside the hive” on their leadership journey.

Bonner holds a beehive pallet, which is covered swarming with bees. She is wearing a grey tee-shirt with a bee on it, as she holds the pallet with her arms stretched far out. Courtesy: Bee Downtown.
Bonner with a beehive pallet. Courtesy: Bee Downtown.

 

Bonner is a storyteller, environmental steward, and empowering leader. She is a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, a 2018 Inc Magazine 30 Under 30 Rising Star, a Southern Living Southerner of the Year, and a TEDx speaker. Top media outlets, such as Forbes, BBC, Inc Magazine, and the New York Times, have featured Bonner’s work.

Bonner’s visit represents the seventh lecture in the public Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. The lecture series brings some of the world’s leading scholars to the Blacksburg community to discuss critical environmental and societal issues in an open forum.

“The environmental problems we face today are so complex that it’s easy to become overwhelmed, leaving many to ponder how they can possibly make a positive difference. Leigh-Kathryn Bonner exemplifies the fact that every one of us can contribute toward solving the world’s most urgent challenges,” said William Hopkins, director of the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech and professor of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment. “She has taken her passion for protecting pollinators and turned this into a highly successful business model that teaches corporate leaders and their employees about sustainability and social responsibility. She is an inspirational example of how we can each contribute to a sustainable future.”

Coordinated by the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, the event is free and open to the public, thanks to joint funding efforts from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, College of Natural Resources and Environment, Apex Center for Entrepreneurs, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Virginia Tech Graduate School.

“There is a big focus on entrepreneurship in the technology sector right now and we think it’s really important for students to understand all of the different ways that they can be innovative and successful. The hands-on, community-based business model that Bee Downtown has launched in the corporate realm is an excellent example of this. We’re thrilled to support bringing these types of leaders to Virginia Tech and the Blacksburg community,” said Sean Collins, director of the Apex Center for Entrepreneurs at Virginia Tech.

For more information about the event, please contact the Global Change Center at 540-231-5400 or visit its website.

The Lyric Theatre is located at 135 College Ave. in Blacksburg. Doors will open at 3 p.m. Metered parking is available on the street as well as in the Kent Square garage. Anyone parking on the Virginia Tech campus before 5 p.m. will need a permit.

– Written by Rasha Aridi

 

CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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Categories
IGC IGCoffeeConvo Interfaces of Global Change IGEP

IGCoffeeConvo with Michelle Stocker

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Written by Alaina Weinheimer

The second IGCoffeeConvo of the spring 2020 semester was held on the first Friday of March. These gatherings are an opportunity for IGC students to get to know a GCC faculty member in a casual setting. This time, GCC faculty member Michelle Stocker (Geosciences) met with IGC students Melissa Burt (Biological Sciences), Emma Bueren (Biological Sciences), and Alaina Weinheimer (Biological Sciences).

While our conversation effortlessly jumped disciplines, from data availability to honey beekeeping, we students learned about the challenges and triumphs of working in a field whose essence jumps disciplines: paleosciences – an intersection of geosciences and biology. Michelle described to us the unique circumstances of administratively belonging to one department (Geosciences) but carrying out work that is very relevant to another department (like Biological Sciences), regarding topics like evolution and anatomy. Her students tend to take classes in both departments, bringing a unique perspective to both that enhances progress in both fields. While it’s exciting to both advance and make connections across multiple disciplines at once, this work has the potential to sometimes feel isolating unless community is well established. As more interdisciplinary programs, such as the IGC, emerge, a stronger sense of community is emerging to interdisciplinary work.

We also discussed different aspects of professional development when working in interdisciplinary fields, like paleosciences. Having background in both geosciences and biology open doors to careers in both fields. Some paleoscientists even attend medical school. However, Michelle mentioned the challenge of paleoscientists to convey to employers their extensive knowledge in animal anatomy and physiology. The degree on a paleoscientist’s CV often reads from a Geoscience department or institution, which does not explicitly convey this biological expertise. As a result, paleoscientists pursuing careers in primarily biological fields often emphasize their aptitude in biology in their cover letters. As science becomes more interdisciplinary, perhaps the nature of CVs and cover letter will evolve that will convey the unique expertise of the individual.

As a whole, this IGCoffeeConvo brought to light benefits and challenges of pursuing interdisciplinary research and careers. We students gained a deeper appreciation for fields that bridge departments, such as paleosciences.

If you are a GCC Faculty member and interested in participating in an upcoming IGCoffeeConvo, please contact Amber Wendler at awendler@vt.edu. Fellows should keep an eye on their email inboxes for opportunities to join in on future conversations![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Accolades Announcements IGC Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Student Spotlight

IGC Alumna Sydney Hope receives the 2020 Outstanding STEM Dissertation Award from the VT Graduate School

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Congratulations to IGC Alumna, Sydney Hope!  Dr. Hope is the 2020 recipient for the Virginia Tech Graduate School’s Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Science, Technology, and Math category.  Her dissertation was titled “Consequences of avian parental incubation behavior for within-clutch variance in incubation temperature and offspring behavioral phenotypes.”

This prestigious recognition is awarded based on the originality of idea, clarity and effectiveness of presentation, quality of writing and significance of the contribution to the field.

Way to go, Sydney!

 

 

Cover image by Matthew Hale

 

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Categories
Accolades Announcements

Matt Hulver named executive director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | March 3, 2020

Matt Hulver will join the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech as executive director, effective May 10.

In his new role, Hulver will shape the new vision and programs of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute by leveraging existing strength and developing a strategic plan to enhance resources for Virginia Tech’s life sciences community. Hulver will report to the vice president of Virginia Tech’s Office of Research and Innovation.

“Hulver is an experienced and compelling leader whose passion for the institute’s research and scholarly mission will energize faculty, students, and staff,” said Don Taylor, interim vice president of Virginia Tech’s Office of Research and Innovation. “I am very excited about the future of the institute under his visionary leadership. I want to thank Dean Sally Morton from the College of Science for serving as interim director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute.”

The Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech is an instrument of strategic university investment committed to enhancing the quality, quantity, and competitiveness of life sciences research, education, and outreach across Virginia Tech and the world. Residents of the institute’s five flagship buildings (Steger Hall, Fralin Hall, Latham Hall, Integrated Life Sciences Building, and Life Sciences 1) are automatically considered affiliated faculty members.

“I am excited to have the opportunity to lead an organization focused on some of the most pressing global challenges of our time with the institute’s talented faculty and staff. I look forward to capitalizing on existing strengths, developing new strengths, and working to elevate the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech’s reputation as a premier life sciences institution,” Hulver said.

Hulver’s specific duties will include overseeing investments, including recruitment and start-up support for new faculty members, retention and recognition of established faculty members, investments in thematic research centers, seed funds for new research projects, equipment purchases, graduate student recruitment and support, undergraduate research support, and support for outreach activities.

Research initiatives within the life sciences receiving support include global change, coastal studies, plant sciences, infectious disease, drug discovery, ecology and organismal biology, molecular and cellular biology, and cancer biology. Hulver will continue to identify and support cutting-edge research areas and to build a thriving research enterprise.

“Every day at the Fralin Life Sciences Institute our scientists demonstrate the power of fusing expertise from multiple disciplines to tackle critical global issues,” Morton said. “Dr. Hulver understands the Fralin mission, and his collaborative approach will carry the work to even greater heights.”

Hulver and the institute will be actively engaged in cooperative partnerships with colleges, departments, and other institutes that also support the life science community. Faculty who take part in institute-sponsored activities —  including participation in institute-funded centers and focus areas, use of core facilities housed and supported by the institute, and involvement in institute-supported graduate and undergraduate programs — are invited to become affiliated faculty members.

“I was privileged to be the founding director of the original Fralin Life Sciences Institute 12 years ago and have immensely enjoyed working with Dean Morton to establish the newly configured and much larger enterprise,” said Dennis Dean, associate director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and a University Distinguished Professor. “I am delighted that Dr. Hulver has now been named executive director of the institute. I am confident he has the vision and energy to provide strong and effective leadership to the research community.”

Hulver was previously assistant dean of health sciences and the head of the Department of the Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. Hulver is also one of the leaders of the Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors located at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.

“I grew up, academically, at Virginia Tech, and the Fralin Life Sciences Institute played an important role in my development as a faculty member and afforded me multiple leadership opportunities,” Hulver  said.

His research focuses on the threat of lifestyle-related diseases – which are conditions that are caused or aggravated by a person’s own behavior. Since he has been at Virginia Tech, Hulver has led and collaborated on initiatives that explored metabolic changes to a variety of factors, including dietary change; environmental influences; and chronic disease conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

Prior to becoming a faculty member at Virginia Tech, Hulver served an appointment at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as an assistant professor of research. There, he led a lab focused on understanding the role of abnormal skeletal muscle metabolism in the pathology of chronic metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Hulver maintains membership in myriad lifestyle-related disease societies, including the American Diabetes Association and The Obesity Society. He has led and participated in collaborative research efforts that have garnered continuous funding for more than 14 years from industry sources and such agencies as the National Institutes of Health and American Diabetes Association. Hulver has spoken around the country about his nutrition and metabolism research and has served on numerous grant review panels and study sections.

Hulver holds a bachelor’s degree in fitness management from Marietta College, a master’s degree from McDaniel College in exercise science, and a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from the University of Kansas.

CONTACT:
Kristin Rose
(540) 231-6614

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