This #womenshistorymonth meet ODU OES graduate student Heather Sheffey. She studies #microplastics and their effects on coral. Click the link to see why her research matters to you! #WomenInSTEM youtube.com/watch?v=UeQJh7…

We are excited to announce the Spring 2025 Virtual Seminar Series highlighting graduate students from Biology! This seminar series will be on Monday March 24, 2025 at3:30 pm EST. Please reach out to Dr. Wie Yusuf ([email protected]) to register for the Zoom link.

This week the Biological Sciences Support Facility staff gathered surplus supplies from the Biology department and donated over 3000 pieces of lab materials to the Teacher Re-Supply Drive hosted by the Urban League of Hampton Roads, supporting local educators.

Calling all Botanists! Please see below for a scholarship opportunity from the Norfolk Botanical Garden. This scholarship includes $1000 each academic year for up to 4 years of study. See norfolkbotanicalgarden.org/pcid-scholarsh… for more details.  Deadline for applications is May 5, 2025

Congratulations to Mel Lhuillier! Mel won the Best Student Oral Presentation in Animal Biology at the 2025 ​Association of Southeastern Biologists conference for his talk: "Swimming Behavior of Longfin Squid Doryteuthis pealeii Paralarvae". Way to go Mel!

Congratulations to Dr. Shirel Kahane-Rapport! She had a recent publication in Proceedings of the Royal Society B titled "Filter feeding in devil rays is highly sensitive to morphology". See royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.10… for the full text.

Congratulations to Ruby Billups for being selected the Biological Sciences Support Facility Student Worker of the Year! Ruby works to prepare media and materials for the teaching labs. In addition to her work for the labs, Ruby maintains the inventory for the vertebrate museum.

Grad Student Spotlight: Umme Habiba Akter, a PhD student in ecology: I study the Redbay Ambrosia Beetle, an insect spreading laurel wilt disease throughout forests. My research aims to understand its ecological impact and support development of effective management strategies.

It is Awards Season here at ODU- Dr. Taylor Sloey was awarded the New Faculty Award, Dr. Eric Walters was awarded the Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award and Dr. Wayne Hynes was recognized for his 30 years of service at ODU; Congratulations!

Our undergraduates have also been picking up the accolades with Tori Felton earning a University Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award and 2 of our Student Workers, Ruby Billups and Hope Dutch, being recognized at the Student Employee of the Year ceremony! Congratulations!

Undergraduate Spotlight: Astanzi Struhs, who is exploring how symbiodiniaceae diversity may contribute to increased thermal tolerance in mesophotic corals. In the Barshis Lab, she uses PCR and NGS to analyze the ITS2 regions of symbiodiniaceae from shallow and mesophotic sites.

ODU Biology undergraduate, graduate, and faculty researchers attended the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society's spring meeting in Lewes, Delaware. Photo from left to right- Ella DiPetto, Kathryn Bourlier, Cate Hemphill, Erik Yando, Taye Russell, Zlatka Rebolledo Sánchez.

Dr. Eric Walters was awarded the Virginia Society of Ornithology's 2025 Mitchell A. Byrd Award for outstanding scientific achievement in the field of ornithology, recognizing the research he has done on birds in Virginia. Congratulations to Dr. Walters!

Shout out to Dr. Rishi Drolia for his appearance on the local news! Earlier this week WAVY-10 had a story discussing the number of food recalls and called in Dr. Drolia for his expert opinion. You can read more here: wavy.com/news/health/od…

Curt Doerr was part of the ODU Biology Club from 1971-1974. During his time, he designed a logo for Biology Club t-shirts. His brother, Brett Doerr, stopped by to drop off some shirts in memory of Curt who recently passed. Thank you to Brett for sharing these memories with us!

Our own Dr. Taylor Sloey was featured in the June edition of Chesapeake Quarterly highlighting her lab’s work on Living Shorelines! You can read the whole article here: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/533455… (Cover photo by Logan Bilbrough)

The Biology Department is currently looking for a Laboratory Specialist to join our Biological Sciences Support Facilities team! We are looking for someone with a background in science eager to learn more about how we support all laboratories. jobs.odu.edu/postings/23433

This past Saturday was National Pond Day and we wanted to celebrate all the ponds we have here at ODU! While many of us have enjoyed these natural spaces, have you ever looked closely who shares these ponds with us? Check out odu_pond on Instagram for some amazing photos!

We are excited to announce a brand new biology course being offered this Fall! Dr. Laura Grieneisen will be joining the Biology Department and will be teaching Biol 496 Animal Microbiomes! This fascinating class will focus on host-associated microbial communities.

The Summer edition of ODU’s Monarch Magazine highlights our own Dr. Dan Barshis and the fascinating coral work conducted by his lab! Check out the link to learn more about their research on the resiliency of corals and its applications to conservation: odu.edu/monarch-magazi…