Grant Recipients -- 2005

Ruth E. Beattie
Chair, Grants-in-Aid Committee
University of Kentucky

rebeat1@uky.edu

Three Roberta Williams Laboratory Teaching Initiative Grants were awarded in 2005. The recipients, their affiliations, and and the titles of their grants are:

• Norman Strobel and Larry Porter, Blue Grass Community and Technical College, Lexington KY: Exploring interactions of fluorescent pseudomonad bacteria with select plants and fungi
• Saphida Migabo, University of Northern British Columbia: Predator chemical cues and vertical migration in Daphnia magna
• Susan Karcher, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN: Serratia transposon mutagenesis

We also heard from some recipients of Registration Waiver Grants, who shared with us their impressions of their first ABLE meeting experiences.

• Amy Braccia, graduate student at Virginia Tech, wrote:

Dear Ruth,

It was so nice to meet you at the ABLE conference and I really enjoyed having you in the workshop. As promised, I am providing you with comments regarding the benefits of attending ABLE from a graduate student's perspective. Overall, I was very impressed with the instructors that I met at the conference and ABLE as a whole -- I have never encountered a more welcoming and friendly group of professionals.

I never realized the breadth of subject material biology instructors are expected to teach undergraduate students (from molecules to ecosystems) -- it is somewhat overwhelming. As a graduate student nearing the end of a graduate program, it was great to have an opportunity to make new contacts and to learn that support is available for new instructors. I enjoyed hearing experienced instructors tell stories of their classroom/lab experiences, including their successes and failures in relating biological information to undergraduates. Also, as an instructor of a workshop, constructive feedback from experienced instructors was invaluable. My experience at the ABLE conference was nothing but positive and I hope that I have the opportunity to attend in the future.

• Sarah Salm, Assistant Professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College, wrote:

Dear Dr. Beattie

I want to thank you again for awarding me a registration waiver grant for ABLE 2005. As you know, this was the first ABLE conference I have attended, and I probably would not have been able to do so without the grant.

I had an wonderful time at the conference. The other participants were very friendly and I had no trouble at all meeting people and chatting to them. I really enjoyed the fact that many people there have been attending these conferences for years and so clearly enjoy them and the friends that they meet up with at the conference every year. I had some great conversations and have made some wonderful contacts.

The workshops I attended were excellent -- I thoroughly enjoyed all the sessions and I anticipate using much of what I learned with my own students. As I write, my new Blackworm colony is thriving under the watchful eye of my cat (does three worms constitute a colony?)!

I look forward to becoming an ABLE regular myself.

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Congratulations to all the recipients! The Grants-in-Aid committee encourages applications for the next round of grants.