December 18, 2024

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Lewis Quoted in Free Lance-Star Editorial on Vaccines

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Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences Lynn Lewis

Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences Lynn Lewis

Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences Lynn Lewis weighed in on an editorial in The Free Lance-Star entitled “Science, personal choice must work together.”

Lynn Lewis, Ph.D., has a better feel than most for using science in making policy. She’s professor and chair of biological sciences at the University of Mary Washington, and she’s involved with advising school leaders on the policies UMW should follow on the pandemic.

“Science is not static,” she says. “There are always questions, and things are never known beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

So when guidelines switch from vaccinated people don’t need a mask to you must mask regardless of vaccination status, it’s because the information we have has shifted. “It’s not that you’re getting conflicting information,” she says, “it’s that things on the ground have changed.” Read more.

Antwi Interviewed on Spotted Lanternfly on NorthJersey.com

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Assistant Professor of Biological Science Josephine Antwi

Assistant Professor of Biological Science Josephine Antwi

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Josephine Antwi was interviewed on NorthJersey.com/The Record about the invasive spotted lanternfly.

“The key right now, is to keep them from spreading and to keep their numbers down in areas where they currently occur,” said Josephine Antwi, an entomologist at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. “By destroying egg masses in the winter, we keep the number of the following generation down.” Read more.

Antwi Interviewed by Washington Post on Spotted Lanternfly

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Assistant Professor of Biological Science Josephine Antwi

Assistant Professor of Biological Science Josephine Antwi

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Josephine Antwi was interviewed by The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang about the invasive Spotted Lanternfly, which has been spotted across the East Coast and has the potential to wreak havoc upon trees, plants and agricultural crops like apples, grapes, stone fruits and hop plants.

Despite having wings, the adults don’t fly far. The bugs are often spread by vehicles. Residents in quarantined counties are urged to inspect vehicles and goods for transport to ensure that the insects and their egg masses are not hitching a ride.

“If females lay eggs on a substrate that eventually moves (e.g., automobiles or goods), then they quickly spread that way,” Josephine Antwi, a professor of biology at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, wrote in an email. Read more.

Students Wild for Smithsonian Endangered Species Program

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Sophomore Liliana Ramirez (pictured here) and junior Maddie Lichter are the first two students to participate in a partnership between UMW and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation.

Sophomore Liliana Ramirez (pictured here) and junior Maddie Lichter are the first two students to participate in a partnership between UMW and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation.

Liliana Ramirez and Madelyn “Maddie” Lichter know that residence hall life can be a bit like living in a zoo. So these University of Mary Washington students felt prepared for all the wildlife sounds and smells they’ve experienced over the last several months.

Both pursuing UMW’s new conservation biology major, Ramirez and Lichter are pioneer participants in a new partnership between Mary Washington and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation. The pair has spent the last semester engaged in a new kind of “domestic study abroad experience,” conducting hands-on research on endangered animal and plant species at Front Royal’s Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains on 3,200 acres of forest, grasslands and pasture along the Shenandoah River.

“We hear wolves howling, and whooping cranes going at it. Last night, I heard something that sounded very zebra-like,” said Ramirez, mimicking the noise she heard while falling asleep in the residence hall. The building is one of three on campus, which also includes a dining common area and an academic center with state-of-the-art classrooms and research labs. Read more.

Lamphere Offers Insight for Viral Turtle Photo

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Assistant Biology Professor Brad Lamphere

Assistant Biology Professor Brad Lamphere

Assistant Professor of Biology Brad Lamphere, an expert on the ecology and evolution of freshwater fishes, offered up his insight on turtles to The Free Lance-Star after a photo of three turtles stacked on top of each other in the Rappahannock Canal went viral, garnering millions of views worldwide.

Brad Lamphere, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Mary Washington, said turtles enjoy basking on dry things in water.

“Sometimes the dry thing is another turtle,” he said. “I’ve seen a double-decker before, but not a triple.” Read more.

 

 

Wynn Named Faculty Director of the First Year Experience

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Dr. April Wynn has accepted the position of Faculty Director of the First Year Experience.  Dr. Wynn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the MWCF Herbarium Coordinator, having joined the UMW faculty in 2015.  She is the chair of the First-Year Seminar Committee and serves as a Faculty Fellow in the Office of Academic Services.

Dr. April Wynn was named Faculty Director of the First Year Experience at the University of Mary Washington.

Dr. April Wynn was named Faculty Director of the First Year Experience.

She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from North Carolina State University (2013) and has an M.S. in Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education from Texas A&M University (2006), and a B.S. in Natural Science from McMurry University (2004). Previously, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Dr. Wynn’s passion for working with First-Year students has been a consistent thread throughout her career and professional development. Prior to her graduate work in genetics, she served as a first-year student Resident Hall Director at Boston College, where she oversaw the Honors Living Learning Community. Preceding that, she oversaw the Peer Diversity Educators and trained and supervised Resident Assistants at Texas A&M University.

In this position, Dr. Wynn will work closely with the faculty, deans, and department chairs, as well as the Offices of Residence Life, Academic Services, Orientation, and Student Involvement as UMW strives to institutionalize and sustain elements of the Quality Enhancement Plan, and further develop the experiences of our first-year students.