Students

Scott Fickbohm, M.S., 2001-2002 Scott joined my lab in spring 2001 and is expected to defend his M.S. thesis in fall 2002. Scott has broad interests in environmental biology and is devoted to address human caused environmental problems with scientific approaches. His M.S. project involves the study of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaris) invasion in North America's freshwater wetlands. He has been taking an ecosystem approach to investigate the alteration of primary production, decomposition, hydrology, and nutrient cycling after the purple loosestrife invasion. His work contains both a field-based project in Montezuma Wildlife Refuge in north-central New York State (http://www.fws.gov/r5mnwr/mwcri1.html), crossing a purple loosestrife - native cattail (Typha angustifolia) gradient; and greenhouse-based growth and decomposition studies of the two species.

Tao Zhang, Ph.D. candidate, 2002-present Tao joined my lab in fall 2002, after having received B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Ecology from Fudan University (http://www.fudan.edu.cn/), a top notch university in China. Tao is interested in nutrient movement from a landscape perspective, such as in a mixed land-use watershed. Tao has just passed his concentration exam, the first step of our new two-phases graduate qualify procedure. Tao has been in charge an on-going intact core nitrogen leaching and retention experiment, and gaining both field and lab experiences in my lab.

Others
Our lab provides volunteer opportunities for undergraduate and high school students to 1) gain experience in a research lab, 2) discuss environmental issues from a scientific perspective, and 3) participate and contribute to "real" research projects. Students currently work in my lab include Amanda Huang, a BU undergraduate, and Anshu Agarwal, a Vestal High student.