AWRI Summer Student Interns

One of the joys of summer at AWRI is our student intern program. This summer, we welcome 11 student interns to the Institute. These students are funded by a variety of sources and work with different principal investigators.

Four interns are being funded through the R.B. Annis Foundation: Kathryn Geller will be working with Charlyn Partridge; Matthew Silverhart will be working with Carl Ruetz; Maggie Brenneman will be working with Rick Rediske; and Hannah Shorkey will be working with Al Steinman.

Two interns are being funded through the AWRI Undergraduate Internship:  Brooke Keck will be working with Kevin Strychar and Megan Urquhart will be working with Sean Woznicki.

One intern is being funded through the Herbert L. VanderMey Endowment: Anahi Huitron will be working with Sarah Hamsher.

Four additional interns will be working at AWRI this summer, funded through various research projects: Jane Johnston will be working with Al Steinman funded through the Allen and Helen Hunting Research and Innovation Fund; Jonathan Walt will be working with Sean Woznicki funded by the Michigan Space Grant Consortium project; Ian Stone will be working with Bopi Biddanda funded by the Michigan Space Grant Consortium project; and Haley Kuhnle (not pictured) will be working with Carl Ruetz funded by the Student Summer Scholar program.

A special welcome to all of these bright, young researchers for their hard work and dedication, and a heartfelt thank you to our generous funders!

Bopi Biddanda contributed to a NOAA-GLERL field work planning meeting for Lake Michigan on May 18^th.

Rick Rediske led a virtual meeting of the Wolverine Community Advisory Group on May 21^st.

Al Steinman has been appointed Co-Chair of the General Meeting for the 2022 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Grand Rapids. He extends his gratitude to Mark Luttenton, who graciously agreed to join him as co-chair.

Al Steinman attended virtual Board meetings for Goodwill Industries of West Michigan on May 18^th, and the West Michigan Symphony on May 20^th.

Janet Vail has attended several virtual meetings:  Project WET Conference team on May 4, The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership on May 6; Groundswell Professional Development Committee on May 11, Muskegon County Environmental Coordinating Council on May 12, Groundswell Strategic Action Committee on May 18, and GLOBE U.S. Partner Forum on May 15, 22, and 29^th.

AWRI staff are bolded, undergraduate students are denoted with a single asterisk*, graduate students are denoted with two asterisks**, and post-doc researchers are donated with three asterisks ***.

Publications

Bopi Biddanda, Anthony Weinke, and former undergraduate student worker Fallon Januska were co-authors of an article in FEMS Microbiology Ecology:
Schmidt, M.L., B.A. Biddanda, A.D. Weinke**, E. Chiang, F. Januska*, R. Props, V.J. Denef. 2020. Microhabitats are associated with diversity–productivity–function relationships in freshwater bacterial communities.  FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 96 (4)  https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article-abstract/96/4/fiaa029/5762669

Sarah Hamsher, with colleagues at Temple University and Pennsylvania State University - Scranton, published an article in Hydrobiologia:
Hamsher, S., K. Ellis, D. Holen, and R.W. Sanders. 2020. Effects of light, dissolved nutrients and prey on ingestion and growth of a newly identified mixotrophic alga, Chrysolepidomonas dendrolepidota (Chrysophyceae). Hydrobiologia. DOI: 10.1007/s10750-020-04293-z

Nick Gezon, recent graduate student working with Kevin Strychar, published a paper in the Journal of Great Lakes Research:
Gezon, N.R.**, D.W. Haywick, J.M. Sanders, I Hewson, and K.B. Strychar. 2020. Circular Rep encoding single stranded (CRESS) DNA virus-like sequences detected in quagga mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugenis) and sediments from the central Michigan benthos. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 46:302 – 310.

John Skutnik, former graduate student working with Kevin Strychar, published a paper in the journal Water:
Skutnik, J.E.**, S. Otieno, S.K. Khoo and K.B. Strychar.  Examining the effect of heat stress on Montastraea cavernosa (Linnaeus 1767) from a Mesophotic Coral Ecosystem (MCE) Water, 12, 1303.  Doi: 10.3390/w12051303

Presentations

Al Steinman gave a virtual presentation to the Grand Forum on May 12^th. The title of his presentation was “Microplastics: separating fact from hype”.

There were no awards or recognitions for this issue.  Check again next month!

There were no new grants or contracts for this issue. Check again next month!

AWRI In The News

“COVID-19 disrupts Great Lakes Research” 
San Antonio Express-News, May 5, 2020
Al Steinman was interviewed regarding the affect the shutdown has had on our vessel season.
This article was also picked up by the:
Benzie County Record Patriot, May 5, 2020
Lansing City Pulse, May 6, 2020
Ionia Sentinel-Standard, May 6, 2020
Traverse City Record-Eagle, May 14, 2020

“Reports from Grand Valley State University highlight recent research in water science and technology”
Genomics & Genetics Daily (News Rx), May 20, 2020
The article is a discussion of an article recently published with AWRI authors John Skutnik, recent MS graduate, and Kevin Strychar, John’s faculty mentor.

LMC Events

No events were held at the Lake Michigan Center this month.