June 14, 2012

Summer research takes students abroad

This summer, three undergraduate students and two alumni will research alongside Associate Professor of Biology Greta Binford in the Dominican Republic. 

This summer, three undergraduate students and two alumni will research alongside Associate Professor of Biology Greta Binford in the Dominican Republic. The work focuses on engaging community scientists in comparing the biogeographic histories of different local lineages of arachnids.

The researchers are sharing their experiences on a blog and welcome people to follow their work on Twitter (@CaribbeanBio). “Day one was a success! With a single afternoon of collecting we have found an estimated 23 of 54 focal lineages,” said a recent tweet.

Alumni Trevor Bloom BA ’12 and Anne McHugh BA ’10, and students Ian Patterson ’13, Alex Nishida ’13, and Katy Loubet-Senear ’13 will be abroad for two months. Binford, who was named the 2011 Oregon Professor of the Year, has gained much recognition for her research on spiders; she even has a species of spider named after her.

The Lewis & Clark team will sort and categorize the specimens they find alongside students and researchers from University of Puerto Rico, University of California at Berkeley, and the Natural History Museum of Cuba.

Zibby Pillote ’14 contributed to this story.