Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University
UW-STOUTKeeping Applied
Science Alumni
Informed
News from Applied Science
SPECIAL POINTS
OF INTEREST:

New Faculty

Faculty Emeritus

Alumni Updates

Student Internship
Spring 2010
Another semester has
whisked by—time seems
to be moving at an accelerated rate. It’s clear that
there are many great
things going on in the program. As you have heard
about repeatedly, the new
building is on its way. It
will be completed this
summer and be open for
the fall 2010 semester.
The University is planning
a grand-scale open house
celebration on October
15th. This has been purposely planned in conjunction with homecoming
weekend. Please be looking forward to your personal invitation in the very
near future.
With this new building
there have been some
great curricular developments that really have
enhanced the program.
Probably most prominent
is the new Advanced Anatomy course (BIO 434),
where students actually
spend the semester working on a cadaver. The
students I have spoken
with really have enjoyed
this experience. We’re
also in the process of developing an articulation
with Marshfield Clinic to
create a senior year experience, where students
complete clinical rotations
in Histology or Cytotechnology.
With the new building
and courses have come a
mighty wave of new students; we are currently at
just over 200 students in
the program, and we will
easily have over 100 new
students in the fall. The
program “has arrived”
and our presence is being
felt across campus. It’s a
good thing. Future pro-
gram growth has a master’s degree in Biotechnology in the works, to be run
in conjunction with Marshfield Clinic and UW-River
Falls.
And finally, the success
of the program continues
to build with our excellent
alumni as they move
through the various
phases of their careers.
Megan Maslowski is
headed to University of
Wisconsin Pharmacy
School, following Christina
Luke from the class of
2009. Codee Peterson
just completed her pharmacy program at the University of Minnesota, our
first official pharmacist
from the Applied Science
program. Future success
also includes the ability of
our alumni to participate
in the program as advisory board members,
guest lecturers for classes
or seminars, or the ability
to provide internships for
the ever-expanding student body.
Keep in touch, be well
and have a great sum-
PAGE
New Faculty: Jim Burritt
Dr. Jim Burritt joined the faculty in the Biology Department
at Stout beginning this past fall
2009 semester. He came to
Stout so that he could contrib-
ute to the strong teaching mission here and participate in the
development of new classes
that involve his interests. Jim’s
background in teaching and
research involve infectious diseases and immune defense
mechanisms in humans. In addition to his teaching efforts, he
will continue his own research
in host defense of fungal infections. Jim has a Bachelor’s Degree in Microbiology from Colorado State University, became
a Registered Medical Technologist at Trinity Lutheran Hospital
in Kansas City, MO, and
earned a PhD in Microbiology
from Montana State University. After receiving his undergraduate degree and certification in Medical Technology,
Jim developed experience
about the clinical laboratory in
hospitals in Fort Collins, CO,
Kansas City, MO, Enumclaw,
WA, Chicago, IL, and Bemidji,
MN. Working on-call and on
the various shifts in the hospital provided him important
views of health care setting
and laboratory science in particular.
Alumni Update: Mitch Berger
Hello Applied
Science students,
alumni, and staff.
My name is Mitch
Berger and I am a
2007 graduate of
the program. So
much has changed
since that day in
May 2007. After
graduation, I faced
my next big task of
finding a place of employment. After many
hours of driving and interviewing I landed a
“temporary to hire” position with General Mills
Inc. in Minneapolis. In my newly found role, I
was working in Packaging research and development. After five successful months, I was hired
on full time and made an official employee of
General Mills.
With some training from GMI and a lot of onthe-job learning, I quickly found myself owning
portions of projects and eventually becoming the
lead contact for multiple projects. I think I can
best describe this role as being a project man-
ager for packaging-related items within the larger
project(s). This includes everything from preparing early lab prototypes, working with our vendors
on material options/choices, completing packaging specifications, and eventually traveling to the
manufacturing locations to produce and commercialize our products.
Although not directly related, I have found my
Materials Science concentration beneficial in my
current role in Packaging R&D. It has given me an
advantage in understanding the different properties with the resin-based structures we use as well
as knowing some of the processing capabilities
and challenges that arise with certain films and
resins.
My personal life has been very busy since
graduation as well. I was married to my loving
wife in May 2008. In April of 2009, we bought a
house in western Wisconsin which we now call
home. Also, I will soon be a dad as we are expecting our first child on April 12! How fast those
three years have gone since I sat in the “old” science wing taking tests and doing experiments.
That will very soon be replaced with changing diapers and watching my son grow!
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PAGE
Faculty Emeritus: Ken Parejko
Dr. Ken Parejko retired
from Biology in the spring
of 2007. He and Dr. Mary
Orfield (also emeritus) created the Applied Science
“Issues for Science Professionals Course,” and Ken
taught it, ecology, and
other courses for a number
of years.
Ken was barely out of
the retirement starting-gate
when he signed up for a
part-time job doing Lake Classification in Rusk
County. The DNR has asked county zoning offices
to do a detailed analysis of Wisconsin lakes (Rusk
County has about a hundred) regarding their vulnerability to the pressures of development. This
provided Ken an opportunity to use his expertise
in lake ecology and statistics, and get out in his
kayak on a regular basis to sample the lakes.
He also took on doing a statistical analysis of
the monitoring data provided by Flambeau Mine
during and after their operation of an open-pit
copper mine near Ladysmith, for the Wisconsin
Resources Protection Council. The results of the
analysis went far beyond anything the DNR had
done with the data provided by the mining company, and exposed a number of inadequacies in
the design and carrying-out of the monitoring protocols.
One of his conclusions was that because state
agencies like the DNR are under severe budget
fallbacks, we can’t assume they’re carrying out
adequate oversight of commercial activities which
might potentially degrade our natural environment.
In the summer of 2009 Ken was in Poland,
teaching English at a camp for Polish high school
students through a program called WIESCO. Ten
American teacher-volunteers taught about 110
Polish students for three weeks, living with them
on the grounds of what was once a Prussian mili-
tary academy. He won the jackpot when it
came to students, being the only teacher with
an all-girl class. Ken then traveled on his own
in Poland and will be returning to teach this
summer. As a follow-up to this experience, he
is leading an effort to get an English camp underway next February in Brazil.
In his “spare” time Ken has managed to
publish a book he began working on his last
few years at Stout, about the biology of the
monarch butterfly. You can see more about
the book (“Monarch of the Butterflies”) at
www.monarchofthebutterflies.net.
He’s also almost finished rewriting a historical novel based on the life of Pliny the
Elder, whose huge “Natural History” was the
standard reference book on questions about
nature for almost 1500 years. Pliny is also
considered by some to be western culture’s
first environmentalist.
You might catch a glimpse of Ken gliding
across a northern Wisconsin lake in his kayak
in search of big bluegills, or streaking past on
one of his motorcycles.
“Interacting with and getting to know Stout
Applied Science students was a highlight of my
teaching career,” Ken says. “But there IS life
after retirement!”
Ken can be reached at parejkok@uwstout.edu.
3
PAGE
Student Internship: Caitlin Gaffney
Through a competitive application process, I
was accepted to participate in the Research
Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program
at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. This
was an initiative made possible through a National
Science Foundation grant
in 2005. The Research
Program for Undergraduates in Genomics and Proteomics trains students in
current genomics, proteomics, and genetics techniques and exposes them
to biological research in a
full-time, well-equipped setting. Students spend eight
weeks working on a research project with their
faculty mentor, mastering
the techniques required for
their project and gathering results for documentation and potential publishing. The program is
designed to give students a comprehensive immersion into the world of research, and train
them in areas that will impart both technical
advantage and experience for future biological
research.
The first two weeks of my position consisted
of learning how to perform and practice research techniques and bioassays, including
mRNA isolation, protein isolation, DNA isolation, microarrays, western blot, 2D protein gel
electrophoresis, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and silver staining.
Along with my fellow REU students, I also
worked on analyzing data from the microarray
results using microarray imaging and select
software programs. I learned different ways to
plot the data to aid in interpretation, thereby
defining the next stage in my research. Data
interpretation was an important learning experience, and technique and data interpretation
training was essential for understanding projects as a whole.
Once I began working with my mentor, I
had to be trained to do a few different dissections on the chicken embryos I
was collecting. Regular tasks for
my project included collecting
embryos, performing dissections,
collecting tissue samples, chemically treating tissue samples
properly for future bioassay use,
and fixing whole embryos. I also
regularly performed TUNEL staining for apoptosis on whole, fixed
embryos. This process takes an
entire week of work with washes,
and was challenging and engaging as well as rewarding to see
results from such a demanding
procedure. In addition, I kept a
detailed lab notebook, analyzed
the results of TUNEL staining, attended a journal club, and read a significant amount of scientific literature.
In my research experience at Oshkosh, I
utilized many skills and knowledge that I had
gained previously through class work and
laboratory experiences at UW-Stout. This often resulted in connections and associations
between different sub-disciplines of biology,
providing a greater understanding of the subjects as a whole.
My NSF summer at Oshkosh helped me
realize how much I enjoy of doing research,
especially in a full-time, fully-engaged setting.
The experience helped me understand my
strengths and weaknesses in long-term lab
work as well as general long-term projects,
and helped me learn to adapt my weaknesses so I can use them to my advantage. I
will be graduating from Stout in May, but will
continue to pursue my research interests in a
PhD program at UW-Madison in the fall.
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UW-STOUTKeeping Applied Science Alumni Informed
.
The goal of this newsletter is to keep alumni in touch
with the Applied Science program. Please update your
contact information so that we can keep in touch with
you in upcoming newsletters. Share this with your other
Applied Science alumni that you are in contact with, we
would love to keep them informed also. Please mail
these contacts to the address on the below or send your
updated information at apsc@uwstout.edu. We would
love to hear from you!
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Name: ______________________________________
Company/School: _____________________________
Address: ____________________________________
UW-Stout Applied Science Alumni Informed
P.O. Box 790
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Menomonie, WI 54751-0790
Applied Science Program
University of Wisconsin-Stout
P.O. Box 790
Menomonie, WI 54751-0790
City:_________________ State:______ Zip: ________
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