Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University
UW-STOUTKeeping Applied
Science Alumni
Informed
SPECIAL POINTS
OF INTEREST:
•
New Faculty
•
Student
Achievements
•
Alumni Updates
•
Keeping
Informed
Winter 2008
News from Applied Science
Hello Applied Science
alumni! Welcome to our latest addition of WISCI. I hope
your Fall has been rewarding
and productive. The Applied
Science Program is abounding with great news, and the
highlight of the “news” of
course is that new science
building.
Groundbreaking happened on June 17 on the
Jarvis Hall will begin. Everyone is looking forward to
moving into the new building, but we are really focused on getting out of our
current spaces. Come Janu-
Dr. Bomar
Chancellor Sorenson and Dr.
Bomar Breaking Ground
north side of the current
Jarvis Hall. Dignitaries from
across the state, including
John Jarvis’s immediate family, participated. You can
see what $44M is going to
look like by checking out the
live webcam and monitoring
progress on a daily basis.
Likely by May the pictures
won’t be very dynamic, as
they will be spending their
time working on the inside of
the building. By September
2009 classes will be held in
the new building, and renovation on the old portion of
ary most faculty will be moving over to the Micheels Hall
computer lab. It’s a temporary space but it will allow
the faculty to mix and maybe
some great idea will prosper
from this arrangement.
Moreover, the move is a
short- term transition to a
greater future for science at
Stout.
This semester saw the
initiation of the Environmental Science concentration. This has been well received by students as we
already have 15 enrolled.
Besides the concentration,
we have also offered Environmental Studies as a minor and the uptake from
students of various programs across the campus is
encouraging. We see this as
one of our growth areas for
incoming students, with the
hope that it will soon catch
up to the biotechnology concentration in student enrollment.
The program continues
to add faculty to the sciences, and the Biology Department will be hiring a
Proteomist and a Human
Molecular Biologist in the
coming semester. Both of
these hires will greatly enhance the biotechnology
concentration and promote
the pre-health options to the
program. Two new faculty in
Chemistry include Dr. John
Kirk, and Dr. Brent Ristow.
Dr. Kirk is a nanochemist,
who comes to us from the
University of Iowa, and Dr.
Ristow, an instrumentation
specialist, completed his
Ph.D. at South Dakota State.
Some of you may remember
Brent, as he was a Stout
student in 1999 before he
transferred to UW-River Falls
to complete a Bachelor’s
degree in chemistry.
We hope that this newsletter is received with good
tidings and we wish you the
best for the holiday season.
Feel free to drop us a line,
drop by campus or just call
to check in with your latest
news. It’s always good to
hear from you!
Best wishes for the Holiday
Season,
PAGE
New Faculty:
Chemistry with a Nano Twist
Greetings! My name is John Kirk
and I am a new Assistant Professor in
the Chemistry department. I earned
my doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying
gold colloids and microfluidics, and
then spent a year researching membrane proteins at the University of Arizona. I most recently came from the
University of Iowa where I taught General Chemistry courses for two years
while also doing Chemical Education
research.
At Stout I am helping to start the
Nanoscience concentration for the
Applied Science program. My research interests are in utilizing the
unique properties of nanometer-sized
gold colloids to detect and quantify
small amounts of compounds in com-
John Kirk and baby Caitlin
plex mixtures. I am also interested in
the synthesis of organized structures
made from nanoscale materials such
as silica and gold colloids.
One of the reasons that I am excited to be here at Stout is the great
support for the sciences, including
the instrumentation that has been
brought into the program. One of
the courses I am teaching this fall is
a brand new course: Characterization of Nanomaterials. There aren’t
many schools of Stout’s size that
can boast about having four Scanning Tunneling Microscopes, an
Atomic Force Microscope, and a
Scanning Electron Microscope! Students in the Characterization course
are getting a one-of-a-kind experience using all of these instruments.
When I’m away from Stout, I enjoy spending time with my wife Jennifer and my five-month-old daughter,
Caitlin. As you can see from my picture, I am starting Caitlin early on
rooting for the Green Bay Packers on
Sunday afternoons!
Linking Botany and GIS
Dr. Mandy Little comes to us
from the University of MinnesotaDuluth, where she taught for three
years. She received her Ph.D. in
Botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, studying
human and beaver effects on wetland plant communities in Acadia
National Park, Maine. Her work
involved collaboration with the U.S.
Geological Survey and National
Park Service.
Mandy is excited to be involved
with the new Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Plant Science Minors recently approved at
UW-Stout. “As part of the new minor, Kitrina Carlson and I will develop many new upper-division
plant classes and a new general
education course entitled, ‘Plants
and People.’ We are thrilled to be
able to introduce students to these
Dr. Mandy Little
exciting organisms.”
Her research focuses on the
spread of the invasive wetland plant,
reed canarygrass, across the landscape of western Wisconsin. Mandy
is also planning to work with students and Chuck Bomar to develop
control and monitoring strategies for
reed canarygrass in local trout
stream restoration projects. This research may involve collaboration with
the Wisconsin DNR, Trout Unlimited,
and West Wisconsin Land Trust
Mandy is also collaborating with Jeff
Mullins of the Sustainable Technology and Energy Center (STEC), Krista
James, Kitrina Carlson, and Anne
Hoel (Business) to develop a local
food waste composting pilot project.
“We are all also working with Jim
Handley (Social Sciences), Glendali
Rodriguez (Construction), and city
and business partners to develop a
sustainability master plan for the
Stout Technology Park this year.”
“I have family in Eau Claire and
the Madison area, and am happy to
be back in Packer territory!” Mandy’s
husband, Matt Kuchta, is currently
teaching geology and soil construction courses in the UW-Stout Physics
department. They especially enjoy
hunting for interesting plants, birds,
snails, and invasive species along
the Red Cedar River.
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Student Achievements:
PAGE
Mark Baumgartner - Purging Invasive Species
July 2008 Mark Baumgartner, sophomore Applied Science Major in the Environmental Science concentration,
helped with the “Developing, Testing and Dissemination of
an Invasive Plant Species (IPS) Education Kit” project
funded by the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board
forestry education program. The IPS Education Kit was developed under the direction of Biology Department faculty
members Krista James and Kitrina Carlson, Kevin Mason,
the Science Education Program Director, and Jean D’Angelo,
Menomonie High School (MHS) Agriscience teacher. The IPS
Education kit includes a full curriculum covering the topics
of forest ecology, biodiversity, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, plant identification and
managing and controlling invasive plant species, as well as
all the necessary books, supplies, equipment, videos and
instructions. The last lessons involve training students to
remove invasive plant species from forested areas and reestablish native plants. Working with the IPS Education Kit
curriculum development team, Mark and his fellow Stout
student teachers, Nina Borchowiec, Wendy Sandstrom and
Brittany Johnson, received training to “test” the lessons with
a group of 25 MHS Agriscience students enrolled in Jean
D’Angelo’s co-op course.
In addition to collaborating on the education kit, Mark
initiated an ecological research project to monitor plant
communities before/after the forest restoration project.
With the help of Nina Borchowiec and Rob Strand, DNR Forester, he conducted a pre-restoration survey of a forested
area located in the riparian area of Galloway Creek, an
urban stream that flows near Menomonie High School.
Using standard DNR forestry protocol, they established
8-9 quadrants in two different forest plant communities:
1) a lower elevation, wetter site with a large area of
densely established buckthorn, and 2) a higher elevation, drier site with a large area of densely established
honeysuckle.
A sub-meter GPS receiver was used to identify the location of each quadrant. Within each quadrant, trees and
shrubs were identified and measured and the ratio of
native plant species to invasive plant species was calculated. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), this
data will be integrated to create maps to visually display
research results.
Armed with saws, clippers and “honeysuckle poppers”, Baumgartner and the project team supervised
and helped the Agriscience students and about 40 UWStout volunteers in the removal of the invasive plant
species in the study sites. During the spring 2009 semester, Mark will work with Rob Strand to select, purchase and establish native tree seedlings in the two
restoration areas. He will conduct post-restoration plant
surveys before planting, and every four months after
planting during a two year period. Using GIS, Mark will
be able to overlay maps from different time periods to
demonstrate how plant communities changed over time
due to restoration efforts.
With the experience of classroom instruction time
and fieldwork with the Menomonie High School students, Mark has gained a new appreciation and enthusiasm for both the Galloway Creek restoration project
specifically and the teaching profession in general.
3
Alumni Updates:
PAGE
Mark Holtan - Sojourner from the South
After graduating in December of 2004 with a science
skill set ready to be test, I had to struggle a bit before gaining employment with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Services in Oxford, Mississippi. I was given the opportunity to
do pure research, developing new agricultural control products, focusing on developing pesticides, herbicides and
discovering new compounds plant sources. The main areas
I worked with were stilbenes in blueberries http://
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070326.htm, new compound discovery, and pesticide residue studies. Those general terms really only scratch the surface of the experiences I was exposed to. The pesticide residue studies were
fairly straightforward, in that we were given some samples
(vegetation), which were ground, extracted and injected on
an HPLC to give quantitative amounts of the pesticide residue. That encompasses liquid, extraction, cleanup and of
course the whole science of chromatography and standard
preparation. In the stilbene work I was responsible for synthesizing certain
compounds. During this phase, certain starting materials were reacted under very controlled
conditions and cleaned up using extraction, washing and
finally chromatographing on a large silica column to give a
pure compound. To verify that this compound was truly
pure, we ran it on one of the three 400mHz NMRs at the
facility.
Most of these topics were touched upon in various
courses, particularly Dr. Vande Linde’s quantitative analysis course, Dr. Ondrus’s instrumental analysis, and Dr.
Schultz’s organic chemistry course. When I left Oxford, it
was on my own accord, and my supervisor was very happy
with my preparation for the position.
In retrospect, this job was very important to my career
development and its wide variety helped me to determine
my next career move. It was a great first job! Additionally, I
was exposed to the South, its people and culture. It is an
amazing experience to work in a remote location for an
extended amount of time. The people and customs of
this place were great to live in, and apart from the high
temperatures and humidity, it was a nice place to live.
You have to understand that the entire summer is as hot
as the hottest summer day in Wisconsin. It was a great
experience, but the state’s beautiful weather and friendly
people could not replace the snow of my home state.
After working for almost two years in Mississippi, I
wanted to move back to the Wisconsin where I grew up in
and where my family is. I accepted a position with Covance Inc. in Madison, where I am currently working.
Working at Covance is starkly different from the almost
pure research experience I had at the USDA. As Covance
is a large company, I am now only responsible for a segment of any project. I work with the food and dietary
analysis department, where we do vitamin chemistry,
analyzing supplements, drinks and food for their vitamin
content. Currently, I am certified to analyze Vitamin D,
Beta Carotene, para-coumaric acid (antioxidant), ferulic
acid (antioxidant), and phytic acid (three acids mostly
found in feeds). The values we produce are used in the
nutritional labeling of the food products that are tested.
Our lab not only analyzes the above compounds, but also
vitamins A, E, K, Coenzyme Q10, lutein, and lycopene.
The food and dietary department does many other types
of analysis as well, including protein, heavy metals, fats,
and water content, etc.
Outside of work, I have settled in Beaver Dam where I
live with my girlfriend Raquel who I met while living down
South. I continue to be interested in radio control, high
voltage and of course pyrotechnics when the time allows.
4
UW-STOUT
Keeping 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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