Native American
Musician Bill Miller
Spring 2010
The North Carolina Scientist
Letter from the Past President
Dear Fellow Members,
The North Carolina Academy of Science is one of the
oldest North Carolina Scientific Organization and its most
important quality is that it was created to encompass all the
sciences, from social and behavioral to natural sciences.
Unfortunately, in our modern society people prefer to go to
more topic focused meetings, and the NCAS has seen its
membership slowly decrease through the years.
The North Carolina Academy of Science is a wonderful organization for our state and the Annual
Meeting represents an irreplaceable setting for graduate and undergraduate students, as well as their
mentors, to deliver talks and present posters in a friendly but rigorous scientific environment. A nice
bonus of the meeting is that the presentation abstracts are published in the Journal of the North
Carolina Academy of Science, which now can be accessed on line at
http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/jncas/. I will always remember my first talk, as a young graduate student,
in a setting equivalent to the one we provide at the Annual Meeting of the NCAS. I will suggest that
we all work harder to invite/recruit more undergraduate and graduate students to the Annual Meeting
and that we target especially the sciences that have not been so well represented in the recent past.
The North Carolina Academy of Science is represented by a Board of Directors that meets quarterly
at Meredith College to discuss and plan the directions and goals of the Academy. Board members
are hard working fellows that generously give an important part of their free time to the Academy.
For the past 8 years, I have had the opportunity to work closely with Academy officers and I have
seen the dedication and pride they put into their task. . I will encourage you to volunteer for position
on the Board and/or to share your ideas with Board members (check the Academy’s web page
{www.ncacadsci.org} for a list of the Board members). They will be very happy to hear from you
and to know which goals the Academy should be striving for to better meet the needs of the scientific
community. Please email me at scemamaj@ecu.edu if you want to volunteer and/or add your name
to the ballot for one of the elected position.
In summary, the Academy is and has been moving forward into the 21st century with the digitization
of the Journal soon to be completed, the creation of a new website (work in progress), online meeting
registration (started with this year’s Annual Meeting at Guilford University) and soon online
membership renewals. Each of us can help the Academy move forward by recruiting new members
every year and getting involved by inviting colleagues and students from Social, Behavioral and
Natural Sciences to present their research at the 2011 Annual Meeting at Elon College.
It has been a privilege and an honor to serve as President of the North Carolina Academy of Science
for the 2009-2010 academic year. Au revoir,
Jean-Luc Scemama, Ph.D., NCAS Immediate Past-President
Associate Professor of Biology, East Carolina University
NCAS 107th Meeting
Guilford College in Greensboro, NC March 26-27, 2010
The 107th meeting kicked off with student poster presentations, including those by Erin Raspet (above
left) and Erica Harris (above right)
Also at the poster session were John Willis (upper
left), Joanna Cooper and Karen Katula (above) and
Nathanial Kingsbury (lower left).
On Friday evening we enjoyed a concert by Native
American Musician Bill Miller. On Saturday Mr.
Miller also gave a diversity symposium. On
Saturday
there
were
two
outstanding
presentations by the keynote speakers. Dr. Rob
Knight presented some of his research on animal
microbiomes, the collections of organisms that
colonize epithelial surfaces. The microbiome has a
remarkable effect, for example, transplantation of
the gut microbiome from obese mice into lean mice
causes the lean mice to become obese. Dr. Caroline
Wilkinson presented some of her work on
computerized facial reconstruction that has
literally allowed us to see what our evolutionary
ancestors looked like.
Rob Knight (above, 2nd from left) with Board
members Parke Rublee, Melanie Lee-Brown, Paul
Hager and Jea-Luc Scemama. Caroline Wilkinson at
work on a facial reconstruction (left).
Bill Miller shown above with meeting
organizer Melanie Lee-Brown.
Isaac
Smith
Stephanie
Blankenship
Laura
Condon
Muriah
Sara
Bottemiller Lachance
Amy
Kunkel
Wesley
Johnson
Dare
Imes
Joshua
Farris
Mike
Beattie
Rachael
Kivela
Student award winners and CANCAS officers.
Derieux Awards
Poster Presentation Awards
Place
Student
Institution
Title
Identifying Target Binding Sites for Teflon, a
Protein Required for Autosomal Homolog
Conjunction in Drosophila melanogaster
male meiosis.
Effect of Calcium on Chloride Activation of
Oxygen Evolution by Photosystem II
1sr
Mary Keith
UNCG
1st
Rachel Reed
UNCG
2nd
John Willis
Guilford
College
Radical Reactions in Ionic Liquid Solvents
2nd
Meredith Greene
Campbell Univ.
Analysis of lead absorption in A. thaliana by
atomic absorption spectroscopy
3rd
Sharon Faircloth
Campbell Univ.
3rd
Erin Raspert
UNCG
Characterization of three newly identified
bacterial isolates acquired from the tubeworm
Nereis succinea
Kleptoparasitism in Onthophagus taurus: The
role of density, dung, and males
Place
Oral Presentation Awards in Ecology/Microbiology
Student
Institution
Title
1st
Isaac Smith
Lenoir-Rhyne
Univ.
2nd
Stephanie
Blankenship
Guilford College
2nd
Kim Zullo
Peace College
3rd
Caitlin Hall
Campbell Univ.
The Effects of Resource Delivery Pattern on the
Transient Dynamics of an Aquatic Ecosystem
Variations in rrn copy number in symbiotic and nonsymbiotic Azotobacteria.
Enzyme, Chemical, Heat and pH Treatment of a
Growth Inhibitor from Bacillus cereus GS1
Characterization of three newly identified bacterial
isolates acquired from the tubeworm Nereis succinea
Oral Presentation Awards in Cell & Developmental Biology/Chemistry & Biotechnology
Place
Student
Institution
Title
1st
Sara Lachance
Guilford
College
Identifying Dachshund’s role in Hedgehog Signaling
and Urchin Development.
2nd
Mike Beattie
The effect of serum heat inactivation on the cellular
response to the antineoplastic agent, Bleomycin.
3rd
Rachel Kivela
Mount Olive
College
Warren Wilson
College
Heavy Metals in Tree Cores from the Blue Ridge
Plating Superfund Site
Oral Presentation Awards in Molecular Biology/Physiology & Health Sciences
Place
Student
Institution
Title
1st
Isaiah Thalmayer
Warren Wilson
College
A Phylogeny for Uvularia (Colchicaceae) Derived
From Morphology
2nd
Lindsey Jackson
Catawba
College
2nd
Doshie Smith
UNCPembroke
3rd
Lindsay Yount
Lenoir-Rhyne
University
3rd
Stephen
Somerville
Warren Wilson
College
Pharmaceutical Contaminants: The effects of
kanamycin on growth, feeding, and reproduction in
a common freshwater invertebrate
Population Demographics of Woody Goldenrod
(Chrysoma pauciflosculosa) in Lumber River State
Park, North Carolina
The Relative Impact of Shade and Kudzu (Pueraria
lobata) Extract on the Growth of Lettuce (Lactuca
sativa) Seedlings
Patterns of metal concentrations in the shells of
Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus) as a tracking
mechanism for adult females
Oral Presentation Awards in Zoology/Behavioral Sciences & Physics
1st
Amy Kunkel
Warren Wilson
College
2nd
Muriah
Bottemiller
Lenoir-Rhyne
University
3rd
Lauren Condon
Mount Olive
College
Natural Products as Antihelmitics
Effect of diet change on daily activity and colony
weight of captive naked mole-rats, Heterocephalus
glaber
Development of a behavioral assay to examine the
spectral sensitivity of the quadramodal geomagnetic
landing alignment of adult Drosophila melanogaster
Student academy award winners (above left, Marisa Petri, Aakash Gandie, Dr. Scemama, Edwin
Chavez, Jake Nester and Charles Sturdivant). Our thanks to the local planning committee for a
wonderful meeting (shown are Jim Brown, Robert Whitnell, Anne Glenn, Michelle Malotky and
Melanie Lee-Brown, not pictured Bryan Brendley and Angie Mooore).
Newly elected NCAS President Karen
Guzman with Past President Jean-Luc
Scemama
Karen McDougal and friends enjoying the
beautiful weekend
Photos provided by Lisa Kelley and Andrew Steele